Our research focuses on social identity development and the effects of minority stress on health and well-being. We are interested in how people come to understand their social identities and the intersections among them, how this understanding relates to sociocultural contexts and functioning, and the various paths to resilience and adaptive coping.
Selected Publications
Azmitia, M., Garcia Peraza, P. D., Thomas, V., Ajayi A. A., & Syed, M. (2023). The promises and challenges of using an intersectional framework to study identity development during adolescence and early adulthood. In L. Crockett, G. Carlo, & J. Schulenberg (Eds.), APA handbook of adolescent and young adult development. American Psychological Association
Grier-Reed, T., Maples, A., Houseworth, J., & Ajayi, A. (2023). Posttraumatic growth and flourishing in the face of racial trauma. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. 15(1), 37-44.
Schachter, J., Ajayi, A. A., & Nguyen, P. L. L. (2022). The moderating and mediating roles of mindfulness and rumination on COVID-19 stress and depression: A longitudinal study of young adults. Journal of Counseling Psychology. 69(5), 732-744.
Ajayi A. A., Grier-Reed, T., & Houseworth, J. (2022). In this together? Exploring moderating and mediating effects of shared racial fate on the predictive role of racial socialization and discrimination on Black activism. Journal of Black Psychology, 48(3–4), 327–359.
Syed, M., & Ajayi, A. A. (2018). Promises and pitfalls in the integration of intersectionality with development science. In C. E. Santos & R. B. Toomey (Eds.), Envisioning the integration of an intersectionality lens in Development Science: New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 161, 109–117. Jossey-Bass.
Mitchell, L. L., Kathawalla, U. K., Ajayi, A. A., Fish, J., Nelson, S. C., Peissig, L. H. M., & Syed, M. (2018). Racial/ethnic typicality and its relation to ethnic identity and psychological functioning. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. 24(3), 400-413.
Ajayi, A. A., & Syed, M. (2016). How stigma gets under the skin: Internalized oppression and dual minority stress among Black sexual minorities. In J. M. Sullivan and W. E. Cross (Eds.), Meaning-making, internalized racism, and African American identity (pp.211-228). State University of New York Press
Ajayi, A. A. & Syed, M. (2014). Links between patterns of ethnic-racial socialization and discrimination experiences and psychological adjustment: A cluster analysis. Journal of Adolescence, 37(7), 1011-1020.
Haines, B. A., Ajayi, A. A., & Boyd, H. (2014). Making trans parents visible: Challenges in the intersections of trans and parenting identities. Feminism & Psychology, 24(2), 238-247.