The Transitions Project
The Transitions Project is a researcher-practitioner collaboration between researchers at University of Washington (interACT lab; PI: Magis-Weinberg), UC Berkeley (IHD; PI: Dahl), Innova Schools, and Common Sense Education. We have been working together since 2018 to (1) understand how youth in these settings use digital media, and (2) promote digital citizenship in children and adolescents growing up in Latin America (Perú and México) through a school curriculum that is culturally appropriate and that builds on principles from developmental science. The COVID-19 crisis forced us to pivot quickly and redesign our curricula to promote wellbeing during the crisis, highlighting the role technology plays while under lockdown. From April 2020 to November 2021, we worked remotely with 10 000 Innova Schools students from 6th to 11th grade across Perú and México, in urban settings in low to middle income backgrounds.
In the Transitions Project we have surveyed the digital lives of Peruvian and Mexican youth before and during the pandemic. Our data captures the challenges and opportunities introduced by the lockdown in the context of adolescent engagement with digital media. Our collaboration allowed us to respond to quickly changing needs and collect data at the intersection of culture and development to capture how adolescents in Perú and México experienced two years of lockdown. An ongoing researcher-practitioner collaboration offers unique insights into how youth have used digital media to adapt to the conditions of COVID-19, providing better understanding of resilience and vulnerability in a globalized digital age.
People
Ron Dahl is a pediatrician and developmental scientist who has devoted more than 30 years to interdisciplinary team research to improve the lives of children and adolescents. This work has focused on basic science studies of child and adolescent development, behavioral/emotional health in youth, sleep and arousal regulation, adolescent brain development, and the clinical, public health, and policy implications of this work. A major focus of his current research is bringing a developmental science perspective to advance understanding of both the vulnerabilities and opportunities being created by rapid changes in the ways that information technology is influencing learning and development. He serves as the Director of the Institute of Human Development; and Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. Ron is also the Founding Director of the Center for the Developing Adolescent and former President of the Society for Research in Child Development.
Lucía Magis-Weinberg is an Assistant Professor in Psychology at the University of Washington. She leads the interACTlab (International Adolescent Connection and Technology Laboratory). Her research focuses on how the social and affective developmental tasks of adolescence have been transformed by the digital era—particularly in understudied populations in international settings. Her lab collaborates with schools in Latin America to advance knowledge on adolescent development and technology use, and also apply developmental science to design school-based interventions to promote digital citizenship and healthy digital habits.
She received her MD from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and her PhD in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience from University College London. She was a postdoctoral researcher at IHD and part of the Adolescent Research Collaborative at UC Berkeley, and continues to collaborate with IHD to promote adolescent development.