Marinda K. Harrell-Levy

About

Marinda Kathryn Harrell-Levy is an Associate Professor in Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State Brandywine. She holds B.S. degrees in Sociology and Political Science from the University of Maryland, and both her M.S. and Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies from Auburn University. Her research primarily focuses on adolescent development within the context of close adult relationships, specifically examining identity development processes that occur within relationships with parents and teachers. She investigates the risk and protective factors present in teens' home and school environments that influence their later identity development, with an emphasis on fostering positive social, academic, and health outcomes among ecologically and developmentally vulnerable adolescents. Recently, her research has explored the intersection between adolescent identity formation and teachers’ mentoring and pedagogical processes in the classroom. In addition to conducting basic research, Dr. Harrell-Levy has been involved in evaluating the effectiveness of relationships education for adolescents, including educating parents and teachers to communicate effectively with adolescents about healthy relationships. She regards teaching as a critical responsibility and employs a transformative approach aimed at the overall development of her students, engaging them in thoughtful learning processes both inside and outside the classroom to model transformative action in the…

Selected publications

• Practices of Exemplary Transformative Teachers, as Perceived by Students Transformed by an Urban High School Social Justice Course

  The Urban Review · 2016-02-10 · 13 citations

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• ‘Minds Were Forced Wide Open’: Black adolescents’ identity exploration in a transformative social justice class

  Education Citizenship and Social Justice · 2016-01-14 · 12 citations

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  Theories imply that transformative teaching influences positive identity development, but empirical studies of this relationship are sparse. It is clear that good teaching can positively influence youth; however, it is less clear how good teachers influence positive identity outcomes in youth, and in particular Black youth. We examined the identity exploration of 13 former Black students of a high school transformative social justice class. Drawing from a larger qualitative study that addressed…

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• Sociopolitical efficacy as a mediator of pedagogical experience and sociopolitical involvement

  Citizenship Social and Economics Education · 2018-07-13 · 6 citations

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  Discourse on youth development has only begun to explore how Black youth experience courses intended to result in their sociopolitical development. The present study examined the link between pedagogical experience in a culturally relevant class and sociopolitical involvement and tested the mediating role of sociopolitical efficacy. Cross-sectional data were collected from 278 Black, former students of a mandatory high school course, called Social Justice. Pedagogical experience, sociopolitical…

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• Racial Diversity or Cultural Safety?: Utilizing Social Identity to Understand the Choice of Racially Segregated Neighborhoods among Middle Class African-Americans

  Identity · 2019-04-03 · 4 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Adding to a growing body of work on the psychology of neighborhood choice, the present research examined middle class black attitudes regarding owning homes in majority white and majority black communities. The principal source consisted of interviews with 35 black middle class homeowners which were subjected to narrative analysis to identify (i) whether and to what extent participants identified with the county in which they lived; (ii) features of their perceived experience responsible for any…

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• The lived experience of adolescent mother trauma survivors: A narrative approach

  Journal of Community Psychology · 2020-02-18 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  The present study is a qualitative exploration of the link between earlier trauma and adolescent mother identity. We examined whether the mothers in our study formed an identification with other adolescent mothers, why or why not, and whether that identity (or lack thereof) was influenced by earlier traumatic experience. Fourteen residents of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, who became mothers between the ages of 14 and 19 (four White, seven African American, two Latina, and one Multiracial) parti…

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