Norma Perez-Brena Research Lab
Mission
To highlight the cultural and familial assets that support and promote Latinx and immigrant adolescents’ adjustment
Dr. Perez-Brena's primary interests lie in understanding the combination of social (e.g., family and peers support), cultural (e.g., values, ethnic racial socialization), and personal (e.g., self-esteem, conflict management skills) characteristics that promote Latinx adolescent and young adult adjustment during key developmental and family transitions. Her work is centered on two key areas: the negotiation of family relationships across development (e.g., parent-child, romantic partners), and the impacts of culture across the life-span.
Additionally, Dr. Perez-Brena is culturally engaged applied research in order to promote the development and integration of culturally-responsive serves and programs that are representative and empowering to the immigrant and Latinx communities.
Current Projects
Strengthening Relationships/Strengthening Families (Currently collecting data)
This randomized control trial assessed the impacts of a strengths-based culturally responsive intervention serving Latinx pregnant and parenting adolescents. In addition, this longitudinal study assessed the role of culture and family in informing changes in romantic, parenting, and coparenting relationship dynamics during youths' early transition into parenthood.
PIs: Norma Perez-Brena, Michelle Toews, Renee Perez, Co-Is: Mark Feinberg, Jenee’ Duncan.
Funder: DHHS
Status: Data Cleaning and Analysis Phase
TIES Study
Latinx adolescents regularly experience discrimination and face anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies that undermine their academic success, perpetuating racial/ethnic disparities in education. This study moves beyond documenting this adversity longitudinally following 500+ Adolescents from three years to understand how cultural assets and social relationships can protect against the negative effects of discrimination on Latinx adolescents’ academic success. Additionally, a subset of adolescents will complete a 21-day daily diary study to assess how, at the micro-level, do these cultural and social assets support youth’s daily in-person and online experiences of stress.
PI's: Thao Ha, Maciel Hernandez, Olga Kornienko, Co-Is: Norma Perez-Brena, Dalal Safa, Esa Burson, Kristia Wantchekon
Funder: Spencer Foundation
Status: Beginning daily diary and Wave 3 data collection in Fall 2024
Mental Health Risk and Resilience among Latinx SGM Adolescents and their Parent
Family acceptance and support are critical factors that promote resilience and reduce mental health burden among sexual and gender minority (SGM) adolescents. Though important, little research has showcased the familial experiences of Latinx SGM adolescents. This two-part study aims to collect qualitative data from Latinx SGM adolescents describing how they experience support form parents. Informed by this information, we aim to create a culturally-responsive measure of parents support of SGM youth, and then use this information to assess how parental support moderates the link between minority stress experiences of Latinx SGM adolescents and their parents on their mental health.
PIs: Russel Toomey, Roberto Abreu, Karina Gattamorta, Co-Is: Norma Perez-Brena, Kirsten Gonzalez.
Funder: NIMHD.
Status: Beginning data collection in Fall 2024
The ALCANCE Project
This longitudinal study (a) qualitatively and quantitatively examined how Latinx adolescent students identify with their academics (i.e., academic identity) and (b) examines academic identity as the potential mechanism linking sources of academic support/socialization, school belonging, and academic achievement among Latinx youth during the transition into middle school.
PI: Melissa Delgado, Co-Is: Rajni Nair, Norma Perez-Brena, Lorey Wheeler.
Funder: Greater Texas Foundation
Status: Analysis phase
Juntos (Together): Families Raising Successful Teens Project (In data analysis stage)
This 8-year longitudinal study of mothers, fathers, and adolescent sibling pairs in 246 Mexican-origin families to examined family and cultural socialization processes that support youth during the transitions from early to late adolescence, and from late adolescence into young adulthood.
PIs: Kimberly Updegraff, Adriana Umaña-Taylor, & Susan McHale.
Funder: NICHD
Status: Analysis phase
Mental Health Risk and Resilience among Latinx SGM Adolescents and their Parents
This NIH-funded (1R01MD019678-01) project utilizes a family-based approach to address how culturally-relevant family relationship dynamics among Latinx sexual and gender minority (SGM) adolescents and their parents inform health inequalities. A new parallel adolescent-report measure of Latinx parent acceptance will be developed to work with an existing parent- report measure of Latinx parent acceptance of their SGM adolescents; this new measure – along with other key indicators of general and SGM-specific family relationships and structural and social determinants of health will be studied as predictors of family mental health. The new dyadic tool and intersectional approach will provide novel information to develop culturally-relevant, family-based interventions to reduce health disparities among Latinx SGM adolescent populations.
Community and National Partners
Strengthening Relationship/Strengthening Families
Pima County Coalition for Immigrant Children & Communities
Mathematica