Erika Y. Niwa

Erika Y. Niwa is an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department and the Children and Youth Studies Program at Brooklyn College. She received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from New York University. Her work examines how culture and context shape the developmental pathways of children and young people, with a focus on inequality. Specifically, her research examines how cultural context, particularly ethnicity and race, shapes the social, emotional, and cognitive development of ethnically diverse youth and adolescents. Her research program focuses on three main areas: the impact of ethno-political violence and discrimination on social-cognitive and psychological adjustment among children and adolescents; the role of perceptions of opportunity and inequality in shaping academic, social, and psychological adjustment among adolescents; and the development of ethnic and racial identities.