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Aprile D Benner
Associate Professor
Department of Human Development and Family Sciencesabenner@prc.utexas.edu
Phone: 512-232-1964
Office Location
SEA 2.442
Postal Address
108 E DEAN KEETON ST
AUSTIN, TX 78712-
Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
M.S., Purdue University
B.S., Vanderbilt UniversityResearch Interests
Aprile Benner’s substantive research interests center on the development of low-income and race/ethnic minority youth, investigating how social contexts influence experiences of marginalization and discrimination, school transitions, and developmental outcomes during adolescence. As a developmental psychologist, the core of her 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 her training in educational demography, she works to answer this question with an awareness of how such developmental patterns are embedded in the groups, contexts, and social structures of society.Specifically, her research falls into two primary streams: race/ethnicity and social class as developmental contexts and the influence of multiple and shifting ecological contexts in young people’s lives. Her studies have examined adolescents’ perceptions of discrimination, their experiences of numeric marginalization tied to both race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status, experiences of school transitions across the early life course, and how schools, families, and peers independently and conjointly influence young people’s well-being. Her current research focuses on discrimination tied to race/ethnicity, social class, sexual minority status, and weight and linkages to disparities in mental and physical health and academic achievement.
Aprile Benner is accepting graduate students to start in Fall 2022.
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Current Grant Funding
Principal Investigator, Biopsychosocial Pathways Linking Discrimination and Adolescent Health. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (2017-2022).
Principal Investigator, Disrupted Trajectories of Well-being and Compensating Supports in the Time of COVID-19. The Spencer Foundation (2020-2022)
Co-principal Investigator, School-based Marginalization, Social-Behavioral Competencies, and Achievement: A Meta-analysis. (2019-2022).
Prior Grant Funding
Principal Investigator, Discrimination and Achievement Disparities in Adolescence. National Science Foundation (2016
Principal Investigator, Adolescents and the Social Contexts of American Schools. William T. Grant Scholars Program (2013 - 2018).
Principal Investigator, eRACE: Examining Race, Academics, Contexts, and Equality. William T. Grant Foundation (2015 - 2017).
Principal Investigator, School Demographics, Marginalization, and Adolescent Substance Use. National Institute on Drug Abuse (R03DA032018, 2011-2014).
Principal Investigator, Marginalization and Educational Performance during Adolescence. National Academy of Education & Spencer Foundation (2012 - 2013)
Principal Investigator, Selection into Pre-K-3. Foundation for Child Development (2010 - 2012)
Principal Investigator, The Transition to High School and Later School Dropout. The Spencer Foundation (2010 - 2011)
Principal Investigator, Race, School Transitions, and Child and Adolescent Well-being. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (F32HD056732, 2008 - 2011)
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Select Publications (* denotes undergraduate or graduate student or postdoctoral fellow)
Benner, A.D., *Chen, S., Mistry, R.S., & Shen, Y. (2021). Life course transitions and educational trajectories: Examining adolescents who fall off track academically. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 50, 1068-1080.
Benner, A.D., *Fernandez, C.C., Hou, Y., & *Gonzalez, C. (2021). Parent and teacher educational expectations and adolescents’ academic performance: Mechanisms of influence. Journal of Community Psychology, 49, 2679-2703.
Benner, A.D. & Mistry, R.S. (2020). Child development during the COVID-19 pandemic through a life course theory lens. Child Development Perspectives, 14, 236-243.
Martin-Storey, A. & Benner, A.D. (2019). Externalizing behaviors exacerbate the link between discrimination and adolescent health risk behaviors. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 48, 1724-1735.
Benner, A.D., Wang, Y., Shen, Y. Boyle, A.E., Polk, R. & Cheng, Y-P. (2018). Racial discrimination and well-being during adolescence: A meta-analytic review. American Psychologist, 73, 855-883.
Benner, A.D. (2017). The consequences of racial/ethnic discrimination for adolescent adjustment. Child Development Perspectives, 11, 251-256.
Benner, A.D., *Boyle, A.E, & *Bakhtiari, F. (2017). Understanding students’ transition to high school: Demographic variation and the role of supportive relationships. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 46, 2129-2142.
Benner, A.D. & *Wang, Y. (2017). Racial/ethnic discrimination and adolescents’ well-being: The role of cross-ethnic friendships and friends’ experiences of discrimination. Child Development, 88, 493-504.
Benner, A.D., *Boyle, A.E., & *Sadler, S. (2016). Parental involvement and adolescents’ educational success: The roles of prior achievement and socioeconomic status. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 45, 1053-1064.
Benner, A.D. & *Wang, Y. (2015). Adolescent substance use: The role of demographic marginalization and socioemotional distress. Developmental Psychology, 51, 1086-1097.
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2020 Fellow, Association for Psychological Science
2020 Mid-career Award for Research Excellence, Society for Research on Adolescence
2019 Outstanding Graduate Teacher Award, Graduate School, UT Austin
2019 Faculty Research Award, School of Human Ecology, UT Austin
2013 Award for Early Career Research Contributions to Child Development, Society for Research in Child Development
2013 William T. Grant Foundation Scholar
2013 Monitoring the Future Visiting Scholar Program
2011 National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow
2008 Ruth L. Kirchstein National Research Service Award, NICHD
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Courses Recently Taught
Undergraduate
HDF 305 – Health and Health Behaviors across the Life Span
HDF 371 – Adolescent Development
Graduate
HDF 380k.2 – Foundational Statistics
HDF 380k.4 – Advanced Regression and Structural Models (SEM)
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In Fall 2021, we will be collecting surveys and daily diary data from a sample of 450 adolescent participants. For daily diaries, research assistants will recruit adolescent participants, monitor daily diary participation, and ensure daily diary compliance. For surveys, research assistants will conduct follow-ups to encourage participation and enter and clean survey data as needed. Research assistants will receive comprehensive training to build their skills and competencies in collection of biomarker and health data, which will be collected during home visits in Spring 2022 (pending pandemic status). Once trained, during home visits, pairs of research assistants will collect participants blood pressure, height, weight, waist circumference, and blood spots. At these home visits, research assistants also will train participants to collect their saliva and use the ecological momentary assessment wearable device (E4 device).
Research assistants will also participate in other lab-related research tasks, including data cleaning and coding, data management organization, data analysis, Google streetview coding, and other tasks as needed. Research assistants for the project need to be comfortable speaking with students and their parents.
Spanish language proficiency is definitely a plus!
See: http://sites.utexas.edu/projectlibra/
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