News

Congratulations to TAYA Lab Developmental Psychology doctoral student Courtney Medina, who was awarded a 2025 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship!

Clinical–Developmental student Savannah Roberts was selected for a P.E.O. Scholar Award! This is a merit-based international fellowship awarded to a select group of women doctoral students across any field in the U.S. or Canada, which supplements a student's existing financial support from their university. Savannah was simultaneously awarded an Andrew Mellon Predoctoral Fellowship from the University of Pittsburgh! Congratulations, Savannah!

Choukas-Bradley has joined the editorial boards of Child Development and Journal of Research on Adolescence as a Consulting Editor. She continues to serve on the Editorial Board of Body Image (since 2022).

Choukas-Bradley will serve on the American Academy of Pediatrics Technical Expert Panel for the AAP Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health

Clinical–Developmental student Savannah Roberts was selected for a P.E.O. Scholar Award! This is a merit-based international fellowship awarded to a select group of women doctoral students across any field in the U.S. or Canada, which supplements a student's existing financial support from their university. Savannah was simultaneously awarded an Andrew Mellon Predoctoral Fellowship from the University of Pittsburgh! Congratulations, Savannah!

Choukas-Bradley first-authored the chapter on social media and body image and co-authored chapters on gender and sexual media representations, digital wellbeing and social connections, and online self-presentation and identity. This open-access book is freely available for all to download.

Choukas-Bradley became a tenured Associate Professor of Psychology in September 2024 and the Chair of Developmental Psychology in January 2025.

Current doctoral student Claire Stout, alum Annie Maheux, and PI Choukas-Bradley co-authored the paper “Identifying the Strongest Correlates of Condom Use Among US Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” in collaboration with Laura Widman and members of her lab.

Doctoral student Savannah Roberts and Sophia Choukas-Bradley, in collaboration with Allegra Gordon, wrote the chapter on body image and disordered eating in adolescence.

Choukas-Bradley co-authored a paper titled “Interpersonal risk factors for suicide in daily life among young people: A review of intensive longitudinal studies,” in collaboration with Emily Hutchinson, Lori Scott, and Jen Silk.

Choukas-Bradley and doctoral student Zelal Kilic co-authored two papers that were published in a special issue of Affective Science: “Overthinking over Screens: Girls Ruminate More After Negative Social Media Interactions with Peers Compared to In-Person Interactions” and “The role of neural sensitivity to social evaluation in understanding ‘for whom’ social media use may impact emotional health during adolescence,” in collaboration with Jennifer Silk and others.

Choukas-Bradley won three national awards for early career researchers in 2024, including the Early Career Impact Award from the Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences; the Louise Kidder Early Career Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues; and the Susan Nolen-Hoeksema Early Career Research Award from the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology

Lab alum Annie Maheux, current doctoral student Claire Stout, and PI Choukas-Bradley co-authored the paper “Profiles of Early Adolescents’ Health Risk Communication with Parents: Gender Differences and Associations with Health Risk Behavior,” in collaboration with Laura Widman.

Choukas-Bradley and other social media experts were invited to provide insights regarding ethical considerations when studying youth online.

Choukas-Bradley co-authored a paper titled “Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Youth Digital Well-Being Research: Identifying Notable Developments, Persistent Gaps, and Future Directions,” in collaboration with other social media researchers.

Lab alum Annie Maheux and Choukas-Bradley published the paper “Bidirectional associations between online and offline appearance concerns during early-to-middle adolescence,” in collaboration with Kaitlyn Burnell, based on data from Project RAISE. This open-access paper is freely available for all to download.

Choukas-Bradley, along with former lab members Rachel Martino and Annie Maheux, published the paper “Structural homophobia and suicidal ideation and behavior among sexual and gender minority adolescent,” in collaboration with Brian Thoma and other collaborators on the Gender Minority Youth Study.

Choukas-Bradley was awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, one of the most prestigious honors for early-career scientists. She was awarded $750,000 to support her research and teaching on adolescent girls’ social media use and body image.

Choukas-Bradley gives Grand Rounds at NYU Langone’s Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, presenting her research on adolescent social media use and mental health.

Pitt News ran a feature story on Choukas-Bradley’s work, titled “She was studying social media’s effects before TikTok even existed.”

Lab alum Annie Maheux and Sophia Choukas-Bradley published the paper “Longitudinal Change in Appearance-Related Social Media Consciousness and Depressive Symptoms: A Within-Person Analysis during Early-to-Middle Adolescence,” based on data from Project RAISE, in collaboration with multiple faculty collaborators. This open-access paper is freely available for all to download.

Congratulations to TAYA senior undergraduate student D. Alejandro Todd, who defended his senior honors thesis, “Am I bad at math, or is someone telling me I am?: Investigating the relationships among math stereotypes, social support, and math expectancy with Black and Latine adolescents.” Huge congrats to Alejandro and his graduate student mentor, Claire Stout!

Congratulations to TAYA seniors Dom DiDomenico, Hajjar Littles, Basia Silverberg, and D. Alejandro Todd who graduated with bachelor’s degrees from Pitt! Thank you for all your excellent work in our lab and congrats!

Five current and former TAYA Lab members, Rachel Martino, Savannah Roberts, Annie Maheux, Claire Stout, and Sophia Choukas-Bradley, published the paper “The Role of Feminism and Gender in Endorsement of Hookup Culture among Emerging Adults,” based on data from Project DAISY.

The American Psychological Association’s expert advisory panel has published a second report, following our first influential 2023 health advisory. The new report is titled: “Potential risks of content, features, and functions: The science of how social media affects youth”

Sophia Choukas-Bradley and former lab manager Brianna Ladd published “The Sociostructural- Intersectional Body Image (SIBI) framework: Understanding the impact of white supremacy in body image research and practice,” in collaboration with other body image researchers.