Projects and Selected Publications
Racism and Liberation in Online Environments
We examine how online spaces provide challenges and opportunities for Black individuals' oppression, liberation, and subsequent health.
Anti-Black structural racism goes online: A conceptual model for racial health disparities research
Ethnicity & Disease
Liberatory media literacy as protective against posttraumatic stress for emerging adults of color Journal of Traumatic Stress
Not Just Time on Social Media: Experiences of Online Racial/Ethnic Discrimination and Worse Sleep Quality... Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities
Tweet Stimuli Set for Content about Black People (TSS-CBP): Development and testing of stimuli to assess the impacts of online race-related content Current Psychology
Finding the bright side: Positive online racial experiences, racial identity, and activism for Black young adults Computers in Human Behavior
“Speak[ing] my mind”: Reasons for using Twitter and the online experiences, critical media literacy, and racial identity of Black American emerging adults Journal of Media Psychology
Race correction and algorithmic bias in atrial fibrillation wearable technologies Health Equity
More studies ongoing!
Gendered Racism and Stress-related Health behaviors
We examine how intersectional experiences with gendered racism may lead some Black women to cope by using food (i.e., emotional eating / stress-related eating). We also examine how these experiences impact other health behaviors such as sleep and other health (e.g., blood pressure) and psychosocial outcomes (e.g., beauty and body ideals, body satisfaction). We are currently developing interventions.
Racism and Health
We examine how experiences of and exposures to racism and other intersecting systems of oppression (e.g., sexism, heterosexism) beyond the individual/interpersonal levels (i.e., at structural, institutional, and cultural levels) impacts health.
Too many studies and projects to list them all here!
Here are some examples from our lab:
Volpe, V. V., Katsiaficas, D., *Benson, G. P., & **Zelaya Rivera, S. (2020). A mixed methods investigation of Black college-attending emerging adults’ experiences with multilevel racism. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 90(6), 687-702. https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000503
Volpe, V. V., Schorpp, K., Cacace, S., *Benson, G. P., & *Banos, N. C. (2021). State- and provider-level racism and health care in the United States. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 61(3), 338-347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.03.008
Schorpp, K. M., Volpe, V. V., & *Neukrug, H. (2021). State-level sexism and women’s health care access in the United States: Differences by race and ethnicity, 2014-2019. American Journal of Public Health, 111 (10), 1796-1805. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306455 Note: first and second authors contributed equally and are listed in alphabetical order.
Black Young Adult Health
We examine racism-related threats to and protections against Black young adults' poor health during young adulthood, a key period for the development of cardiovascular disease risk and the establishment of health behaviors.
Too many studies and projects to list them all here!
Here are some examples from our lab:
Volpe, V. V., **Beacham, A., & **Olafunmiloye, O. (2019). Cognitive flexibility and the health of Black college-attending young adults experiencing interpersonal racial discrimination. Journal of Health Psychology, 26(8), 1132-1142. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105319869812
Volpe, V. V., Lee, D., Hoggard, L.S., & *Rahal, D. (2019). Racial discrimination and acute physiological responses among Black young adults: The role of racial identity. Journal of Adolescent Health, 64, 179-185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.09.004
Volpe, V. V., *Rahal, D., **Holmes, M., & **Zelaya Rivera, S. (2018). Is hard work and high effort always healthy for Black college students? John Henryism in the face of racial discrimination. Emerging Adulthood, 8(3), 245-252. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167696818804936
Affect reactivity and lifetime racial discrimination: The role of coping for Black emerging adults American Journal of Orthopsychiatry
Methods and Theory
Volpe, V. V., Hope, E. C., Mosley, D. V., *Javidi, H., *Sosoo, E., & *Benson, G. P. (2022). How we get free: Graduate training as one opportunity for equitable participation and liberation. Perspectives on Psychological Science.
Volpe, V. V., Smith, N. A., Skinner, O. D., Lozada, F. T., Hope, E. C., & Del Toro, J. (2022). Centering the heterogeneity of Black adolescents' experiences: Guidance for within-group designs among African diasporic communities. Journal of Research on Adolescence.
Volpe, V. V., Hoggard, L. S., Willis, H. A., & Tynes, B. M. (2021). Anti-Black structural racism goes online: A conceptual model for racial health disparities research. Ethnicity & Disease.
Volpe, V. V., Dawson, D. N.*, Rahal, D.*, Wiley, K.*, & Vesslee, S.* (2019). Bringing psychological science to bear on racial health disparities: The promise of centering Black health through a Critical Race framework. Translational Issues in Psychological Science.