Research
Advancing Adolescent Research
USC CANDLE advances transdisciplinary research in adolescent development, producing innovative studies that inform educational practices and policies. Our research clusters, longitudinal studies, and collaborative projects seek to uncover the intricate processes through which students and teachers build meaning and resilience.
Research Clusters
Through work in the following clusters, our research team seeks to produce and disseminate groundbreaking original research that leads to insights about learning and education through a new transdisciplinary science rooted in neuroscience and affective development.
Research Clusters
Cluster 1
Adolescents’ Development of Transcendent Thinking
Projects in this cluster focus on how young people grow to make sense of their worlds, and in particular the neurobiological and psychophysiological foundations.
Cluster 2
Social, Emotional and Cultural Processes of Teaching and Learning
Projects in this cluster focus on how teaching and learning are driven by the complex ways people interact, shaped by biological predispositions and lived sociocultural experiences.
Cluster 3
Advancing Developmentally Focused Secondary Education
Projects in this cluster focus on characterizing how teachers’ pedagogies, mindsets, beliefs, and instructional design support adolescents’ deeper learning and social-emotional development.
Cluster 4
Theoretical and Methodological Innovations in Adolescent Development Research
Projects in this cluster focus on advancing transdisciplinary frameworks and cutting-edge research methods to investigate adolescent development. Current work includes new ways to model neural networks and to leverage generative AI in qualitative analysis of transcendent thinking.
Spotlight in Research
New Study Reveals That Witnessing Violence Harms the Brains of Older Teens—but ‘Transcendent Thinking’ May Be an Antidote
Transcendent thinking can help teens counteract the negative effects of community violence on their brain development. These findings highlight the transformative power of adolescents’ patterns of thinking in building resilience and promoting healthy development, even in the face of trauma.
