Margaret Rosario

Margaret Rosario is a health psychologist who studies the development of sexual identity and health disparities associated with sexual orientation. Rosario was President of the American Psychological Association (APA) Division 44, the Society for Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, from 2017-2018. Rosario received the APA Division 44 Award for Distinguished Contributions to Ethnic Minority Issues in 2008 and the Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions in 2012, as well as the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award in 2021.

Rosario is Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the City University of New York––City College of New York and the CUNY Graduate Center, and is Director of the CUNY Health and Identity Lab.

Biography
Rosario received her B.A. degree in Psychology at Princeton University in 1975. She attended graduate school at New York University where she obtained her master's degree in 1983 and her Ph.D in Psychology in 1985. Her dissertation titled "Acculturation: Its causes and psychological symptom effects in Puerto Rican women" was supervised by Marybeth Shinn.

Rosario completed postdoctoral training at the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1991. Rosario is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. She has served as the Associate Editor of the Journal of Sex Research and Annals of LGBTQ Public and Population Health.

Rosario's research focuses on biopsychosocial factors associated with health disparities, including substance use. Her team seeks to understand people's strengths and vulnerabilities that may directly or indirectly influence mental and physical health outcomes. Rosario's work examines how cultural and race/ethnic, and other background characteristics potentially affect how members of the LGBTQ community experience themselves, including their sexual identity development and coming-out experiences. Her research on LGBTQ youth has been supported by the National Institutes of Mental Health.