Francheska C. Alers Rojas
- Assistant Professor
- Human Development & Family Sciences
Accepting doctoral students to start in Fall 2025.
Contact Information
Biography
Since 2023, Alers-Rojas has served as on the faculty in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences. Prior to that, Alers-Rojas served as a postdoctoral fellow and as an associate in the Provost’s Early Career Fellow, also at The University of Texas at Austin.
Research
Central to my scholarship is a deceptively simple question: What helps adolescents, especially from minoritized backgrounds, do well? I examine individual, familial, contextual, and cultural factors that promote youth development, particularly among Latinx adolescents. My research draws from resilience and strength-based approaches and employs daily diary, interviews, secondary data analyses, and survey methodologies, among others, to investigate the impact of contextual risks (e.g., discrimination, exposure to community violence, family stress) on adolescents' behavioral and psychological well-being. A second stream of research incorporates biological markers (e.g., cortisol) of and physiological responses (e.g., sleep) to distress to better understand the underlying mechanisms that promote or hinder minoritized youth development. Additionally, news project qualitatively examines Black and Latina women's experiences with infertility and multiple dimensions of violence on Mexican college students.
Research Areas
- Human Development
- Culture, Inequality or Resilience
- Relationships, Families and Youth
Fields of Interest
- Adolescence and Young Adulthood
- Child and Adolescent Health
- Contexts of Human Development
- Diversity and Culture
- Parenting & Caregiving
- Statistics
Centers and Institutes
- Population Research Center
Education
- Ph.D., Developmental Psychology, University of Michigan, Latina/o Studies Graduate Certificate
- J.D., University of Puerto Rico Law School
- B.A., Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus
Publications
Peer-Reviewed Publications
- Benner, A. D., Alers-Rojas, F., *López, B. A., & Chen, S. (2024). “Some people will tell jokes to you; some people be racist:” A mixed-method examination of racist jokes and adolescents’ well-being. Child Development, 00, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.14095
- Alers-Rojas, F., Ceballo, R., Cranford, J. A., Esqueda, A. P., & Troncoso, S. C. (2024). Adolescents' exposure to community violence and associations with after-school activities across two samples. Journal of Adolescence, 96, 659–675. https://doi.org/10.1002/jad.12290
- Benner, A. D., Alers-Rojas, F., Su Yeong, K., Hou, Y., & Coulter, K.M. (2023) COVID-19 anti-Chinese discrimination, current pandemic stress, and adolescents’ mental health. Journal of Ethnic and Racial Health Disparities. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-023-01663-w
- Mora, A. S., Muñoz-Velázquez, J., Alers-Rojas, F., Ceballo, R., & Cranford, J. A. (2023). Understanding Latina/o adolescents’ intersectional experiences of discrimination. Journal of Latinx Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/lat0000234
- Ceballo, R., Alers‐Rojas, F., Mora, A. S., & Cranford, J. A. (2022). Exposure to community violence: Toward a more expansive definition and approach to research. Child Development Perspectives, 16(2), 96-102. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12448
- Jocson, R. M., Ceballo, R., Alers-Rojas, F., & Cranford, J. A. (2021). Examining mother’s exposure to violence: How does it influence young adolescents? Child & Youth Care Forum. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-021-09665-7
- Chen, S., Alers-Rojas, F., Benner, A. D., & Gleason, M. E. J. (2021). Daily experiences of discrimination and adolescents’ sleep: The moderating role of social support. Journal of Research on Adolescence. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12693
- Ceballo, R., Cranford, J. A., Alers-Rojas, F., Jocson, R. M., & Kennedy, T. M. (2021). What happens after school? Linking Latino adolescents’ activities and exposure to community violence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01480-6
- Alers-Rojas, F., Jocson, R. M., Cranford, J. A., & Ceballo, R. (2020). Latina mothers’ awareness of their children’s exposure to community violence. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 42(3), 324343. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739986320927512
- Jocson, R. M., Alers-Rojas, F., Ceballo, R., & Arkin, M. (2018). Religion and spirituality: Benefits for Latino adolescents exposed to community violence. Youth and Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X18772714
- Cordova, D., Alers-Rojas, F., Lua, F. M., Bauermeister, J., Nurenberg, R., Ovadje, L., Fessler, K., Delva, J. Salas-Wright, C.P., & Youth Leadership Council (2016). The usability and acceptability of an adolescent mHealth HIV/STI and drug abuse preventive intervention in primary care. Behavioral Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1080/08964289.2016.1189396
- Cordova, D., Bauermeister, J. A., Fessler, K., Delva, J., Nelson, A., Nurenberg, R., Lua, F. M., Alers-Rojas, F., Salas-Wright, C. P., & Youth Leadership Council (2015). A community-engaged approach to developing an mHealth HIV/Sexually transmitted infections and drug abuse preventive intervention for primary care: A qualitative study. JMIR mHealth uHealth, 3(4). https://doi.org/10.2196/mhealth.4620
Manuscripts Under Review
- Coulter, K.M., Benner, A.D., Alers-Rojas, F., & **Harrington, M. (2024). The co-development of ethnic identity and future orientation among racially/ethnically minoritized adolescents: A parallel process model.
- Alers-Rojas, F., *Lattao, J., & Benner, A.D. The health consequences of racial and language discrimination for Asian American youth.
- Alers-Rojas, F., & Ceballo, R. (2023). A daily diary study of Latino adolescents’ communication about family stress.
Manuscripts in Preparation
- Alers-Rojas, F. & García-Coll, C. Final thoughts and future directions in the study of Latinx youth. In R. Ceballo & D. Rivas-Drake (Eds.), Growing up Latinx in the land of liberty: Drawing on community and culture to face contextual challenges. Oxford.
- Alers-Rojas, F., Mora, A., & Davila, **Sydni Alyse. An actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) of Mexican rural parent’s and children’s exposure to community violence: The moderating role of parent-child communication.
- Mora, A. & Alers-Rojas, F. Linking rape myths to gender-based harassment and psychological well-being among Mexican adults.
- Benner, A.D. & Alers-Rojas, F. Adolescents’ academic stress, sleep, and the moderating role of family support.
- McBride, M., Alers-Rojas, F., & Ceballo, R. Links between community-based factors, neighborhood belonging, and psychological well-being among Latino adolescents.