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Amy Orben
Programme Leader

Amy.Orben@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk
01223 766 166
Research Themes:
CBSU publications
HUYS, Q.J.M., ORBEN, A. (In Press) Do likes reinforce depression?, JAMA Psychiatry – Editorial [Read More]

DAVIDSON, B.C., TURNER, G., PALMINTERI,S., Tomova, L., Eichstaedt, J.C., Salecha, A., Subrahmanya, S., GUNSCHERA, L.J., ORBEN, A. (In Press) Prolonged Social Isolation is Associated with Increased Behavioural BSensitivity to ‘Likes’ on Social Media, https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/65tdz_v1 [Open Access]

FERGUSON, A., RICHARDS M., GUNSCHERA, L.J., Mutak, A., Modecki, K.L., Goldberg, R.E., ORBEN, A. (In Press) Digital Parenting in the 21st Century: Development and Validation of a New Digital Parenting Scale, SSRN [Open Access]

Bak-Coleman, J., Lewandowsky, S., Lorenz-Spreen, P., Narayanan, A., ORBEN, A. , Oswald, L. (In Press) Moving towards informative and actionable social media research, arXiv:2505.09254 [Open Access]

SKEGGS, A., Metha, A., Katiyar, T., YAP, V., Burn, A-M., Slovak, P., ORBEN, A. (In Press) Youth Perspectives on Social Media Harms: A Large-Scale Micro-Narrative Study, PsyArXiv, m38u6_v2 [Open Access]

Pickavance, J., O’Nions, E., Hammad, M., Jackson, L., Lightfoot, K., McEachan, ORBEN, A. , Ryan. D., Shire, K., Wood, M.L., Wright, J. Lewer, D. (2026) Adolescent social media use and its association with mental health: a cross-sectional study in Bradford, England, BMC Public Health [Open Access]

ORBEN, A. (2025) The fight to keep big tech in check: digital researchers are in ‘David and Goliath’ battle, Nature 640, 571 (2025) [Read More]

SKEGGS, A & ORBEN, A. (2025) Social media interventions to improve well-being, Nature Human Behaviour volume 9, pages1079–1089 (2025) [Open Access]

Dienlin, T., Smahel, D, ORBEN, A. (2025) Global Analysis of Perceived Social Media Effects on Well-Being, Cyberpsychology Behavior and Social Networking,2025 Aug;28(8):588-593. [Open Access]

Barreda Ángeles, M., Amendola, S., Da Silva, C., Somià, T., Boucher, P., Schade, S., Meier, A., Mansfield, K., Gunschera, L., ORBEN, A. , Turner, G., Griffiths, M.D., Hartmann, T., Freeman, G., Gui, X., Kou, Y., Baumgartner, S., Vuorre, M., Ohme, J., Hine, E., López Richart, J. and Belmoussi, O. (2025) Virtual Worlds and Well-being: Current Research and Future Directions, JRC Publications Repository, JRC143343 [Open Access]

YAP, V.Z.Y., SKEGGS, A., FERGUSON, A.M., , LEYLAND-CRAGGS, A., Boeschoten, L., Welbers, K., KURTEN, S., ORBEN, A. (2025) Digital Data Donation With Adolescents, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences: 1554(1), 251-266 [Open Access]

Albajara Sáenz, A., Kurten, S., Saxton, J., Kardefelt‐Winther, D., Ford, T., Orben, A. , & White, S. R. (2025) Mental health measures among adolescents in 12 low-and-middle-income countries: Measurement invariance and cross-sectional analyses of Disrupting Harm survey data, JCPP Advances [Open Access]

PURBA, A.K., Katikreddi, S.V., McKee, ORBEN, A. (2025) Addressing youth violence on social media: time to prioritise digital sanitation, Archives of Disease in Childhood, , archdischild-2025-329117, 28 Oct 2025 [Open Access]

FASSI, L., FERGUSON, A.M., Przybylski, A.K., Ford, T.J. & ORBEN, A. (2025) Social media use in adolescents with and without mental health conditions, Nature Human Behaviour, 05 May 2025, 9(6):1283-1299 [Open Access]

KATIYAR, T., Hunt, A., ORBEN, A. , Chaudhary, N., Jaeggi, A.V. (2025) Digital Technologies & Evolutionary Mismatch: Harming, But Also Healing Mental Health, Psychological Review [Open Access]

ORBEN, A. , Matias, N. (2025) Fixing the science of digital technology harms, Science, 10 Apr 2025, 388(6743):152-155 [Open Access]

TURNER, G., FERGUSON, A.M., KATIYAR, T., Palminteri, S., ORBEN, A. (2025) Old strategies, new environments: Reinforcement Learning on social media, Biological Psychiatry, 97(10), 989-1001 [Open Access]

Goodyear, V.A., James, C., ORBEN, A. , Quennerstedt, M., Schwartz, G., pALLAN, m. (2025) Approaches to children’s smartphone and social media use must go beyond bans, BMJ 2025;388:e082569 [Open Access]

FERGUSON,M., TURNER, G., ORBEN, A. (2024) Social uncertainty in the digital world, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 28(4):286-289 [Open Access]

ORBEN, A. , Meier, A., DALGLEISH, T., Blakemore, S-J. (2023) Mechanisms linking social media use to adolescent mental health vulnerability, Nature Reviews Psychology, 04 May 2023, 6(1):25 [Open Access]

Miller, J., Mills, K.L., Vuorre, M., ORBEN, A. , Przybylski, A.K. (2023) Impact of Digital Screen Media Activity in Functional Brain Organization in Late Childhood: Evidence from the ABCD Study, Cortex, 169:290-308 [Open Access]

ORBEN, A. , Blakemore, S-J. (2023) How social media affects teen mental health: the missing factor, Nature, 614(7948):410-412 [Open Access]

Leightley, D., Bye, A., Carter, B., Trevillion, K., Bramthonne-Foster, S., Liakata, M., Wood, A., Ougrin, D., ORBEN, A. , Ford, T., Dutta, R (2023) Maximising the positive and minimising the negative: Social media data to study youth mental health with informed consent , Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13:1096253 [Open Access]

Ghai, S., FASSI, L., Awadh, F., and ORBEN, A. (2023) Lack of Sample Diversity in Research on Adolescent Depression and Social Media Use: A Scoping Review and Meta-Analysis, Clinical Psychological Science [Open Access]

Anvari, F., KIEVIT, R.A., Lakens, D., Pennington, C.R., Przybylski6, A.K., Tiokhin, L., Wiernik, B.M., and ORBEN, A. (2023) Not all effects are indispensable: Psychological science re-quires verifiable lines of reasoning for whether an effect matters, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 18(2):503-507 [Open Access]

ORBEN, A. , Lucas, R.E., FUHRMANN, D., KIEVIT, R.A. (2022) Trajectories of adolescent life satisfaction., Royal Society Open Science, 03 Aug 2022, 9(8):211808 [Open Access]

Piera Pi-Sunyer, B ., Andrews, J.L., ORBEN, A. , Speyer, L.G., Blakemore, S.J. (2022) The relationship between perceived income inequality, adverse mental health and interpersonal difficulties in UK adolescents., Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 14 Nov 2022, 64(3):417-425 [Open Access]

Livingstone, S., ORBEN, A. , Odger, C. (2022) Debate: Should academics collaborate with digital companies to improve young people’s mental health?, Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 28(1), 150-152 [Open Access]

ORBEN, A. , Minihan, S., Songco, A., Fox, E., Ladouceur, C., Mewton, L., Moulds, M.L., Pfiefer, J., Van Harmelen, A-L., Schweizer, S. (2022) Social Determinants of Mental Health During a Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Development and Psychopathology, 07 Jul 2022, :1-13 [Open Access]

Ghai, S., Magis-Weinberg, L., Livingstone, S., ORBEN, A. (2022) Social Media and Adolescent Well-being in the Global South, Current Opinion in Psychology, 10 Mar 2022, 46:101318 [Open Access]

Modecki, K.L., Goldberg, R., Wisniewski, P., ORBEN, A. (2022) What is digital parenting? A systematic review of past measurement and blueprint for the future, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 17(6):1673-1691 [Open Access]

Kievit, R., McCormick, E.M., FUHRMAN, D., Deserno, M.K., ORBEN, A. (2022) Using large, publicly available datasets to study adolescent development: Opportunities and challenges, Current Opinion in Psychology 44(4 [Open Access]

ORBEN, A. (2022) Digital Diet: A 21st century approach to understanding digital technologies and development, Infant and Child Development, 31(1), e2228 [Open Access]

McCrosky, J.D., Parry, D.A., Sewell, C.J.R., ORBEN, A. (2021) Using Browser Data to Understand Desires to Spend Time Online, PsyArXiv Preprints [Open Access]

Vuorre, M., ORBEN, A. , Przybylski, A. (2021) There is no evidence that associations between adolescents’ digital technology engagement and mental health problems have increased, Clinical Psychological Science, 9(5), 823-835 [Open Access]

ORBEN, A. , Weinstein, N., Przybylski, A.K. (2020) Only holistic and iterative change will fix digital technology research, Psychological Inquiry, 31(3), 235-241 [Open Access]

ORBEN, A. , Tomova, L., Blakemore, S-J. (2020) The effects of social deprivation on adolescent social development and mental health, The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 4(8):634-640 [Open Access]

Kaye, L.K., ORBEN, A. , Ellis, D.A., Hunter, S.C.,Houghton, S. (2020) The Conceptual and Methodological Mayhem of “Screen-time”, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(10), 3661 2020 [Open Access]

ORBEN, A. , Przybylski, A.K. (2020) Reply to: Underestimating digital media harm, Nature Human Behaviour, 4(4):349-351 [Open Access]

ORBEN, A. , Lakens, D. (2020) Crud (Re)defined, Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 3(2), 238-247 [Open Access]

ORBEN, A. (2020) The Sisyphean Cycle of Technology Panics, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(5), 1143-1157 [Open Access]

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