Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of South Carolina
About
Meeta Banerjee is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of South Carolina. Dr. Banerjee received her BA in psychology, her masters in social work from the University of Michigan, and her PhD in ecological-community psychology from Michigan State University. Her research employs both integrative and ecological frameworks to understand the influence of contextual factors on early and late adolescent developmental trajectories in ethnic minority families. She is especially interested in exploring the interaction between ecological contexts and socialization practices on youth outcomes.
Current Work:
Currently, Dr. Banerjee is conducting three different studies utilizing the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study (MADICS) and the Childhood and Beyond (CAB) study. Racial socialization has been found to be a protective factor (Harris-Britt et al., 2007; Neblett et al., 2006) within negative contexts for African American youth. Thus, she is studying how racial socialization practices moderate the effects of negative contexts (i.e., neighborhood violence, racial discrimination) on African American youth's well-being and academic outcomes. Specifically, she is examining how neighborhood problems are associated with mental health in youth, and whether racial socialization moderates this relationship.
In addition, she is conducting studies to understand the relation of personal and vicarious experiences of racial discrimination on African American youth's outcomes. Presently, she is studying how both parent and youth reports of discrimination are associated with mental health. Furthermore, she is interested in how both parent and youth reports of racial socialization mitigate the effects of racial discrimination on mental health in African American youth. These two studies utilize MADICS, which consists of a longitudinal sample of African Americans from middle school to young adulthood.
Furthermore, she is also investigating the multidimensional nature of parents' academic socialization and its link to STEM activities in early childhood. This study also looks at the association between parenting styles and academic socialization profiles. She believes that academic socialization may mediate the connection between parenting styles and children's reports of STEM activities in early elementary school. This study is based on the CAB sample.
Research Area(s):
- Psychology
- Cultural and Ethnic Studies
