“Children are growing up in a rapidly changing and increasingly unequal world.” — Candice Odgers. (Photo by Steve Zylius)
Psychology professor joins world’s most influential scholars
For the third time in her distinguished career, Candice L. Odgers has earned a coveted spot on Clarivate's 2025 “Highly Cited Researchers” list — a testament to her groundbreaking work exploring how technology and social inequality shape young lives.
As UC Irvine’s Chancellor’s Professor of psychology and director of research and faculty development for the School of Social Ecology, Odgers stands among an elite group of scholars worldwide whose research has fundamentally transformed their fields.
“It is an honor to be named to this list and to share this recognition with the incredible scientists I have been fortunate to work with over the years,” Odgers said. “Children are growing up in a rapidly changing and increasingly unequal world. Advancing science to support their success is foundational to our work, and it is encouraging to learn that our research is having an impact on the larger field.”
Analysts from the Institute for Scientific Information comb through the Web of Science Core Collection, using sophisticated quantitative metrics and qualitative analysis to identify researchers whose work has achieved genuine global impact. This year's honorees represent 7,131 awards across more than 1,300 institutions spanning 60 countries.
“We celebrate the Highly Cited Researchers 2025 for advancing innovation and inspiring the global research community to tackle society’s greatest challenges with creativity and ingenuity,” said Bar Veinstein, president of academia and government at Clarivate.
What sets Odgers apart is her innovative approach to understanding childhood adversity. Her research examines how social inequalities and early hardships ripple through children’s lives — and, crucially, how smartphones and digital tools can become instruments for understanding and improving young people’s well-being.
Her recent publications reveal the breadth of her impact, tackling questions that resonate in our increasingly digital age:
- “Children’s Sensitivity to Facial Emotional Expressions: The Mediating Roles of Maternal Warmth and Home Environment” (Developmental Science)
- “Testing the Feasibility of Passive Sensing Among Adolescents: Implications for Mental Health” (Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science)
- “Social media use, online experiences, and loneliness among young adults: A cohort study” (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences)
- “Adolescents’ Digital Technology Use, Emotional Dysregulation, and Self-Esteem: No Evidence of Same-Day Linkages” (Affective Science)
- “Intergenerational effects of a casino-funded family transfer program on educational outcomes in an American Indian community” (Nature Communications)
- “Direct and Indirect Pathways Linking Gentrification to Adolescent Reading and Math Achievement via Educational Aspirations and Psychological Distress” (Developmental Psychology)
- The great rewiring: is social media really behind an epidemic of teenage mental illness (Nature)
Odgers’ influence extends far beyond her laboratory. She co-directs the Connecting the EdTech Research EcoSystem (CERES) and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research's Child and Brain Development Program, which traces how early experiences shape lifelong trajectories of health and well-being.
Through her Adaptation, Development and Positive Transitions Lab (Adaptlab), she collaborates with researchers worldwide to map how children and adolescents develop in real-time, capturing the complexities of growing up in the 21st century.
Odgers’ journey to UC Irvine began at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, where she earned her bachelor's and master's degrees. After completing her doctorate at the University of Virginia and a postdoctoral fellowship at London’s prestigious Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, she joined UC Irvine's faculty in 2007, where she's been pushing boundaries ever since.
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