Current projects

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1. RYSE WELL: Rural Youth’s Sociopolitical Engagement and Wellbeing (2023- Current)

Rural adolescents may uniquely navigate civic contexts and experiences to drive their sociopolitical engagement, and these experiences may have important ramifications for physiological (e.g., stress) and psychological (e.g., sense of empowerment) development. We are collaborating with Dr. Natasha Chaku and the  InterACT Lab at Indiana University Bloomington to explore how rural youth experience civic empowerment and stress through their sociopolitical engagement.

 

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2. Sociopolitical Development Socialization Processes among Immigrant-Origin Boys (2024- Current)
Intersecting systems of gender, racial/ethnic, and cultural socialization may inform distinct sociopolitical development patterns for immigrant-origin boys. As part of a larger study with Dr. Juliana Karras at San Francisco State University, we are qualitatively analyzing 19 semi-structured interviews with ethnically/racially diverse immigrant-origin boys' sociopolitical development experiences.

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3. Youth Political Expression on Social Media During an Election Year (2025- Current)

With collaborators at Cal Poly Pomona, we are working to understand how politically active emerging adults from across the political spectrum use X to convey critical social analysis. We are interested in learning more about how political ideology (e.g., identifying as Republican, conservative, liberal, Democrat etc.) influences how young people think about and articulate social issues online. 

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4. Youth Intergroup Dialogue to Support Sociopolitical Development and Wellbeing (2024- Current) 

Intergroup dialogue (i.e., structured conversations between peers about social identities and social issues) may be a way that young people can further their sociopolitical development. Intergroup dialogue may also have important ramifications for youths' personal (e.g., stress, anxiety, hopefulness) and relational (e.g., sense of belonging) wellbeing. Therefore, in this study, we are longitudinally following adolescents who participate in a year-long intergroup dialogue program to better understand their sociopolitical and wellbeing experiences.