Casey Calhoun maps teen minds
At the UNC School of Education’s Translational Adolescent Research Lab, he builds practical tools to support their mental health.
Adolescence is a time of intense emotional growth, social exploration and — often — stress. Understanding stress vulnerability during this developmental window holds the key to improving teen mental health.
UNC Research Stories sat down with Casey Calhoun, a clinical psychologist, researcher and assistant professor in the UNC School of Education, to learn more about his work at the Translational Adolescent Research Lab and why student research experiences matter.
What’s the main goal of your research?
My work focuses on how everyday social experiences during adolescence affect stress and mental health issues like depression, anxiety and suicidality. I aim to turn this research into practical tools that reduce barriers to care and support teens directly. Ultimately, I want to improve prevention and create personalized resources that reflect teens’ unique needs.
What’s one project you are working on now?
One project looks at how social media affects teens’ stress. We’re testing a new EEG-based task that mimics online social comparison, which is when teens compare themselves to others based on the feedback they receive online. We’re studying how this kind of comparison impacts stress responses in the brain and body, and how it might increase risk for mental health issues.
What are the biggest challenges in your research?
Getting funding and building the right partnerships. Projects that use advanced methods and the development of digital tools require a lot of resources, and competition for funding in these areas is high. To strengthen our projects and increase competitiveness for funding, I’m teaming up with experts in psychiatry, genetics, business, public health and computer science.
What’s the most surprising discovery your team has made recently?
The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is one of the body’s major stress response systems. My research has demonstrated that two teens might show the same HPA stress response, which is measured by cortisol levels, but have very different mental health risks depending on other factors like inflammation or how they feel emotionally.
This has changed how we design studies. Now, we look at multiple systems — the brain, hormones, immune responses and emotions — together to get a clearer, more holistic picture of how stress affects mental health.
If your research could solve one big problem, what would it be?
Helping identify which teens are most at risk for mental health issues and connecting them with the right kind of support. That means understanding who’s most vulnerable, what kind of help works best for them and making sure they can access it.
What’s the coolest tool you use in the lab?
A state-of-the-art EEG system that measures brain activity and physiological responses simultaneously and automatically timestamps and syncs multiple data streams. This helps us see how different systems react to stress in real time and build detailed profiles of risk and resilience.
What can undergraduate students do in your lab?
Undergrads help with everything from recruiting participants to running experiments and collecting data. They also help design surveys, review research and even create content for the smartphone app for teens. Advanced students can take on their own research projects, which can lead to honors theses or conference presentations.
What do students gain from working with you?
They build strong research skills — learning how to read studies, design experiments and think critically about how research can be applied in the real world. Those who take on independent projects also learn how to analyze data and present their findings.
As an example, one student completed a project using data from our lab and was able to talk about that research in her applications to grad school, ultimately gaining admission to the clinical and health psychology Ph.D. program at the City University of New York.
Read more about Casey Calhoun’s research.
Get involved
To learn more about the Carolina Drone Lab, attend the Research & Discovery Fair 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Oct. 22 at the Frank Porter Graham Student Union.
