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Pre and Post Doctoral Training Program in Research on Black Child Development Supported by a training grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human DevelopmentCurrent Predoctoral Trainees
Research Mentor: Eleanor K. Seaton Liz graduated from Clark Atlanta University with a bachelors degree in Psychology and Tufts University with a masters degree in Child Development with a concentration in Family Studies. Currently she is working in Eleanor Seaton's lab exploring ethnic identity development during adolescence. Dr. Seaton's lab is working on a project that explores daily changes/fluctuations in ethnic identity of African American adolescents by using the daily diary method. Additionally Liz is interested in the role of racial/ethnic socialization in the development of ethnic identity as well how this correlates to mental health and academic engagement. Long term Liz would like to provide an understanding of the links between ethnic identity, resiliency, and other positive long term outcomes with the hopes that this research will be applied to programs or interventions that can assist in healthy ethnic identity development. After the completion of her doctoral degree Liz would like to work in academia as a professor and remain heavily engaged in research. Research Mentor: Deborah Jones Jessica is a first year clinical psychology graduate student. In May 2006, she received her BA at Barnard College. Jessica works in the lab of Deborah Jones on the African American Families and Children Together Project (AAFACT) exploring the role of non-marital coparents in African American single mother families. She will examine how various influences (i.e. parenting style, optimism and pessimism, socioeconomic status) are associated with African American adolescent developmental trajectories. Jessica is most interested in how these influences may affect future HIV risk behavior. Research Mentor: Beth Kurtz-Costes Olivenne graduated from from New York University in 2005 with a BA in Psychology and Africana Studies. Before joining the developmental program she worked in Boston as a Teaching Fellow through the Citizen Schools National teaching fellowship Program and later as a research assistant at Judge Baker Children’s Center, Harvard Medical School. Olivenne is currently a first year graduate student in the Developmental Psychology Program at UNC-Chapel Hill where she works with Beth Kurtz-Costes on the Youth Identity Project. Her research interests includes gender differences in academic achievement in African American youth, and factors that leads to resilience in academic outcomes for youth from low income, minority communities. Olivenne is interested in using qualitative research methods combined with quantitative methods to explore these factors.
Current Postdoctoral Trainees Research Mentor: Vonnie C.McLoyd Research Mentor: Vonnie C. McLoyd My research investigates the impact of parenting practices and youth identity on the
academic engagement, socioemotional, and sociocultural development of youth of color.
This work has primarily concentrated on African American youth in middle and high
Previous Trainees
Erika Bagley Erika is a fourth year developmental psychology graduate student working in the lab of Vonnie McLoyd. She graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1999 with a BS in Medical Laboratory Science. After working for a few years doing biotech research in Boston, she moved to rural South Carolina. There she changed direction and returned to school to pursue a degree in applied psychology. She received a M.S. in Counseling Psychology from Francis Marion University in South Carolina. While pursuing her masters, she worked as a counselor with “at-risk” youth in the local high school. Her interest in issues of poverty, race and the transition to adulthood began from this experience and were further sparked by her experiences teaching undergraduates at Francis Marion University. While she enjoyed her time working as a counselor, she is drawn to the study of developmental psychology as a means of understanding prevention/intervention programs that work. She is particularly interested in learning how community characteristics can moderate the effects of poverty and an individual’s or family’s ability to be upwardly mobile. Sarah Shook Sarah is currently on internship at UNC Hospitals with a concentration in the child psychology area. She earned a BA in Psychology and a MA in Clinical Psychology from West Virginia University. Sarah is collaborating on a study of the role of extended family in African American single mother families, in which she will examine the effect of mother-coparent relationship quality on adolescent psychosocial adjustment. In addition to co-authoring a review and critique of existing research on the role of non-marital coparents in African American single mother families, Sarah is writing multiple manuscripts summarizing findings from a longitudinal study (conducted by Deborah Jones and her colleagues at the University of Georgia) of low income, inner-city and rural African American single mothers, one-half of whom are HIV-infected, and their families. She is also working on the prospectus for her dissertation, which will focus on relations among mother-coparent support and conflict, parenting behaviors, and adolescent prosocial outcomes (e.g., self-regulation) in a sample of African American single mother families. Sarah’s ultimate goal is to produce well-designed research that not only furthers the fields of child development and family research, but also informs the clinical work of child and family mental health providers. CV available. Tanee Hudgens In May 2006, Tanee graduated from Spelman College with a BA in psychology. She is currently a fourth year graduate student in the Developmental Psychology Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where her research advisors are Vonnie McLoyd and Beth Kurtz-Costes. Presently, she is working on the Youth Identity Project (YIP) a longitudinal study assessing African-American students transition to middle school and how this process differs for those entering predominantly black schools versus those in more ethnically diverse schools. Additionally, this study assesses the influence of attitudes and beliefs of parents regarding achievement and race socialization. Her additional research interests include gender characteristics and academic achievement in minority populations, childhood and adolescent poverty, and family relations and structure among African-Americans. Ndidi Okeke Ndidi is a sixth year student in the Developmental Psychology Program at UNC. She received her BA in Psychology from UNC—Chapel Hill in 2002. Before entering graduate school, she worked at Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute on a project examining factors that predict school success among African American students. Ndidi works with Beth Kurtz-Costes on the Youth Identity Project, the goal of which is to identify factors that promote the success of African American youth transitioning to middle school and to determine how the process differs for youth in schools of varying racial compositions. YIP gives special attention to how parents' attitudes and beliefs impact the achievement outcomes of African American youth. Ndidi is seeking a better understanding of the influence of academic race stereotypes on the academic self-concept and general self-esteem of African American adolescents and the role that race identity plays in these processes. Ndidi’s ultimate goal is to conduct research on vulnerable populations of children that helps in the formulation of state and federal policies that will enhance the well-being of these children. Ndidi enjoys attending church, spending time with family and friends, watching a good movie, and getting well-needed rest! CV available. Akilah Swinton In May 2006, Akilah earned a BS in Psychology from Howard University. Currently, she is a fourth year graduate student in Developmental Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where her primary advisor is Beth Kurtz-Costes. She is working with her advisor on the Youth Identity Project (YIP), which assesses the extent to which various factors (e.g., students’ attitudes and beliefs about themselves, other students, and their school; parents’ attitudes and beliefs) promote or hinder academic achievement among African-American youth who are transitioning to middle school. She is primarily interested in the influence of African-American students’ attitudes, beliefs, and socialization experiences in various contexts (e.g., school, family, media) on school achievement and educational attainment. Her goal is to produce research that will help in the formulation of effective policies for children and families, especially in education and in prevention/intervention programming. Dana Wood Dana is a sixth year student in the Developmental Psychology Program at UNC. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1997 with a BA in psychology. Dana’s interest in the development of African American children stems from her experiences teaching elementary school in inner-city Los Angeles. Dana's research focuses on factors that contribute to gender differences in the achievement of Black youth. In particular, she seeks to understand why African American males typically have worse achievement outcomes than do females. Dana is currently using data from the New Hope Project to explore how parents', teachers', and children's educational expectations differ for African American boys versus girls. She is also working on the Adolescent Identity Project, which examines how gender differences in parental race socialization practices may contribute to gender differences in the achievement outcomes of African American adolescents. CV available. Previous Postdoctoral Trainees Shauna M. Cooper Research Mentor: Vonnie C. McLoyd
Lionel Howard Research Mentor: Beth Kurtz-Costes, Oscar Barbarin
Core Faculty
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