Linda  Charmaraman, PhD

Linda Charmaraman, PhD

Wellesley College, Wellesley Centers for Women

Senior Research Scientist; Director, Youth, Media & Wellbeing Research Lab

Expertise: CyberbullyingCyberbullyingGamingGamingSocial MediaSocial Mediayouth development youth development

Linda Charmaraman, Ph.D., is a senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women and project director of the Youth, Media & Wellbeing Research Lab. She conducts research funded by a 3-year National Institutes of Health grant to follow middle school students and their parents longitudinally in order to determine longer-term health and wellbeing effects due to early smartphone use, social media use, and gaming. One of the goals of her project is not only to prevent negative health effects of social media use but also to empower youth to use social media to increase connections with other people by giving and receiving social and emotional support through social media and finding ways to be more civically engaged.

Charmaraman has conducted research and evaluation on projects funded by the National Institutes of Health, Department of Education, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, William T. Grant Foundation, Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, Kellogg Foundation, Schott Foundation for Public Education, United Way, Borghesani Community Foundation, and AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts.

Charmaraman was a Visiting Assistant Professor in Asian American Psychology at Wellesley College and has guest lectured at Boston College and Northeastern University. Mentoring undergraduate and graduate students has always been a passion of hers, evidenced by her dedication to training, collaborating, presenting, and publishing academic papers with students from multiple institutions. Throughout her doctoral program, she was the coordinator of graduate student diversity recruitment in her department and an appointed student delegate of the Equity Committee.

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Changes in teens' wellbeing during COVID-19 not related to their social media use, study finds

There is a popular assumption that teens’ wellbeing is intricately linked to their social media use. But a new study found that although teens were using social media more during COVID-19, and experiencing increases in social anxiety, loneliness, and depression, there was no evidence that one caused the other.
23-Feb-2022 10:35:45 AM EST

Linda Charmaraman Appointed Forbes Ignite Scientific Advisor

Linda Charmaraman, Ph.D., a senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW), has been appointed as Forbes Ignite’s new Scientific Advisor.
15-Dec-2020 09:00:53 AM EST

Quantity, content, and context of social media use may affect adolescents’ sleep

A new study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that checking social media often, viewing emotional or violent videos, and starting to use social media at an early age were significantly related to later bedtimes and fewer hours of sleep on school nights for early adolescents.
02-Nov-2020 11:25:31 AM EST

"This study's capacity to determine whether social media causes depression, or whether those who are depressed gravitate more toward social media, is limited because it relies heavily on reviewing cross-sectional studies — in other words, studies that observe data at a single point in time — or survey-based studies," she explains.

- The truth about tweens and screens

“Adolescent brains are still developing — things like impulse control and moral development, and sometimes, they may not even think what’s happening is real,” says Charmaraman, who has studied how social media affects teen brains.

- Why teens shoot video of violence instead of helping

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