Research within the lab is focused on understanding the daily experiences of racially and socioeconomically diverse youth throughout development. Projects are unified by the focus on understanding how marginalization can negatively impact youth health and development. Marginalization refers to the dynamic processes by which certain groups are systematically disadvantaged, and in my work I tend to focus on cultural stressors including discrimination as well as feeling of lower status. Specifically, youth receive messages regularly throughout development from peers, new outlets, and societal systems that can cause them to feel undervalued or disrespected because of their social identities, and these feelings can negatively impact well-being.
One area of particular interest in stress process, including affective and physiological responses daily and acute threat. Marginalization may prime stress response systems, and over time repeated activation can wear down bodily systems to undermine health. During adolescence, when psychobiological systems are developing and youth are experiencing newfound interpersonal and academic stressors, stress processes may be particularly tied to health and may be setting the stage for poorer health later in development. Projects examine varied psychobiological systems (e.g., HPA-axis, immune system, autonomic nervous system) and responses to acute paradigms within the lab, day-to-day experiences such as arguments or demands that people regularly encounter in daily life, and real-world acute stressors such as class exams or political news.