The Collective Lab

About

At The Collective, we look beyond the individual to understand and remedy mental health disparities. Our lab examines how social context can contribute to and protect against severe psychopathology, explicitly focusing on depression and suicide among vulnerable populations.

We study how structural and sociocultural phenomena affect mental health disparities. We use this knowledge to inform the adaptation and implementation of evidence-based interventions in mental health service settings that reach underserved youth.

Research Areas

Identity Disparities Exist in Context

Decades of research have exposed mental health disparities based on identity characteristics, including race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and income. It has become increasingly clear that identity characteristics are a proxy for social determinants of mental health, such as experiencing discrimination.

Our lab studies how interpersonal discrimination contributes to greater problems related to depression and suicide. We are especially interested in applying an intersectionality framework to understand further how discrimination may impact these mental health outcomes among sexual minority people of color.

Help-Seeking is Relational

Relationships and social context deeply impact mental health. We study how sociocultural context and cultural orientation can influence views about help-seeking.

Our recent research examines how to implement evidence-based interventions that mobilize naturalistic social support (e.g., SAFETY-A, Motivational Interviewing) within non-specialty mental health service settings. We are interested in how cutting-edge technology can be leveraged to support implementation at scale.

Our current work focuses on mental health helplines and schools that reach youth or young adults from underserved communities.