CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Brendesha Tynes, a professor of educational psychology and of African American studies at the University of Illinois, has been awarded a $1.4 million grant to study the effects of online racial discrimination. The grant is from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Tynes' project, "Racial Discrimination in Online Contexts: Its Impact on Adolescent Adjustment Over Time," aims to study the risk and protective factors associated with online racial discrimination across racial and ethnic groups, and to qualitatively assess its nature and consequences.
As young people spend increasing amounts of time online and experience racial discrimination, Tynes seeks to examine the cultural resources adolescents have that may buffer against the negative psychological, behavioral and academic outcomes typically associated with these experiences.
Her research team comprises co-investigators David Williams, of Harvard University; Adriana Umaña Taylor, of Arizona State University; Kimberly Mitchell, of the University of New Hampshire; and Carolyn Anderson, of the U. of I.
As part of the National Institutes of Health, the NICHD supports and conducts research on topics related to the health of children, adults, families and populations.