My substantive research interests center on the development of low-income and race/ethnic minority youth, investigating how social contexts influence school transitions, experiences of marginalization, and developmental competencies during adolescence. As a developmental psychologist, the core of my research program is a fundamental developmental question—what are the continuities and changes in the social, emotional, and cognitive growth and maturation of young people? Reflecting training in educational demography, I work to answer this question with an awareness of how such developmental patterns are embedded in the groups, contexts, and social structures of society.