About

Teresa LaFromboise is a counseling psychologist by training and a professor of education in Developmental and Psychological Sciences at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Her research has focused on efforts of non-dominant racial and ethnic groups to thrive in the face of adversity, including challenges related to acculturation, discrimination, and major life events. She has extensive experience in developing and testing school and community-based psychological interventions with American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) adolescents, exemplified by the American Indian Life Skills Curriculum (AILS). LaFromboise maintains long-standing collaborations with tribal communities concerning AIAN mental health and education. She contributes to the Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health at the University of Colorado School of Public Health and the Child Health Research Institute at Stanford University School of Medicine. In addition to her clinical work with AIAN populations, she directs the Native American Studies program at Stanford's Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity. LaFromboise has held leadership roles including past-President of the Society of Indian Psychologists and the Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race within the American Psychological Association. She is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and serves as an advisor on research projects related to Native American mental health and food security among early adolescents.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Psychology
• Social psychology
• Demography
• Pedagogy
• Law
• Nursing
• Gender studies
• Environmental health
• Medicine
• Psychiatry
• Gerontology
• Developmental psychology
• Public relations
• Anthropology

Selected publications

• Indigenous Language Liberation: Exploration of Heritage Languages as Sociocultural Sources of Psychological Resilience

  Journal of Language Identity & Education · 2025-12-08

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Ethnic Racial Identity Development and Self-Esteem among Native American Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Peer Belonging

  American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research · 2024-05-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  While ethnic racial identity (ERI) development is associated with a variety of psychological well-being outcomes, the mechanisms through which this association operates is yet to be fully explained. During adolescence, social belonging is a developmentally salient process that can play a key role in how ERI impacts well-being. We sought to explore the mediating role of belonging to peer networks in the association between ERI and self-esteem among Native American adolescents. In this cross-sectional, mediational study, we used survey data from 317 Native American students attending a reservation high school (46.9% female; M age =16). Students' levels of ERI development were measured by combining items from two scales pertaining to ethnic identity development and racial identity. We employed a structural equation modeling approach to explore the mediating role of peer belonging in the association between ERI and self-esteem. Results suggest that our 4-item index of peer belonging was an acceptable measure of this construct. Further, the significant indirect effect of peer belonging explains a notable portion (β=.22, p ≤ .05) of the total effects of ERI on self- esteem (β=.54, p ≤ .05). This finding suggests that higher levels of ERI achievement contribute to higher levels of peer belongingness, which in turn lead to improved self-esteem among students. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

  PublisherDOI

• Effects of bicultural competence and racial identity on intrinsic motivation: The mediating role of belonging to Native American tribal colleges

  Contemporary Educational Psychology · 2023 · 7 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Psychology
  • Social psychology
  PublisherDOI

• Preventing Suicidal Behavior Among American Indian and Alaska Native Adolescents and Young Adults

  Public Health Reports · 2022 · 12 citations

  • Political Science
  • Gerontology
  • Medicine

  From 2009 to 2018, overall suicide rates in the United States increased by 20.3% and increased by 43.5% among non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities. Combining years 2009 through 2018, suicide rates per 100 000 population among non-Hispanic AI/AN adolescents and young adults aged 15 to 34 years were 2 to 4 times higher than those of adolescents and young adults of other races and ethnicities. An estimated 14% to 27% of non-Hispanic AI/AN adolescents attempted suicide during that time. The elevated rates of suicidal behavior among non-Hispanic AI/AN adolescents and young adults reflect inequities in the conditions that create health. In this topical review, we describe school-based educational efforts that are driven by local AI/AN communities, such as the American Indian Life Skills curriculum, that teach stress and coping skills and show promise in reducing suicidal ideation attempts and fatalities among AI/AN adolescents. Using a social-determinants-of-health lens, we review the availability and quality of employment as an important influencer of suicidal behavior, as well as the role of the workplace as an environment for suicide prevention in AI/AN communities. Working with tribal, state, local, and federal colleagues, the public health community can implement programs known to be effective and create additional comprehensive strategies to reduce inequities and ultimately reduce suicide rates.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The public psychology for liberation training model: A call to transform the discipline.

  American Psychologist · 2021 · 61 citations

  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Psychology

  Written against the backdrop of the 2020 twin pandemics of a global health crisis and greater national awareness of structural racism, this article issues a call for psychology to invest in training all psychologists to respond to the social ills of racial and other forms of oppression. We introduce a public psychology for liberation (PPL) training model. Essentially, the model reflects a science, a pedagogical commitment, and practice of, by, and with the people who have been most marginalized in society. The PPL consists of five foundational domains or cross-cutting areas of expertise (e.g., facilitate human relationships; generate reciprocal knowledge and translation) and 10 interrelated lifelong practices (e.g., cultural humility; care and compassion) that foster healing and equity. The model centers the perspectives of the Global Majority, focuses on radical healing and equity, and emphasizes a developmental, culturally grounded, strengths-based approach to training. Various training initiatives consistent with a public psychology for liberation approach are presented. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

  PublisherDOI

• John D. Krumboltz (1928–2019)

  The Counseling Psychologist · 2019-11-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health

  Current clinical psychiatry · 2019-01-01 · 2 citations

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• Preventing suicidal behavior in American Indian and Alaska Native communities : a health equity issue

  2019-03-19

  article
  Publisher

• Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale--13-Item Version

  PsycTESTS Dataset · 2018-01-01

  dataset
  PublisherDOI

• Conceptualizing School Belongingness in Native Youth: Factor Analysis of the Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale

  American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research · 2018-01-01 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access

  The Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM) scale is widely used to measure school belongingness among adolescents. However, previous studies identify inconsistencies in factor structures across different populations. The factor structure of the PSSM has yet to be examined with American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth, a population of keen interest given reports of their educational and health disparities, and the potential of belongingness as a protective factor against risk behaviors. Thus, this study examined the factor structure of the PSSM in two samples of AI adolescents (N = 349). The two main aims of this study were to 1) determine if a comparable factor structure exists between the two AI groups and 2) examine the factor structure of the PSSM for use in AI/AN populations. Randomization analysis was used to test research aim one, and exploratory factor analysis was used to test research aim two. Analyses revealed that comparable factor structures existed based on responses from the two AI groups. Analyses also identified two factors: school identification/peer support and connection with teachers. Moreover, negatively worded statements were found to be unreliable and were removed from the final scale, reducing the PSSM to 13 items. Findings from this study will assist researchers and clinicians with assessing sense of school belongingness in AI/AN adolescents and with appropriately interpreting aspects of belongingness for this population.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Joseph E. Trimble

  7 shared

• Dolores Subia BigFoot

  6 shared

• Beth Howard-Pitney

  6 shared

• Wayne Rowe

  University of Oklahoma

  5 shared

• James Allen

  University of Alaska Fairbanks

  5 shared

• Dan R. Hoyt

  University of Nebraska–Lincoln

  5 shared

• Hardin L. K. Coleman

  Boston University

  5 shared

• Joseph P. Gone

  Harvard University Press

  4 shared

Awards & honors

• Fellow of Divisions 17, 35, and 45 of the American Psycholog…
• Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science
• Past-President of the Society of Indian Psychologists
• Past-President of the Society for the Psychological Study of…
• Past-President of the Section on Alaska Native, Native Ameri…