Faculty Directory

**Professor Coley is looking for new doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars to join her new research grants. Students interested in multi-methods policy-relevant research, particularly those with experience working with racially diverse populations and with Spanish, Cantonese or Mandarin language skills, are particularly encouraged to apply.**

2021-2026 | Targeting Health Disparities through Housing Redevelopment: A Natural Experiment of Housing  Quality,Stability, and Economic Integration. (NIH/NIMHD). Principal Investigator. Multi-method natural experiment of public housing redevelopment to address whether improving housing quality, limiting external displacement, and creating mixed-income communities improves children's and adults' physical, mental, and behavioral health.

2021-2023 | Boston College Institute for Early Childhood Policy (Buffett Early Childhood Foundation). Principal Investigator and Director. Cross-disciplinary institute to increase training, research, and interdisciplinary collaboration in the realm of early childhood development, education, and policy.

2021-2023 | Strengths, Assets, and Receipt of Social Services as Protective Factors in the Relationship between Racial Bias and Maternal and Child Health and Developmental Outcomes.(Annie E Casey Foundation). Co-Investigator.  Assess how environmental racial bias is linked with maternal and child mental, behavioral, and health among Black families.

2021-2023 |  Impact Analysis of Flavor Restrictions and Tobacco 21 Policies on Youth Tobacco Use. (NIH/NCI ). Co-Investigator.  Examine the impact of state flavor restrictions and state and federal age 21 tobacco restriction policies on disparities in tobacco use among 14-24 year-old youth.

Resource and Stress Processes Underlying Economic Disparities in Early School Success (National Science Foundation). Principal Investigator. Combines longitudinal data on children’s development and family processes with geocoded data from numerous administrative data sources to delineate resource and stress processes underlying economic disparities in young children’s academic and behavioral success. 

ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course (Australian Research Council CE200100025). Co-Investigator. Collaborative research centre seeking to use evidence-based research to reduce intergenerational and long-term economic disadvantage and improve the life chances of poor children and families.

Moving Communities to Opportunity: Exploring Public Housing Redevelopment as a Strategy for Addressing Structural Barriers to Economic Mobility (Russell Sage Foundation & Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). Principal Investigator. Quasi-experimental analysis of whether redeveloping public housing into mixed-income communities affect community resources, stressors, and concentrated disadvantage.

Paternal Influence on Children’s Weight Outcomes (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development). Co-Investigator. Uses longitudinal cohort data to examine predictors of fathers’ parenting behaviors and effects on children’s diet, nutrition, and healthy weight.

• Coley, R. L. & Baum, C. (2021). Trends in mental health symptoms, service use, and unmet need for services among US adults through the first nine months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Translational Behavioral Medicine. 
• Coley, R. L., Kruzik, C., Ghiani, M., Carey, N., Hawkins, S. S., & Baum, C. F. (2021).  Recreational marijuana legalization and adolescent use of marijuana, tobacco, and alcohol.  Journal of Adolescent Health, 69, 41-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.10.019
• Coley, R. L., Spielvogel, B., Kruzik, C., Miller, P., Betancur, L., & Votruba-Drzal, E. (2021). Explaining income disparities in young children’s development: The role of community contexts and family processes.  Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 55,  295-311. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2020.12.006
• Hawkins, S., Kruzik, C., O’Brien, M., & Coley, R. L. (2021). Flavored tobacco product restrictions in Massachusetts associated with reductions in adolescent cigarette and e-cigarette use. Tobacco Control. doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2020-056159
• O’Brien, M., Spielvogel, B. & Coley, R. L. (2021). Political to personal: Shifts in youths' beliefs following the 2016 U.S. presidential race and election. Journal of Research on Adolescence. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12673
• Coley, R. L., Kruzik, C. & Votruba-Drzal, E. (2020). Do family investments explain growing socioeconomic disparities in children’s reading, math, and science achievement during school versus summer months? Journal of Educational Psychology, 112(6), 1183–1196. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0000427
• Cook, K. D. & Coley, R. L. (2020). Using multiple methods to describe supports for the transition from Head Start to kindergarten. Early Childhood Education Journal. DOI 10.1007/s10643-020-01085-x
• Votruba-Drzal, E. Miller, P., Betancur, L., Spielvogel, B., Kruzik, C., & Coley, R. L. (2020). Family and community resource and stress processes related to income disparities in school-aged children’s development.  Journal of Educational Psychology. DOI 10.1037/edu0000589
• Teixeira, S., Hwang, D., Spielvogel, B., Cole, K., Coley, R.L. (2020).  Participatory Photo Mapping (PPM) to understand youths’ experiences in a public housing neighborhood preparing for redevelopment. Housing Policy Debate. https://doi.org/10.1080/10511482.2020.1741422
• Coley, R. L., Hawkins, S. S., Ghiani, M., Kruzik, C., & Baum, C. F. (2019). A quasi-experimental evaluation of marijuana policies on youth marijuana use. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 45, 292-303. http://doi.org/10.1080/00952990.2018.1559847
• Coley, R. L., Kruzik, C. & Votruba-Drzal, E. (2019). Do family investments explain growing socioeconomic disparities in children’s reading, math, and science achievement during school versus summer months? Journal of Educational Psychology. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0000427
• Coley, R. L., O’Brien, M., & Spielvogel, B. (2019). Secular trends in adolescent depressive symptoms: Growing disparities between advantaged and disadvantaged schools. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 48, 2087-2098. DOI: 10.1007/s10964-019-01084-1.
• Coley, R. L., Sims, J., Votruba-Drzal, E., & Thomson, D. (2019). The intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic inequality through school and neighborhood processes. Journal of Children and Poverty, 25, 79-100. https://doi.org/10.1080/10796126.2019.1616165
• Coley, R. L., Spielvogel, B., & Kull, M. (2019). Concentrated poverty in preschools and children’s cognitive skills: The mediational role of peers and teachers. Journal of School Psychology, 76, 1-16 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2019.05.008
• Cook, K. D. & Coley, R. L. (2019). Coordination between Head Start and elementary schools to enhance children's kindergarten success. Early Education and Development, 30, 1063-1083. DOI: 10.1080/10409289.2019.1656318
• Lombardi, C. M., Coley, R. L., Sims, J., & Mahalik, J. (2019). Social norms, social connections, and sex differences in adolescent mental and behavioral health. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 28, 91-104. DOI:10.1007/s10826-018-1253-7 
• Miller, P., Votruba-Drzal, E., & Coley, R. L. (2019). Poverty and academic achievement across the urban to rural landscape: Associations with community resources and stressors. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 5(2), 106-122. DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2019.5.2.06.
• Sims, J. & Coley, R. L. (2019). Variations in links between educational success and health: Implications for enduring health disparities. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. 25(1), 32-43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000239
• Coley, R. L., Sims, J., Dearing, E., & Spielvogel, B. (2018). Locating economic risks for adolescent well-being: Poverty and affluence in families, schools, and neighborhoods. Child Development, 89, 360-369. DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12771
• Coley, R. L., Spielvogel, B. & Sims, J. (2018). Are the benefits of economic resources for socioemotional functioning shared across racial and ethnic groups? Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 47, 2503–2520. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0900-z

Mavis Hetherington Award for Excellence in Applied Developmental Science, American Psychological Association 

Fulbright Senior Scholar Award Recipient

Social Policy Award, Society for Research in Adolescence 

Editor, Child Evidence Briefs

Co-Chair, Science and Social Policy Committee, Society for Research in Child Development

Steering Committee Member, University-Based Child and Family Policy Consortium

Steering Committee Member, Child Care and Early Education Policy Research Consortium

Consulting Editor, Child Development

Advisory Board Member, Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy