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Margaret Beale Spencer
GSE Board of Overseers Professor of Education and Psychology
Professor of Psychology (Arts and Sciences, Psychology Dept.)
Director, Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Development Program
Director, Center for Health Achievement Neighborhoods Growth and Ethnic Studies (CHANGES)
Director, W.E.B. Du Bois Collective Research Institute
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Education
B.S., Temple University, School of Pharmacy
M.A., University of Kansas, Department of Psychology
Ph.D., Committee on Human Development, University of Chicago
(Child and Developmental Psychology Program)
Areas of Expertise
At-risk youth
Child and youth development
Resiliency and social-emotional development
Race and urban education
Professional Biography
Dr. Spencer received a Ph.D. in Child and Developmental
Psychology from the University of Chicago. Prior to joining Penn GSE as the
Board of Overseers Professor in 1993, she was a full professor at Emory
University (1977 to 1993). Her adolescent-focused research addresses
resiliency, identity, and competence formation processes of African-American,
Hispanic, Asian-American, and Euro-American youth. The current emphasis on
multi-ethnic youth evolves from a longstanding interest in the development of
African-American and particularly male children and youth who grow up in
low-economic resource families and communities. Specifically, her research and
programming applications explore youths’ emerging capacity for healthy outcomes
and constructive coping methods while developing under generally unacknowledged
and highly stressful conditions. She has published approximately 100 articles
and chapters since 1973, completed three edited volumes, and received funding
for more than three dozen research proposals from foundations and federal
agencies. She has contractual relationships with several service delivery
agencies that provide mental health services to highly vulnerable youth. Dr.
Spencer serves on several editorial boards and national committees and is a
trustee of the Foundation for Child Development. She is the recipient of
numerous awards, including Fellow status of Divisions 1, 7, 15, and 45 of the
American Psychological Association. Most recently, she was awarded the 2006
Fletcher Fellowship, which recognizes work that furthers the broad social goals
of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954. In
2005 she received the Senior Career Award for Distinguished Contributions to
Psychology in the Public Interest.
Research Interests and Current Projects
Current work includes data analysis of findings from a
randomized trial that explores the efficacy of monetary incentive-based
programming for high-achieving (A/B grade average) and low-achieving (C/D grade
average) students in Trenton and Philadelphia secondary schools; neighborhood
assessments as linked to the psychological well-being of youth; training
service providers to utilize more human development sensitive strategies; and
an investigation of the psychosocial functioning of youth in residential
juvenile care facilities and predictors of recidivism is currently underway.
Information about this research is available at W.E.B. Du Bois Collective
Research Institute and CHANGES.
Courses Taught
EDUC 560: Human Development
EDUC 561: Adolescent Development
EDUC 574: Race/Ethnicity and Human Development
EDUC 860: Interdisciplinary Studies of Human Development
Proseminar
EDUC 960: Advanced Topics in Human Development
Selected Publications
Brookins, G.K. & Spencer, M.B. (Eds.) (in press).
Handbook of race, ethnicity and human development: A multidisciplinary
approach. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.
Spencer, M. B., Fegley, S. G., Seaton, G., & Harpalani,
V. (in press). Coping in context: A theory-driven analysis of adolescent males’
behavioral responses to risk. Research in Human Development.
Fegley, S. G., Spencer, M. B., Goss, T. N., Harpalani, V.,
& Charles, N. (in press). Bodily self- awareness: Skin color and
psychosocial well-being in adolescence. In W. Overton & U. Mueller (Eds.),
Body in mind, mind in body: Developmental perspectives on embodiment and consciousness.
Mahwah, NJ: LEA Inc.
Spencer, M. B. & Harpalani, V. (in press). What does
“acting White” actually mean?: Racial identity, adolescent development, and
academic achievement among African American youth. In J. U. Ogbu (Ed.),
Minority status, collective identity and schooling. LEA Publishing Company.
Spencer, M. B. (2006). Phenomenology and ecological systems theory:
Development of diverse groups. In W. Damon and R. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of Child Psychology (Theory Volume) (6 th ed.). New York: Wiley Publishers.
Spencer, M. B., Harpalani, V., Cassidy, E., Jacobs, C., Donde, S.,
Goss, T., Miller, M.-M., Charles, N., & Wilson, S. (2006).
Understanding vulnerability and resilience from a normative development
perspective: Implications for racially and ethnically diverse youth. In
D. Chicchetti (Ed.), Handbook of Development and Psychopathology. Spencer,
M.B., Noll, E., & Cassidy, E., (2005). Monetary incentives in
support of academic achievement: results of a randomized field trial
involving high-achieving, low-resource, ethnically diverse urban
adolescents. Evaluation Research.
Spencer, M.B., & Harpalani, V. (2004). Nature, nurture, and the
question of “How?” A phenomenological variant of ecological systems
theory. In C. Garcia-Coll, K. Kearer, & R. Lerner (Eds.), Nature and nurture: The complex interplay of genetic and environmental influences on human behavior and development. Mahwah, NJ.
Spencer, M. B., & Jones-Walker. (2004). Interventions and
services offered to former juvenile offenders re-entering their
communities: An analysis of program effectiveness. In Journal of Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 2 (1).
Cunningham, M., Swanson, D. P., & Spencer, M. B. (2003). Black
males' structural conditions, achievement patterns, normative needs and
opportunities. Urban Education, 38, 608-603.
Cunningham, M., Swanson, D. P., Spencer, M. B. & Dupree, D.
(2003). The association of physical maturation with family hassles in
African American adolescent males. Journal of cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology.
Lee, C, Spencer, M.B., & Harpalani, V. (2003). Every shut eye ain't sleep: Studying how people live culturally. Educational Leadership Journal, 32 (5), 6-13.
Spencer, M.B., Fegley, S., & Harpalani, V. (2003). A theory and
empirical examination of identity as coping: Linking coping resources
to the self processes of African American youth. Journal of Applied Developmental Science, 7 (3), 180-187.
Spencer, M.B., Dupree, D., Cunningham, M., Harpalani, V., &
Munoz-Miller, M. (2003). Vulnerability to violence: A
contextually-sensitive, developmental perspective on African American
adolescents. Journal of Social Issues, 59 (1), 33-49.
Swanson, D.P., Spencer, M. B., Harpalani, V., Dupree, D., Noll, E.,
Ginzburg, S., & Seaton, G. (2003). Psychosocial development in
racially and ethnically diverse youth: Conceptual and methodological
challenges in the 21 st century. Development and Psychopathology, 15, 743-771.
Allen, W.R., Spencer, M.B., & O'Connor, C. (2002). African American education: Race community, inequality and achievement – A tribute to Edgar G. Epps. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Science.
Fisher, C.B., Hoagwood, K., Boyce, C., Duster, T., Frank, D.,
Grisso, T., Levine, R.J., Macklin, R., Spencer, M.B., Takanishi, R.,
Trimble, J.E., & Zayas, L.H. (2002, December). Research ethics for
mental health science involving ethnic minority children and youths. American Psychologist 57 (12), 1024-1040.
Swanson, D.P., Spencer, M.B., Dell'Angleo, T., Harpalani, V., &
Spencer, T. (2002). Identity processes and the positive youth
development of African Americans: An explanatory framework. In Noam
(Series Ed.) & C.S. Taylor, R.M. Lerner, & A. von Eye (Vol.
Eds.), New directions for youth development: Theory, practice and research: Pathways to positive youth development among gang and non-gang youth: Vol. 95. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Spencer, M.B., Silver, L.J., Seaton, G., Tucker, S.R., Cunningham,
M., & Harpalani, V. (2001). Race and gender influences on teen
parenting: An identity-focused cultural-ecological perspective. In T.
Urdan & F. Pajares (Eds.), Adolescence and education: General issues in the education of adolescents (pp. 231–268). Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.
Spencer, M.B., Noll, E., & Stoltzfus, J., & Harpalani, V.
(2001). Identity and school adjustment: Revisiting the “acting White”
assumption. Educational Psychologist, 36 (1), 21–30.
Spencer, M.B. (1999). Social and cultural influences on school
adjustment: The application of an identity-focused cultural ecological
perspective. Educational Psychologist, 34 (1), 43–57.
Spencer, M.B., Dupree, D., & Hartmann, T. (1997). A
phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST): A
self-organization perspective in context. Development and Psychopathology, 9, 817–833.
Spencer, M.B. (1995). Old issues and new theorizing about African
American youth: A phenomenological variant of ecological systems
theory. In R.L. Taylor (Ed.), Black youth: Perspectives on their status in the United States (pp. 37–69). Westport, CT: Praeger.
Spencer, M.B., & Markstrom-Adams, C. (1990). Identity processes among racial and ethnic minority children in America. In Child Development 61 (2), 290–310.
Spencer, M.B. (& McLoyd V.) (1990). Special issue (minority child development). Child Development, 61 (2), Entire Issue.
Spencer, M.B., (Brookins, G.K., & Allen, W.R.) (Eds.). (1985). Beginnings: Social and affective development of Black children. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
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