My primary research focus is school-based peer relationships during adolescence. My specific research program centers on the impact of social risk factors, such as peer rejection and peer-victimization, on psychosocial and academic adjustment. My theoretical approach to this topic is informed by person-in-context social developmental models which emphasize the connection between developing adolescents and their social contexts. A key component of this theoretical perspective is the recognition that the social context contains several influential levels. I have attended to different features of school and classroom contexts, and I have attended to more proximal levels of the social context such as students’ friendship groups and episode characteristics (i.e., features of specific real-life interactions). The practical significance of attending to multiple levels is that it offers numerous points of possible intervention to improve the lives of adolescents. Understanding where and how to intervene is one of the ultimate goals of my research.
