CHD-LAB

Our Mission

Our lab is interested in investigating the role of sociocultural forces in students' health and academics during the transition to college, with the goal of using our findings to design interventions and inform policies in higher education. We are particularly interested in the cultural mismatch that students from more collectivistic family backgrounds experience with the individualism of the university culture. We have several ongoing projects that utilize a variety of methodologies (qualitative, survey, experimental). Our more recent projects utilize a variety of biological and clinical health assessment techniques in order to understand how experiences with cultural mismatch get under the skin. Our lab is currently funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded to our Principal Investigator, Yolanda Vasquez-Salgado.

Our lab strives to make meaningful connections with our campus and neighboring community (e.g., student affairs, educational contexts and organizations). We believe that bridging a connection between our laboratory and community will strengthen our insight and understanding of student development, as well as our capacity to create larger institutional change.