Ronald Dahl

About

Ronald Dahl is involved with the UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent, which focuses on improving adolescent health, education, and well-being through developmental science. He has contributed to research and discussions on how digital technology can be designed to better promote youth well-being, as evidenced by his interview in the Adaptivity Podcast about social media and adolescents. His work emphasizes the importance of adolescence as a period of rapid growth, learning, and identity formation, highlighting opportunities to support positive mental health and purpose during these formative years. Dahl's contributions include engaging with policymakers, educators, and researchers to translate developmental science into practical tools and recommendations that help young people thrive during this critical stage of life.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Medicine
• Sociology
• Clinical psychology
• Psychology
• Gastroenterology
• Internal medicine
• Psychiatry
• Immunology
• Demography

Selected publications

• Longitudinal change in adolescent depression and anxiety symptoms from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic: A collaborative of 12 samples from 3 countries

  2021 · 76 citations

  Published paper can be found at https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12781. This study aimed to examine changes in depression and anxiety symptoms from before to during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic in a sample of 1,339 adolescents from three countries (9-18 years old, 59% female). We also examined if age, race/ethnicity, disease burden, or strictness of government restrictions moderated change in symptoms. Data from 12 longitudinal studies (10 U.S., 1 Netherlands, 1 Peru) were combined.…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Transitions Into Underage and Problem Drinking: Summary of Developmental Processes and Mechanisms: Ages 10–15

  UNC Libraries · 2020-10-30 · 18 citations

  articleOpen access

  Adolescents ages 10–15 experience dramatic changes in their biological, cognitive, emotional, and social development as well as in their physical and social environments. These include the physiological and psychological changes associated with puberty; further development of the brain; changes in family, peer, and romantic relationships; and exposure to new societal and cultural influences. During this period, many adolescents also begin to use alcohol. Alcohol use during adolescence has advers…

  PublisherDOI

• Study Protocol: Transitions, a school based intervention to promote digital citizenship in low- and middle income secondary school students in Perú

  2021-02-15 · 7 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Despite the increase in digital media adoption among youth growing up in low and middle income countries, there is an insufficient understanding of adaptive and risky online practices within these settings. There is also a dearth of programs adapted to youth’s contextualized needs that can promote adaptive use of technologies in these settings. The Transitions project aims to (1) understand how children and adolescents access, use and appropriate digital media in Perú, and (2) use this informati…

  PublisherDOI

• Positive and Negative Online Experiences and Loneliness in Peruvian Adolescents During The COVID-19 Lockdown

  2021-02-15 · 6 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  COVID-19 lockdowns around the world have markedly disrupted adolescents' in-person social networks, putting them at risk for social isolation, loneliness and their detrimental consequences. During lockdown, social media can help adolescents to maintain and develop relationships across distance, particularly with peers. In this longitudinal, observational study following 735 Peruvian adolescents (11-17 years old) from low-to-middle income urban settings, we investigated whether online experiences…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Problematic Media Use and Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression During the Pandemic: An Investigation among Peruvian Adolescents in low- and middle-income Settings

  2021-07-19 · 3 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Problematic media use (PMU), or the excessive use of digital media that hinders an adolescent’s functioning, has gained concerns, especially during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Using a large sample of low-and middle-income youth living in Perú, we examined rates of PMU during early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic including the effects of gender and school grade level. In a subset of the sample with pre-COVID-19 data, we examined whether PMU increased during the pandemic and if anxiety and depression…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Piotr Kuna

  939 shared

• Petra Moroni-Zentgraf

  Boehringer Ingelheim (Germany)

  923 shared

• Michael E. Engel

  University of Virginia

  913 shared

• Syed Hasan Arshad

  Imperial College London

  909 shared

• Pierluigi Paggiaro

  University of Pisa

  908 shared

• Donald P. Tashkin

  University of California, Los Angeles

  905 shared

• Sanjiv Sur

  Baylor College of Medicine

  903 shared

• Jörg Kleine‐Tebbe

  903 shared

Awards & honors

• Huttenlocher Award (2026)
• Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science
• Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics
• Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences
• Fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine

Similar researchers at University of California, Berkeley

• Rachel Morello-Froschh-68
• Barbara Laraiah-63
• Lia Fernaldh-58