Jennifer Pfeifer, PhD

Professor Jennifer Pfeifer is the co-director of the National Scientific Council on Adolescence. She is the co-author of a report on digital technology use and early adolescents. Her work has been funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Science Foundation, and the Oregon Medical Research Foundation. A longitudinal project funded by the National Institute of Mental Health examines the links between changes in adolescent girls’ bodies, brains, and social worlds relate to their current and future mental health. She developed a repository of materials to assess adolescents’ responses to the COVID pandemic, which was used by over 50 research groups worldwide and fostered collaborative efforts to assess pandemic impacts on adolescent socioemotional functioning and mental health. Pfeifer’s work also includes a longitudinal project funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse that examines late adolescents’ transitions to college, and how factors like autonomy, self-regulation, and social connection relate to adjustment and well-being over the course of freshman year and beyond.