She also co-founded the Center for Mental Health and Media at Massachusetts General Hospital with Lawrence Kutner, PhD in 2000.
Funded by the US Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in 2004, Olson and Kutner steered a $1.5 million project investigating the use of computer and video games of 1,254 teenagers in South Carolina and Pennsylvania.
[2][4] Utilizing surveys and focus groups to collect data from teenage gamers and their parents, the study was the largest of its kind.
Olson and Kutner suggest that the findings of this research project provide evidence against several stereotypes related to video gamers, including lack of social aptitude and physical activity, and also highlight parents' lack of awareness in their teenagers' gaming practices and factors that increase children's exposure to violent video games.
[1] She also serves as a health behavior researcher and consultant for the QuitAssist project, funded by Philip Morris,[1] which aims to provide informational support to adults looking to quit smoking.