Welcome to Peer Networks and Development Lab! Our mission is to help adolescents and young adults to successfully develop, maintain, and navigate their social relationships with peers so that the benefits of these social connections are maximized and their costs and risks are reduced.
Our research investigates developmental, cultural, psychological, and biological antecedents and consequences of peer social networks. We are especially interested in how social network structure and dynamics shape adolescent and young adult outcomes across multiple domains, including psychological adjustment, ethnic-racial identity development, intergroup peer relationships, and biological processes, which underpin stress, social status, and immunity.
With increasing numbers of youth growing up in societal contexts that exclude and marginalize them because of their social group membership (e.g., race, ethnicity, migration background), we want to better understand how social relationships, culture, and their interaction can serve as assets, resources, and sources of strength for youth. So, we are working towards understanding how peer relationships foster developmental and cultural competencies (e.g., ethnic-racial identity) that play promotive and protective roles in the lives of ethnically and racially diverse youth.