Odgers obtained a Masters level degree from SFU in 2001 and was awarded with the Terry Fox Medal[7] for overcoming adversity following a serious motor vehicle accident while traveling with the Women's Basketball Team at SFU.[citation needed] Odgers was awarded a Commonwealth Fellowship to continue her studies at Cambridge University,but declined the award to pursue a PhD in psychology at the University of Virginia.[citation needed]
In 2007,Odgers began a faculty position at UCI. In 2012 she became the associate director at the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke University and a professor of public policy,psychology and neuroscience.[8] Odgers became a Fellow for the Association for Psychological Science in 2013,and a Fellow at the Child Brain &Development Program at the CanadianInstitute for Advanced Research in 2016. She is currently the Chancellor's professor in the department of psychological studies at UCI and a visiting research fellow at Duke University.[9][10][11]
As of 2025,Odgers has over 17,900 citation in her research.[12] Since the mid 2010s,she has been active in contributing to non-academic publications on the effects of social media on childhood mental health.[13][14]
Research and policy stances on social media and mental health
Odgers is well known for her research on social media use and adolescent wellbeing. Odgers' research uses primarily mixed method research design,with an emphasis on ecological momentary analysis. Her beliefs are oppositional to Jonathan Haidt,[15][16] who believes that children's use of social media is detrimental to their mental health.[17] Her belief is that the findings of social media research indicate there is a weak,[18] and therefore negligible relationship between social media use and health in adolescents.[19] Odgers' research has identified that there is a wider set of causes,outside of social media use,on declining mental health of young people.[20] The most recent meta-analysis of the evidence,conducted by the American Psychological Association and published in June 2025,found evidence that high screen time was associated with negative behavioral and emotional outcomes.[21]
Odgers has stated that she believes children should be allowed to use social media without age verification or age restriction.[22] Odgers believes social media companies should design platforms to be safe for children as opposed to enacting policies that limit children's time spent on social media.[23]
↑ Odgers, Candice L. and Schueller, Stephen M. and Ito, Mimi, Screen Time, Social Media Use, and Adolescent Development (December 2020). Annual Review of Developmental Psychology, Vol. 2, pp. 485-502, 2020, Vol. 2, pp. 485-502, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3750580 or http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-devpsych-121318-084815
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