Christia Spears Brown

Professor, developmental psychology, University of kentucky

Christia Spears Brown is a professor of developmental psychology at the University of Kentucky. Her research examines how children's and adolescents' academic, psychological, and social lives are shaped by the social groups they belong to. Specifically, her research focuses on children’s and adolescents’ perceptions of gender and racial/ethnic discrimination. This includes discrimination from teachers and coaches and sexual harassment. She has also examined discrimination faced by immigrant children and their parents, funded by the Foundation for Child Development and UK Center for Poverty Research. Prof. Spears Brown also examines the development of stereotypes, including children’s stereotypes about immigrants, Muslims, and children’s stereotypes about “typical" boys and girls. As part of this focus, Prof. Spears Brown also studies the stereotypes associated with and the consequences of sexual objectification of girls. Finally, her research examines how children understand social inequality and politics.  She has studied how children understand the overlap between race and poverty and recently worked on a multi-site study across the US, looking at how children understand the impact of gender on politics and their understanding of the political process. 

Tweet at Christia here: @universityofky