Resilience and Identity (RI) Study
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) youth are a diverse group of all ethnic-racial backgrounds and many gender identities, forms of gender expression, and sexual orientations. Prior research has shown that many queer youth face barriers and obstacles to finding affirming and inclusive spaces in which they can feel a sense of belonging, which has significant consequences for their health and well-being. In the Resilience and Identity (RI) Study, we invite LGBTQ+ youth to share their experiences about what it means to face and overcome these challenges and engage in the process of exploring the multiple facets of their identity en route to thriving. This research is ongoing and involves longitudinal surveys and individual interviews. This research is designed to answer the following questions:
- How do LGBTQ+ youth learn about and explore their identities, acknowledging expansive intersections of ethnicity-race, gender, and sexual orientation?
- How do contextual risk and promotive factors combine to inform how LGBTQ+ youth explore their multifaceted identities and feel about their social group memberships?
- How does identity development, in turn, predict health, well-being, and academic adjustment? And how can we use this research to inform identity-affirming approaches to support LGBTQ+ youth?
Principal Investigator: Dr. Michael Sladek, The University of Oklahoma
Funded by Junior Faculty Fellowships from the Vice President for Research and Partnerships and the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences of The University of Oklahoma
My Life, My Identity (MLMI) Study
Years of research have established that ethnic-racial identity development (i.e., youth engaging in the process of exploring and coming to a sense of clarity or understanding about their ethnic-racial background) is a competency that supports positive adjustment in terms of mental health and success in school. The Identity Project intervention (PI: Dr. Adriana Umaña-Taylor) is a theory-driven and evidence-based program that has shown positive effects on adolescents’ ethnic-racial identity exploration, and through this boost to exploration, later increases in ethnic-racial identity resolution that cascade into a stronger sense of self, improved mental health, and gains in academic outcomes like higher grades (Umaña-Taylor et al., 2018). Efforts are underway to train educators as Identity Project facilitators. In the My Life, My Identity (MLMI) Study, students completed longitudinal pre/post-test surveys and daily diaries (i.e., brief surveys) on their phones after each session as they engaged with the program. These surveys included measures of identity and social context factors theorized to enhance the positive effects of the Identity Project, with the goal of more closely examining daily interactions between students and their teachers, peers, and family as they experience and engage with the intervention content.
Principal Investigators: Dr. Michael Sladek, The University of Oklahoma, Dr. Dalal Safa, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Dr. Adriana Umaña-Taylor, Harvard University
Funded by the National Science Foundation and the William T. Grant Foundation
Project Publications:
Umaña-Taylor, A. J., Sladek, M. R., & Safa, M. D. (2024). Teachers’ implementation of the Identity Project is associated with increases in U.S. high school students’ ethnic-racial identity exploration. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 53, 2510-2533. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-024-01955-2
College Life and Health Study
As an extension of the Transiciones project, a longitudinal study of Latino adolescents transitioning to and through college (PI: Dr. Leah Doane), a group of students were invited to participate in a study during their first college semester designed to examine cultural factors in relation to stress and coping during this critical transition period. Participants completed measures of psychological and physiological stress, coping, and cultural factors, along with qualitative interviews about their transition to college experiences. This research is designed to answer the following questions:
(1) How do Latino students response physiologically and psychologically to a standard laboratory-based stress task, and what are ways to reduce the negative effects of stress?
(2) How do stress responses relate to other measures of stress, coping, and adjustment?
(3) What stressors do students report in their first semester of college? And how do these stressors relate to patterns of adjustment and indices of cultural adaptation?
PIs: Dr. Michael Sladek, The University of Oklahoma, Dr. Leah Doane, Arizona State University
Funded by the National Science Foundation and the William T. Grant Foundation
Project Publications:
Sladek, M. R., Castro, S. C., & Doane, L. D. (2021). Ethnic-Racial discrimination experiences predict Latinx adolescents’ physiological stress processes across college transition. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 128, 105212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2021.105212
Sladek, M. R., Doane, L. D., Luecken, L. J., Gonzales, N. A., & Grimm, K. J. (2020). Reducing cultural mismatch: Latino students’ neuroendocrine and affective stress responses following cultural diversity and inclusion reminder. Hormones and Behavior, 120, 104681. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2020.104681
Equipping Educators for Equity through Ethnic-Racial Identity (E4)
Dr. Michael Sladek is a Co-Investigator of research to support educators as facilitators of the Identity Project curriculum. For more information, see: Equipping Educators for Equity Through Ethnic-Racial Identity (E4).
Principal Investigator: Dr. Adriana Umaña-Taylor, Harvard University
Funded by the William T. Grant Foundation and the Institute of Education Sciences (U.S. Department of Education)
Project Publications:
Sladek, M. R., Umaña-Taylor, A. J., Neville, H. A., Ison, A., Martinez-Fuentes, S., Mason, P., Park, Y., Safa, M. D., Satterthwaite-Freiman, M., Soto-Shed, E., & Wantchekon, K. A. (2024). Professional development for providing time and opportunities for change in U.S. teachers’ ethnic-racial identity. Identity, 24, 331-352. https://doi.org/10.1080/15283488.2024.2366892
Satterthwaite-Freiman, M., Wantchekon, K. A., Aguilar, G., Sladek, M. R., Ison, A., Mason, P., Soto-Shed, E., & Umaña-Taylor, A. J. (2024). The challenges of engaging in conversations and activities focused on race, ethnicity, and identity in the classroom: Learning from U.S. based teachers. Identity, 24, 353-378. https://doi.org/10.1080/15283488.2024.2340489
