Aprile Benner
- Professor
- Human Development & Family Sciences
- Human Ecology
Contact Information
Biography
After earning her Ph.D., she completed a one-year postdoctoral research position in Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She then completed a NICHD-funded Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA postdoctoral fellowship at the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). She is currently an associate professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at UT Austin.
Research
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.
Grant Funding
Principal Investigator, Biopsychosocial Pathways Linking Discrimination and Adolescent Health. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (2017-2023).
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. (2019-2023).
Prior Grant Funding
Principal Investigator, Discrimination and Achievement Disparities in Adolescence. National Science Foundation (2016-2021)
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)
Research Areas
- Relationships, Families and Youth
- Culture, Inequality or Resilience
Fields of Interest
- Adolescence and Young Adulthood
- Biobehavioral Processes and Health
- Contexts of Human Development
- Diversity and Culture
- Infancy and Childhood
Centers and Institutes
- Population Research Center
- Center on Aging and Population Sciences
Education
- Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
- M.S., Purdue University
- B.S., Vanderbilt University
Publications
Benner, A.D., *Fernandez, C.C., & **Limón, K. (2024). Shifting and persisting in the face of life stressors: Consequences for adolescent health. Applied Developmental Science.
Benner, A.D., *Alers-Rojas, Kim, S-Y., Hou, Y., & *Coulter, K. (2023). COVID-19 anti-Chinese discrimination, current pandemic stress, and adolescents’ mental health. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.
Benner, A.D., *Chen, S., *Fernandez, C.C., & Hayward, M.D. (2022). The potential for using a shortened version of the Everyday Discrimination Scale in population research with young adults: A construct validation investigation. Sociological Methods and Research.
Benner, A.D., Wang, Y., *Chen, S., & Boyle, A.E. (2022). Measurement considerations in the link beween racial/ethnic discrimination and adolescent well-being: A meta-analysis. Developmental Review, 64, 1-23.
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.
Awards
- 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