Youth RISE is a Community Psychology research lab at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. As a team, we focus on the study of normative and adaptive processes fostering healthy development among African American youth. We seek to understand how African American youth can leverage pre-existing strengths in their lives (e.g., supportive relationships with close adults) to promote their social-emotional well-being. We are also interested in understanding sociocultural influences on Black adolescents’ social-emotional development and we consider how African American youth understand and respond to their social environments. 

The Youth RISE lab is led by Dr. Janelle Billingsley