My research interests broadly involve studying reactions to trauma. More recently, clinical experiences have informed a more specific research interest regarding the relationship between trauma, PTSD and OCD. I am particularly interested in using mixed methods to evaluate questions related to trauma and functioning in treatment-seeking individuals.
My research interests broadly involve studying reactions to trauma. More recently, clinical experiences have informed a more specific research interest regarding the relationship between trauma, PTSD and OCD. I am particularly interested in using mixed methods to evaluate questions related to trauma and functioning in treatment-seeking individuals.
BOOKS
Alegria, M., Juang, L., Marks, A., Yip, T., eds. (2021). Improving Mental Health for Immigrant Populations. Lausanne: Frontiers Media SA. doi: 10.3389/978-2-88971-903-7
Improving mental health outcomes for immigrant populations requires listening to voices from immigrant communities, and collaboration among community organizations, health professionals, social scientists, and policy makers. Research in this collection examines: 1. Current trends and risk factors for mental health challenges among immigrants, 2. Culturally appropriate interventions and treatment, and 3. Efforts to reduce disparities in access and quality of care, and 4. Prevention initiatives for strengthening community resilience and well-being.
Articles in this collection explore topics such as: the interplay between parental mental health, childhood physical health, and cultural stress; the impact of neighborhood context on socio-emotional outcomes in immigrant youth; psychometrics of screening scales for comorbid mental illness and substance use disorders in multi-lingual populations; and development and adaptation of interventions to reduce depression and anxiety symptoms among older adult immigrants delivered by community health workers.
Suarez-Orozco, C., Abo-Zena, M., & Marks, A. K. (2015). Transitions: The Development of Immigrant Children. New York: NYU Press.
Recipient of the 2016 Society for Research on Adolescence Social Policy Award for Best Edited Book.
Immigration to the United States has reached historic numbers—25 percent of children under the age of 18 have an immigrant parent, and this number is projected to grow to one in three by 2050. Immigrant children and the children of immigrants face unique developmental challenges. Navigating two distinct cultures at once, immigrant-origin children have no expert guides to lead them through the process. Instead, they find themselves acting as guides for their parents.
How are immigrant children like all other children, and how are they unique? What challenges and what opportunities do their circumstances present? What characteristics do they share and how do they differ? Covering a variety of topics such as ecologies, processes, and outcomes of development, this book takes an interdisciplinary approach to consider how personal, social, and structural factors interact to determine a variety of paths for growth. Transitions offers comprehensive coverage of the development of immigrant children, providing an overview of what the field needs to know—or at least systematically begin to ask—about the immigrant child and adolescent from a developmental perspective.
Garcia Coll, C., & Marks, A. K. (2012). The Immigrant Paradox in Children and Adolescents: Is becoming American a developmental risk? Washington DC: APA Press.
Many academic and public policies promote rapid immigrant assimilation. Yet, researchers have recently identified an emerging pattern, known as the "immigrant paradox," in which assimilated children of immigrants experience diminishing developmental outcomes and educational achievements.
This volume examines these controversial findings by asking how and why highly acculturated youth may fare worse academically and developmentally than their less assimilated peers, and under what circumstances this pattern is disrupted.
This timely compilation of original research is aimed at understanding how acculturation affects immigrant child and adolescent development. Chapters explore the question "Is Becoming American a Developmental Risk?" through a variety of lenses — psychological, sociological, educational, and economic. Contributors compare differential health, behavioral, and educational outcomes for foreign- and native-born children of immigrants across generations.
While economic and social disparities continue to present challenges impeding child and adolescent development, particularly for U.S.-born children of immigrants, findings in this book point to numerous benefits of biculturalism and bilingualism to preserve immigrants' strengths.
García Coll, C., & Marks, A. K. (2009). Immigrant stories: Ethnicity and academics in middle childhood. New York: Oxford University Press.
Immigrant Stories portrays the contexts and academic trajectories of development of three unique immigrant groups: Cambodian, Dominican and Portuguese. The children of immigrant families - or second generation youth - are the fastest growing population of school children in the US. However, very little is known about these children's academic and psychological development during middle childhood. We examine the previously under-explored intricacies of children's emerging cultural attitudes and identities, academic engagement, and academic achievement. These processes are studied alongside a myriad of factors in the family and school environment that combine to shape children's academic psychological functioning during this important period.
Through a three-year longitudinal study, including interviews with teachers, parents and children, this book presents a fascinating look at the community, school, and family contexts of child development among second-generation children. Both pre-immigration and post-immigration characteristics are explored as critical factors for understanding children of immigrants' development. In the current climate of US immigration policy debate, we offer research findings that may inform educators and administrators about the sources of community strengths and challenges facing our newest immigrant generations.
Our work has also appeared as book chapters in the following books:
Marks, A. K., a Woolverton, G. A., & a Murry, M. (In press). Xenophobia and racism: Immigrant youth experiences, stress, & resilience. In U. Tummala-Narra (Ed.), Racial minority immigrants and trauma in the U.S. Washington DC: APA Press.
Marks, A. K., a Woolverton, G. A., & Garcia Coll, C. (In press). Children’s migratory paths between cultures: The effects of immigration patterns on the adaptation of children and families. In R. D. Parke & G. H. Elder (Eds.), Children in Changing Worlds: Sociocultural and Temporal Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Marks, A. K., a Lindsey, S. V., & Garcia Coll, C. (2019). Prejudice and Discrimination. In S. Hupp & J. Jewell (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Development: Volume on Child Emotion. New Jersey: Wiley Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119171492.wecad190
Marks, A. K., a Ejesi, K., a McCullough, M., & Garcia Coll, C. (2015). The development and implications of racism and discrimination. In M. Lamb, C. Garcia Coll, & R. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science, Seventh Edition, Volume Three: Socioemotional Processes.(pp. 324-365) New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN: 978-1-118-13679-9
*Marks, A. K., a Godoy, C.M., & Garcia Coll, C. (2013). An ecological approach to understanding immigrant child and adolescent developmental competencies. In L. Gershoff, R. Mistry, & D. Crosby (Eds.), The Contexts of Child Development. (pp. 75-89) New York: Oxford University Press.
* This book was awarded the 2013 Social Policy Award for Best Edited Book by the Society for Research in Adolescence.
Suarez-Orozco, C., & Marks, A. K. (2016). Immigrant students in the U.S.: Addressing their possibilities and challenges. In J. Banks, M. Suarez-Orozco, & M. Ben Perez (Eds.), Global Migration, Diversity, & Civic Education. (pp. 107-131) New York: Teacher’s College Press.