Do You Want To Help Us With Research?

We’re looking to expand our small team of part time researchers skilled in social science research.

At After Babel and in our research lab, we are trying to understand what happened to kids born after 1995, around the world. We have hosted a great deal of original research by Zach Rausch and Jon Haidt (on teen mental health, social media, and international variations), Jean Twenge (on teen mental health), and David Blanchflower (on the loss of the U-shaped curve of happiness). We have also featured the work of many other academics, including Mariana Brussoni, Peter Gray, Jacqueline Nesi, Camilo Ortiz, Thomas Potrebny, and Seth Kaplan. 

There is so much more we want to know! Would you like to join us in investigating a variety of research questions?

We are currently looking for a research methodologist and academic collaborators:

1) Research Methodologist (Program Evaluation Specialist)

Part-Time | Paid (Consultant or Project-Based)

We are seeking a Research Methodologist with expertise in program evaluation and adolescent development to help measure and assess ongoing initiatives aimed at changing norms around smartphone use, social media, and adolescent independence. This position will be housed within Jonathan Haidt’s Technology and Society Research Lab, and will collaborate closely with the social impact work of The Anxious Generation campaign. The ideal candidate will have a Ph.D. and bring strong quantitative research skills, an ability to design and implement rigorous evaluations, and a passion for open, transparent science.

Representative tasks:

• Monitor norm shifts
  Track changes in the four norms

  • No smartphones before high school

  • No social media until 16

  • Phone-free schools

  • More independence, free play, and responsibility in the real world

• Develop Surveys & Measurement Strategies

  • Design surveys and other data collection methods to accurately measure shifts in norms and to assess the effectiveness of various interventions.

  • Conduct a lit review to understand key instruments, constructs, and questions.

  • Understand the universe of studies and surveys that currently exist to track teen mental health, digital tech use, and childhood independence

• Evaluate Interventions

  • Create and execute study designs to test the impact of phone-free schools on student well-being and academic outcomes.

  • Develop surveys and protocols to evaluate the effectiveness of independence-focused interventions at schools.

• Partnerships & Collaboration

  • Cultivate and manage partnerships with leading research centers (e.g., Pew, Common Sense Media, U.S. Department of Education) to conduct and disseminate research findings.

• Ad Hoc Research Projects

  • Contribute to additional research initiatives related to After Babel and other movement-related projects.

Qualifications:

• PhD in statistics, quantitative psychology, or a closely related field (with relevant publications in statistics and research methods).

• Demonstrated expertise in survey design, sampling, data collection, and analysis techniques.

• Interests in adolescent development, developmental psychology, mental health, or the effects of technology would be a plus, not essential

• Data visualization and a love of Open Science.

Academic Collaborators

We are looking to develop an informal collaboration among academics who are already studying issues related to the impact of digital technology on children and adolescents. We are often presented with research opportunities that we cannot take, such as the possibility of running experiments in schools or networks of schools, or funders who want someone to study a particular question. Thus far we’ve not had the capacity to take on these projects, but we’d like to have a network of collaborators that we could share these opportunities with. We’re particularly hoping to find researchers interested in the play-and-independence parts of the story about youth mental health.

If you are interested in collaborating with us, please email Zach Rausch: zach@anxiousgeneration.com with the nature of your interest.