Professor of Psychology; Co-Director, National Scientific Council on Adolescence; Co-Director, Center for Translational Neuroscience; Science Advisor, Hopelab; Director, Developmental Social Neuroscience Laboratory
University of OregonDeveloping Brain, Emotions, Mental Health, Peer Relationships, Puberty
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鈥 bodies, brains, and social worlds relate to their current and future mental health. She developed a repository of materials to assess adolescents鈥 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鈥檚 work also includes a longitudinal project funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse that examines late adolescents鈥 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.