2021-22 Department of Psychology Colloquium Series - Naila Smith (The Pennsylvania State University). Zoom.

In the United States, opportunities and constraints are organized hierarchically such that Black youth, especially those at the intersection of multiple systems of oppression (e.g., immigrants, girls), grow up on the margins of society. In this talk, Dr. Naila Smith will present an overview of her program of research that applies strengths-based, anti-racist approaches to center the role of the home and school context and social identity in the development of marginalized youth, particularly Black youth. First, she will share exemplars of her past work on racial discrimination as a contextual risk factor that shapes heterogeneity in African American parent-child relationships, an important ecology for youth development (Smith et al., Accepted). She will then share work on the role of ethnic identity and academic self-beliefs in shaping academic achievement among Caribbean immigrant youth (Smith et al., 2020). Following this, Dr. Smith will discuss her current externally funded project that uses an intersectional lens to examine how individual (teacher characteristics), relational (e.g., family-school collaboration), and school contextual factors may explain teacher-parent reporting discrepancies of Black girls’ socioemotional learning in kindergarten. Finally, her talk will conclude with an outline of future research plans to increase understanding of the development of marginalized youth in context to advance justice and equity for Black communities.

Time and Location: 
11:00am, Zoom
Date: 
Thursday, December 16, 2021
Subtitle: 
"Sociocultural Risks, Resources, and Assets in the Lives of Marginalized Youth”.