Faculty Research

Below is a list of faculty and graduate students whose work explicitly speaks to understanding diversity and culture, promotes social justice and/or applies psychological theories to marginalized populations. This includes research and related activities focused on stigma, discrimination, health disparities, and social and environmental context as they affect under served populations.

Sandra Barrueco

Janelle Billingsley

Anne Brodsky

Charissa Cheah

Sophia Hwang

Nkiru Nnawulezi

David Schultz

Susan Sonnenschein

Shari Waldstein

Raimi Quiton


Sandra Barrueco:  Immigrants and migrants; multilingualism; children and families; assessment; prevention and early intervention; research methods.

Dr. Barrueco’s research program utilizes a prevention science framework to examine and address developmental and mental health difficulties among language-minority, immigrant, and migrant children. Contributing to empirical and clinical advancements in this area are three interrelated investigative foci: 1) methodological improvements in the assessment and early identification of bilingual children, 2) expansion of the theoretical and research bases pertaining to developmental and clinical processes within immigrant children and their families, and 3) creation and examination of multisystemic preventive interventions fostering linguistic and socioemotional functioning.

*The material above is from Dr. Barrueco’s faculty page on the department website. For further information click on her Faculty Profile and her BIENESTAR/Wellbeing Lab page.

Kaminiski, J., Barrueco, S., Kelleher, K., Edwards, E. & Hoagwood, K.. (2023). School readiness as a core metric for early childhood health. NAM Perspectives: National Academies of Medicine, https://doi.org/10.31478/202306b

Barrueco, S., Morales, M. C.*, & Truesdale, L. M.* (2023). Assessment of young emergent bilingual children. In R. J. Tierney, F. Rizvi, & K. Erkican (Eds.), International encyclopedia of education (4th ed., Vol. 10, pp. 96-104), Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-818630-5.07008-1

Davis, A.*, Barrueco, S., & Perry, D. F. (2021). The role of consultative alliance in infant and early childhood mental health consultation: Child, teacher, and classroom outcomes. Infant Mental Health Journal, 42, 246-262. https://doi.org/10.1002/imhj.21889; [WILEY TOP CITED ARTICLE AWARD]

Barrueco, S., Smith, S., & Stephens, S. (2016).  Supporting parent engagement in linguistically diverse families to promote young children’s life success. Journal of Applied Research on Children (Special Issue of 50 Years after the War on Poverty: Historic Victories and New Challenges), 7(1), 1-27.


Anne Brodsky:   qualitative methods, resilience, culture, gender, and community.

My work focuses on individual and community level resilience and the role of communities, psychological community, and cultures in creating and resisting societal risks, including community violence, poverty, racism, sexism and other oppressions.  Using qualitative methods, I have explored resilient processes in diverse populations, including single mothers raising children in risky neighborhoods of Washington, DC; low income women in a holistic job training and education program in Baltimore, MD; Afghan women in pre and post-Taliban Afghanistan, and most recently the experiences, attitudes, and interactions of immigrant and nonimmigrant communities in the Baltimore/Washington corridor and in Italy.

*The material above is from Dr. Brodsky’s faculty page on the department website. For further information click on http://psychology.umbc.edu/people/corefaculty/brodsky/

Buckingham, S.L. & Brodsky, A.E. (2015). ‘Our differences don’t separate us’: Immigrant families navigate intrafamilial acculturation gaps through diverse resilience processes. Journal of Latino/a Psychology, 3(3), 143-159.

Brodsky, A.E. & Cattaneo, L.B. (2013).  A transconceptual model of empowerment and resilience: Divergence, convergence, and interactions in kindred community concepts. American Journal of Community Psychology, 52(3/4), 333-346. 10.1007/s10464-013-9599-x

Brodsky, A.E.Talwar, G., Welsh, E., Scheibler, J., Backer, P., Portnoy, G., Carrillo, A., & Kline, E. (2012).  The hope in her eyes: The role of children in Afghan women’s resilience.  American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 82(3), 358-366.


Charissa Cheah:  Culture, socialization processes, and child and adolescent development.

How different aspects of culture (e.g. socio-cultural context, beliefs and values, majority versus minority status, immigration experiences) impact socialization processes and child and adolescent development.  More specifically, to understand: (1) the interactions between child individual characteristics (e.g. temperamental dispositions) and parenting in predicting children’s social, emotional, and physical health development; and (2) parenting cognitions and behaviors and their associations with child and adolescent adjustment within and across different cultural contexts.

*The material above is from Dr. Cheah’s faculty page on the department website. For further information click on  http://psychology.umbc.edu/people/corefaculty/cheah/

Cheah, C. S. L., Li, J., Zhou, N., Yakamoto, Y. & Leung, C. Y. Y. (in press). Chinese and European American mothers’ conceptions of warmth. Developmental Psychology.

Yu, J., Cheah, C. S. L., Hart, C. H., Sun, S., & Olsen, J. A. (2015).  Confirming the multidimensionality of psychologically controlling practices among Chinese-American mothers: Love withdrawal, guilt induction, and shaming. International Journal of Behavioral Development. DOI: 10.1177/0165025414562238

Cheah, C. S. L., Leung, C. Y. Y., & Zhou, N. (2013). Understanding “tiger parenting” through the perceptions of Chinese immigrant mothers: Can Chinese and U.S. parenting coexist? Asian American Journal of Psychology4(1), 30-40. doi:10.1037/a0031217

 


Raimi Quiton: Pain disparities based on race, gender, socioeconomic status, and age

The Quiton Lab has ongoing projects investigating biopsychosocial factors that affect pain perception and the underlying neurobiological mechanisms by which these factors influence pain processing in the brain.  Our goal is to better understand the combination of factors that contribute to an individual’s risk for developing chronic pain.  Current projects focus on biological factors such as sex and age; psychological factors such as optimism and emotion regulation; and sociocultural factors such as social isolation, ethnic identity, and discrimination.  We use a combination of psychophysical techniques and brain imaging in healthy human participants in our research. We are also currently conducting brain imaging studies in clinical populations to examine neurobiological mechanisms underlying pain disparities; these include migraine patients, who are predominantly female, and individuals with PTSD, who are predominantly African American and female, and are at increased risk of developing comorbid chronic pain disorders. Our lab is committed to intellectual, cultural, and ethnic diversity and welcomes students of diverse backgrounds, interests, and viewpoints

*The material above is from Dr. Quiton’s faculty page on the department website. For further information click on http://psychology.umbc.edu/people/corefaculty/quiton/

Raimi QuitonPain disparities based on race, gender, socioeconomic status, and age

Quiton, RL, Keaser MK, Zhuo J, Gullapalli RP, Greenspan JD. 2014. Intersession reliability of fMRI activation for heat pain and motor tasks.  NeuroImage Clinical 5: 309-321.

Quiton, R.L., Masri, R., Thompson, S.M., Keller, A. 2010. Abnormal activity of primary somatosensory cortex in central pain syndrome. Journal of Neurophysiology 104(3): 1717-25.

Quiton, R.L. and Greenspan, J.D.  2007.  Sex differences in endogenous pain modulation by distracting and painful conditioning stimulation.  Pain 132 Suppl 1:S134-49


David SchultzResearch and intervention with high needs families, home visiting, Head Start

Dr. David Schultz focuses his research and intervention work on high needs families, particularly families with limited financial resources. He is assistant director of the UMBC Home Visiting Training and Certificate program, which provides training for professionals who work with high needs families with newborns across the state of Maryland. This training focuses on developing these professionals’ understanding and skills in communicating effectively, cultural sensitivity, promoting healthy relationships and parenting, and effectively identifying and referring for mental health and substance use concerns. He also has worked for many years with Baltimore City Head Start preschool centers, both implementing a classroom-based social skills curriculum a colleague and he developed and conducting research on the development of social thinking tendencies that leave young children from financially-disadvantaged homes at risk for peer difficulties.

Schultz, D., Grodack, A., & Izard, C. E. (in press). State and trait anger, fear, and social information processing. In M. Potegal (Ed.) Handbook of Anger. New York: Springer.

Schultz, D., Izard, C. E., & Ackerman, B. P. (2000). Children’s anger attribution biases: Relations to family environment and social adjustment. Social Development, 9, 284-301.

Schultz, D., & Shaw, D. S. (2003). Boys’ maladaptive social information processing, family emotional climate, and pathways to early conduct problems. Social Development, 12, 440-460.


Susan Sonnenschein:  Educational/cognitive development of children, SES, ethnicity

My research addresses ways to promote the academic success of children from diverse (race/ethnicity, SES, linguistic) backgrounds.  Although my research considers home and school factors, I am particularly interested in how parental beliefs and practices are associated with children’s academic development.

*The material above is from Dr. Sonnenschein’s faculty page on the department website. For further information click on http://psychology.umbc.edu/people/corefaculty/sonnenschein/

Sonnenschein, S., & Galindo, C. (2015). Race/ethnicity and initial math skills:  Relations between home, classroom, and math achievement. The Journal of Educational Research, 108, 261-277.

Sonnenschein, S., Thompson, J. A., Metzger, S. R., & Baker, L. (2013). Relations between preschool teachers’ language and gains in low income English language learners’ and English speakers’ vocabulary, early literacy and math skills.NHSA Dialog: A Research-to-Practice Journal for the Early Childhood Field, 16, 64-87.

Sonnenschein, S., Baker, L., & Serpell, R. (2010). The Early Childhood Project: A 5-year longitudinal investigation of children’s literacy development in sociocultural context. In D. Aram, & O. Korat (Eds.),Literacy: Development and enhancement across orthographies and cultures (pp.85-96). NY: Springer.sonnenschein, baker, & serpell 2010


Shari Waldstein: race, SES, health disparities in brain, neurocognitive, & cardiovascular outcomes

Our lab examines disparities in brain, neurocognitive, and cardiovascular health outcomes associated with race and socioeconomic status and their biological, psychosocial, psychophysiological and environmental mediators. We collaborate closely with the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span (HANDLS) study investigative team at the National Institute on Aging’s Intramural Research Program (see https:/handls.nih.gov)

*The material above is from Dr. Waldstein’s faculty page on the department website. For further information click on http://psychology.umbc.edu/people/corefaculty/waldstein/

Waldstein, S.R., Beatty Moody, D.L., McNeely, J.M., Allen, A.J., Sprung, M.R., Shah, M.T., Al-Najjar, E., Evans, M.K., & Zonderman, A.B. (2016) Relations of race and poverty status to cardiovascular risk factors in the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span (HANDLS) study. BMC Public Health, 16, 258. doi: 10.1186/s12889-016-2945-9.

Dore, G.A., Waldstein, S.R., Evans, M.K, & Zonderman, A.B. (2015).  Diabetes and cognitive

function in the HANDLS study: Moderation by race and poverty status. Psychosomatic Medicine, 77, 643-652, doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000196.

Cooper, D.C., Thayer, J.F., & Waldstein, S.R. (2014). Coping with racism: the impact of prayer on cardiovascular reactivity and post-stress recovery in African American women. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 47, 218-230, doi: 10.1007/s12160-013-9540-4.