Research & Initiatives
Thank you for your interest in our work at the IMPACT lab. Our research focuses on immigrant families with adolescents and children, largely focused on Latinx families.
Our most current project is TIES-ENLACES focused on Latinx teens and their parents' daily experiences in Harrisburg, PA. We asked parents and adolescents' about their values and reports on daily behaviors and experiences with peers and within their neighborhoods. We completed the pilot in Harrisburg and plan to conduct a similar study at UC Merced.
In 2016, the PLACES-LUGARES study was conducted from April to December. This study focused on understanding how place (i.e., residential neighborhood and where families go [Activity Space]) and culture shape the links between parenting and youth behaviors. For parenting, we examined the caregiver-adolescent relationship, racial-ethnic socialization, and parental monitoring strategies. For youth outcomes, we examined academic outcomes, identity, and problem behaviors. We were particularly interested in (1) how Latino families acculturate in new environments where they are the ethnic minority, and (2) how these environments shape parenting and youth outcomes.
In Spring 2007, the Latina Girls Study commenced. The purpose of this study was to examine the concurrent and prospective associations among cultural, individual, and interpersonal factors and their contribution to the adjustment of a group of Mexican-origin girls. At the beginning of the study Latina girls were in 7th and 10th grade, and data were collected when the girls were in 9th and 12th grade, and the final time point which was 10th grade and post-high school. This study took place in a large city in the southwest and has provided findings that have furthered the significant research on Latino youth. See the selected publications section of the website for published studies using this data.