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Intro

Dr. Rona Carter is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan. Dr. Carter is also an adjunct faculty member in the School of Social Work and an affiliated faculty member at the Center for the Study of Black Youth in Context, of Combined Program in Education and Psychology, and of Gender and Feminist Psychology. At the University of Michigan, Dr. Carter directs the Adolescent Interpersonal Relationships (AIR) Lab in the Developmental Area of the Psychology Department. Dr. Carter’s research broadly focuses on biological transitions, gender identity, ethnic-racial identity, relationships in the school context, peers, friendships, parent-early adolescent relationships.

Contents

Early life and education

Dr. Carter received her undergrad degree in Psychology and her master’s and doctoral training in Applied Developmental Psychology at Florida International University. Her post-doctoral training was completed at the Institute for Social Research and Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan where she later became a faculty member.

Dr. Carter is also a Limited Licensed Psychologist (LLP) and registered yoga teacher at Ann Arbor Counseling and Psychotherapy Practice. In her practice she works with youth aged 8-18 as well as young adults providing individuals and group therapy. Her practice focuses on issues of anxiety, depression, everyday stress, relationship concerns, biological transitions (e.g., puberty), and identity exploration and development. Dr. Carter is particularly passionate about working with and empowering youth and young adult members of the LGBTQ+ community through their exploration of identity.

Research

Dr. Carter’s research focuses on how biological transitions, primarily the pubertal transition, and interpersonal relations with peers, parents, and teacher influence girls’ academic and psychological outcomes. She also examines how intersecting identities of gender, ethnic-racial identity and social expectations shape girls’ interpersonal experiences in school.

Dr. Carter’s research has contributed greatly to the body of knowledge on off-time pubertal development. For example, developing earlier or later than an individual’s same-sex and age peers and its correlates (e.g., increased symptoms of depression, anxiety and delinquency behaviors. Dr. Carter’s most highly cited journal article examined pubertal timing and its association to behavioral and emotional problems among ‘at-risk’ African American adolescent girls (Carter et al., 2009). Within the puberty field she has been a leader in promoting more research in understudied populations. Dr. Carter was part of a special issue in the Journal of Adolescence on Perspectives on The Developmental Science of Puberty and contributed to a review paper Next Steps in Puberty Research: Broadening the Lens Toward Understudied Populations which advocated for more research on youth of color, boys, sexual minority youth, and gender minority youth (Deardorff et al., 2019).

Dr. Carter has many ongoing projects in the AIR Lab. The Family Dyad Study (Double Digits) examines how the pubertal transition influences the parent child relationship during early adolescence. This study considers how families respond to their budding adolescent and how that response shapes the adolescents experience of puberty as well as how the response contributes to family relations. This study uses both observational and qualitative methods to examine the interplay of adolescents’ development and the parent child relationships during puberty.

Other ongoing projects, the Peers and Puberty Study examines the effects of pubertal timing on youth psychosocial development and the influence of peer relations in these processes. This project uses secondary data sources to examine these relations. The Teachers and Puberty Study examines whether teacher’s have higher or lower expectations of early and later developing youth because they either appear older or younger. This study uses photo vignettes depicting girls in various scenarios and are rated by elementary-school teachers to assess their academic and behavioral expectations of each girl.

Public/Community Engagement

One way that Dr. Carter translates her work to the public is that she partners with Erickson Elementary School to provide education to 4th and 5th graders about the changes that come along with puberty as part of the Double Digits Study. This project engages young girls and their friends in different modules about the body, brain and mood changes to expect as they navigate the pubertal transition. This project also engages youth about their identity development such as what it means to be a girl, what it means to be Black, White or Latino/a and teaches them coping skills and making them aware of resources to help them make sense of the changes they are going through.

She was also invited to speak at the Ann Arbor Public Library’s “Exploring the Mind Series” where she delivered her talk “Every body is great: Body Positivity and Puberty” which focused on the role of gender and cultural norms and expectations in body satisfaction in girls.

Carter, R., Jaccard, J., Silverman, W. K., & Pina, A. A. (2009). Pubertal timing and its link to behavioral and emotional problems among ‘at-risk’ African American adolescent girls. Journal of Adolescence, 32(3), 467-481. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2008.07.005

Deardorff, J., Hoyt, L. T., Carter, R., & Shirtcliff, E. A. (2019). Next Steps in Puberty Research: Broadening the Lens Toward Understudied Populations. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 29(1), 133-154. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12402