R. Gabriela Barajas-Gonzalez, PhD

As a bilingual developmental psychologist and community-engaged researcher, my research aims to reduce disparities in Latinx children’s mental health, health, and academic achievement by understanding how social stressors (e.g. immigration threat, financial hardship, racism) influence Latinx and immigrant caregivers and child well-being so as to inform intervention, policy, and practice. A second line of research investigates the impact of early interventions on parent and child outcomes, focusing on the child-, family-, and teacher-level factors that may moderate the association between early intervention participation and later outcomes. 

My research interests are very much influenced by my upbringing in a Mexican immigrant household and community. My research has been published in numerous journals including Pediatrics, Social Science & Medicine, SSM-Mental Health, Prevention Science, Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community, and Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology. I earned a PhD in developmental psychology from Columbia University and hold a BA in human biology from Stanford University.