Jenny Padilla

Biography

Grounded in developmental, family systems, and cultural-ecological perspectives, Dr. Padilla's research focuses on families as a context of development and psychological adjustment, primarily in adolescence and young adulthood. With respect to the larger contexts of family systems dynamics, she is most interested in the role of sociocultural ecology. A major goal of her research is to advance understanding of the diversity of youth and family experiences within the Latinx population and larger family context factors as well as the cultural practices and values within families that impact family roles and relationships and youth well-being. To address questions about changes in multiple individuals, dyads, and larger family systems—within their changing contexts-- she is also interested in advance psychological research methods, particularly quantitative analytic approaches (e.g., multilevel models, actor-partner interdependence models, multitrait-multimethod confirmatory factor analysis) for capturing complex family dynamics. In working with longitudinal family data, she utilizes multilevel models to capture variation at the within-person, between-person, and between-family levels