Principle Investigator: Dr. Steven Brown

Relation of Supports and Barriers to Career Outcomes
This study is a large-scale meta-analysis of the relations of contextual supports and barriers to such important career and educational outcomes as school performance, academic persistence, career decidedness, and educational and vocational goals, interests, self-efficacy beliefs, and outcome expectations.  In addition to exploring the relations of supports and barriers to these outcomes, the meta-analysis also explores the degree to which the relations are the same or different for women versus men, people of color versus whites, and other potential moderating variables (e.g., different sources of support like parents, siblings, peers, and teachers).  It also will provide a test of Social Cognitive Career Theory’s hypotheses about these relationships. For more information, please contact Dr. Brown, sbrown@luc.edu

Development and Evaluation of a Measure of Career Indecision
This project is based on the findings of an earlier meta-analysis conducted by Dr. Christopher Rector as his dissertation under the direction of the principle investigator that identified four major sources of career indecision:  chronic indecisiveness, need for information, lack of readiness, and external barriers and interpersonal conflicts.  The current project is focusing on developing and psychometrically evaluating a measure of these four sources of career indecision.  Data are being collected in the United States, Italy, Switzerland, Iceland, and China to explore the validity of the measure internationally. For more information please contact Dr. Brown, sbrown@luc.edu  

Principle Investigator: Dr. Steven Brown, Kyle Telander, Kristen Lamp, and Jason Hacker

Career Development as Prevention
The four principle investigators are writing a chapter for a forthcoming handbook on prevention on how career counseling and development interventions may have long-range effects on preventing school drop-out rates as well as preventing psychological and behavioral problems.  The chapter is focusing primarily on the preventive role of vocational hope and how vocational hope may be promoted via career interventions.  The chapter should lead to subsequent research projects on promoting vocational hope and exploring its consequence. For more information please contact Dr. Brown, sbrown@luc.edu

Principal Investigator: Dr. Anita Thomas

Toward the Development of Critical Consciousness
Description: Critical consciousness is used in the multicultural literature as the process of being able to critically assess or evaluate experiences of oppression. There are several components to this skill or ability. First, is the awareness of inequity and oppression. Second is the ability to understand others' perspectives or thoughts. Third is the ability to deconstruct experiences of oppression as they occur. This project aims to develop a scale that measures this psychological process. This critical consciousness inventory has the potential to be used for research purposes as well as a diagnostic tool.
For more information please contact Dr. Thomas, athoma9@luc.edu  

Promoting Resilience and Identity Development (PRIDE) Curriculum
African American girls face many challenges in developing a positive sense of self including pressures to be good daughters, sisters, friends and students while being treated unfairly for being African American and female. Promoting Resilience and Identity Development through Empowerment (PRIDE) encourages African American girls to feel good about themselves as they experience gendered racism. This ten-week curriculum addresses topics such as stereotypes of African American women, standards of beauty, healthy relationships and stress management. The workshops are interactive and aim to help participants reflect, grow and learn more about themselves.
For more information please contact Dr. Thomas, athoma9@luc.edu

Principal Investigator: Dr. Elizabeth Vera

Subjective Well-Being in Urban Adolescents of Color
This project is focused on identifying culturally relevant predictors of subjective well-being in urban youth. Individual predictors (e.g., ethnic identity), interpersonal predictors (e.g., family support), and community predictors (e.g., urban stressors) have been examined as predictors of well-being thus far.  This research is school-based and involves the development and implementation of psychoeducational programs in inner city schools to counteract factors which negatively affect urban youth’s subjective well-being.
For more information, please contact Dr. Vera at evera@luc.edu. 

Understanding School Success of Latino Students
This study examines what factors lead to school persistence and intention to graduate high school in a sample of 9th & 10th grade students in a predominantly Mexican-American, low SES high school located in a Chicago suburb. The research has involved surveying these students on their perceptions of factors including:  family and peer influence, school relevancy, neighborhood characteristics, school/family dissonance, parental involvement in school, etc.  The ultimate goal of this project is to identify the most potent factors that contribute to school persistence and subsequently design and deliver persistence enhancement programs at this particular high school. 
For more information, please contact Dr. Vera at evera@luc.edu.  

Principal Investigator: Dr. Eunju Yoon

A Meta-Analysis of Acculturation/Enculturation and Mental Health 
This comprehensive meta-analysis study examines the relationship between acculturation/enculturation and mental health indicators including psychological distress, depression, and self-esteem. Potential moderators include age groups, racial/ethnic backgrounds, generational status, and voluntary immigration versus involuntary subjugation.
For more information please contact Dr Yoon, eyoon@luc.edu

Transferability of Awareness of Oppression
This study examines transferability of awareness of oppression among oppressed groups. Namely, how the awareness of own group oppression translates into awareness of other groups’ oppression. Specifically, we investigate if racial/ethnic minority students’ awareness of racism transfers to awareness of LG individuals’ oppression and if White female students awareness of sexism transfers to awareness of White privilege and racism. We use perspective taking ability as a moderator to examine these relationships.
For more information please contact Dr Yoon, eyoon@luc.edu

Social Connectedness, Social Status, and Perceived Discrimination as Mediators between Acculturation and Well-being
By using structural equation modeling, this study tests a model that links acculturation/enculturation to subjective well-being (SWB). We examine social connectedness to mainstream and ethnic communities, social status, and perceived discrimination as mediators between acculturation/enculturation and SWB.
For more information please contact Dr Yoon, eyoon@luc.edu 

Construction and Validation of Social Connectedness to Mainstream and Ethnic Communities Scale
This study examines psychometric properties of two newly developed social connectedness scales by using two different samples of Mexican Americans in California and East Asian international students in Minnesota. This study, in particular, focuses on how social connectedness to mainstream and ethnic communities is conceptually and empirically distinct from general social connectedness and acculturation/enculturation.
For more information please contact Dr. Yoon, eyoon@luc.edu