Faculty Profiles

BIO

Dr. Eleanor K. Seaton is a developmental psychologist and her research is guided by four areas of inquiry that explore race among Black youth. The first area explores racial discrimination experiences and includes measurement, mediators and moderators of racial discrimination experiences. The second area explores the attitudes and feelings that African American youth ascribe to being Black, which is known as racial identity. The third area examines the complex relation between racial discrimination and racial identity among Black youth. A new area of inquiry assesses the interaction of racial discrimination, racial identity and pubertal development among Black children and adolescents. An extension of this area includes a focus on how racial discrimination “gets under the skin” with examination of the relation between racial discrimination experiences and physiological indicators such as cortisol, alpha amylase and C-reactive protein. Dr. Seaton uses quantitative and qualitative approaches embedded in a variety of methodological designs (e.g., daily diary, survey, qualitative) and analytical techniques (e.g., latent class, hierarchical linear modeling). Dr. Seaton’s ultimate goal is to understand how Black youth survive and thrive despite the pervasiveness of racism in the broader society.

For more information, see Dr. Seaton’s faculty website.