Vonnie McLoyd

Vonnie C. McLoyd, Ph.D.
Senior Research Scientist, CHGD;
Professor of Psychology, College of LS&A

Vonnie McLoyd is a developmental psychologist whose research focuses on the impact of economic hardship on family processes, children’s mental health, and beliefs about personal efficacy. In her most recent work, four basic issues are examined:

1) the effects of maternal job and income loss and unemployment on the mental health of single African-American mothers and their adolescent children (e.g., anxiety, depression, somatic symptoms);

2) the influence of social support, parenting, the quality of the mother-child relationship, and family decision-making on adolescents' response to maternal job and income loss and unemployment;

3) the effects of maternal job and income loss and unemployment on adolescents' achievement behavior and expectations; and

4) the relationship of adolescents' causal attributions about economic hardship to their achievement behavior, values and expectations.