Research Philosophy

My research aims on addressing disparities in adjustment and mental health outcomes among marginalized and vulnerable populations (i.e., sexual and gender minorities, families facing adverse life experiences, behaviorally at-risk adolescents/emerging adults). Having been raised and trained in a developing and resource-limited country and being a first-generation college graduate from a low-income family, I am passionate about interrogating individual and systemic factors that modulate or mitigate psychosocial concerns among the underserved and the “socially-invisible”. I view mental health as a public health issue and believe that a precursor to achieving health equity is establishing a knowledge base of what facilitates or hampers the myriad of pathways towards desirable health outcomes.

Likewise, I am interested in examining and harnessing the role of lay social support networks (LSSNs) such as family, peer, and the community in bridging gaps in access to mental health services. My appointment as assistant professor in human and family development studies at the University of the Philippines Los Baños, which is a graduate research university, has expanded my disciplinal orientation from that which highly concentrates on the role of personal/individual characteristics to that which also considers human ecological/systemic factors in examining psychological phenomena. My role as previous director for research, and now as director for education and training, at Balik Kalipay Center for Psychosocial Response, Inc., has strengthened my capabilities in networking with non-academe and community-based stakeholders, as well as, in conducting Participatory Action Research (PAR) in communities affected by natural (e.g., typhoons, earthquake) and anthropogenic disasters (e.g., armed conflict, extrajudicial killings due to the Drug War).

As someone who subscribes to the scientist-practitioner model, I am enthused by implementation sciences and the challenge of translating basic research into interventions that benefit people in underserved communities. In my previous research, I have explored psychological (e.g., hope, psychological resilience, social-emotional learning) and relational (e.g., family resilience, perceived social support) resources among adolescents and mothers, and their link to psychological distress, quality of life, and life satisfaction. My findings from these studies enabled me to design and co-implement mental health literacy and resilience-focused psychoeducation programs, which are still being used by partner organizations in the Philippines.

As someone who subscribes to multicultural and social justice philosophy, I am passionate about research and practice that consider contextual nuances, diversity, inclusion, and equity. Making mental health services more responsive to the needs of marginalized and vulnerable populations entails a solid understanding of identity processes, their relationship to unique needs of individuals and groups, and the unique patterns and sources of tangible and intangible resources that enable people deal with life’s challenges. Related to this, I have done research on the local conceptualization of mental health and resilience among Filipino adolescents and mothers in post-disaster communities and in the context of international labor migration, as well as mental health-related experiences among school-going adolescents and LGBTQ+ emerging adults at the height of Covid-19 pandemic.

Previously, I had the opportunity to work on large-scale research projects, mostly program evaluation, with Philippine government agencies such as the Department of Health and Department of Social Welfare Development, and with international humanitarian aid agencies such as ChildFund, WHO, and UNICEF, more broadly in areas of family development and mental health among households below the poverty threshold.

Currently, as I work towards my Ph.D. in Addictive Disorders and Recovery Studies at Texas Tech University (TTU), I am being prepared to be methodologically versatile in researching about addictive behaviors, more specifically, substance use behaviors and its psychosocial and behavioral consequences (e.g., sexual harms).

My doctoral research anchors on the minority stress model (Meyer, 1995, 2003), which suggests that disparate health and substance use outcomes can be attributed to additive stressors experienced by people of diverse sexual and gender identities due to their minority status (Meyer, 1995, 2003). The model further posits that proximal (i.e., person-level) and distal (i.e., institutional-/societal-level) factors aggravate psychological distress which eventually lead to negative mental health outcomes (Meyer, 1995, 2003). Even more particularly, my ongoing research is focused on sexual orientation and gender identity microaggression, or the subtle form of aggression experienced by sexual and gender minority people (Nadal et al., 2011a; Nadal et al 2011b) and which has recently been examined as a potential mechanism (e.g., Dyar et al., 2019; Livingston et al., 2017) explaining substance use outcomes. I believe that researching on minority stress processes will aid clinicians and policy-makers in making policy decisions or in developing substance use and mental health interventions that are more inclusive and equitable.

In my previous research involvements, I have employed an array of quantitative (e.g., general linear models), qualitative (e.g., grounded theory, case study, deductive qualitative analysis), and mixed (e.g., sequential/embedded designs) methods. I also find delight in using creative research techniques (e.g., Q-methodology, photo-voicing, indigenous research methods), and mentoring undergraduate students in research. I have conducted a variety of data collection strategies such as in-person/online surveys, key informant interviews, and focus groups. I desire to refine these skills and receive advanced training on these methodologies in my Ph.D. program. Prior to coming to TTU, I mainly ran statistical analyses using SPSS and JASP, but my recent training has honed my skills in using other statistical softwares such as MPlus and R. Moreover, my role as manager for the Center for Addiction Recovery Research enabled me to gain basic skills in working with psychophysiological measures (e.g., fNIR Devices, BIOPAC). I am fortunate to be in a research-intensive Ph.D. program, where we are provided with opportunities to work with our esteemed mentors in their respective research laboratories.

In the future, I intend to expand into intersectionality research, which factors in not only sexual and gender identity status but also other forms of identity statuses and processes and their interlink with substance use addiction and other health behaviors. Right now, I am committed to learning deeply the more sophisticated research and statistical methodologies (e.g., structural equation modeling, multilevel modeling, longitudinal analysis, psychometric theory) we are being taught in the Ph.D. program so I can employ them in the research projects that I will be doing later. Whenever there are opportunities, I am also dedicated in continuing to help my mentors write grants for funding agencies and implement their own research projects.

After earning my Ph.D., some research projects that I hope to implement are: (1) examining the intersectionality between race, gender, and socio-economic conditions in substance use consumption and recovery using ecological momentary assessment, (2) exploring microaggression experiences of minority individuals seeking/delivering substance use treatment, and (3) investigating individual- and family-level factors in microaggression experience and perpetration. Ultimately, with these, I hope to be able to continue engaging in ethical and sound scholarship in the intersecting fields of human and family development, counseling psychology, and addiction sciences.

References

• Dyar, C., Newcomb, M. E., & Mustanski, B. (2019b). Longitudinal associations between minority stressors and substance use among sexual and gender minority individuals. Drug and alcohol dependence, 201, 205–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2019.03.032
• Livingston, N. A., Flentje, A., Heck, N. C., Szalda-Petree, A., & Cochran, B. N. (2017). Ecological momentary assessment of daily discrimination experiences and nicotine, alcohol, and drug use among sexual and gender minority individuals. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 85(12), 1131–1143. https://doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000252.
• Meyer, I. H. (1995). Minority Stress and Mental Health in Gay Men. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 36(1), 38–56. https://doi.org/10.2307/2137286
• Meyer I. H. (2003). Prejudice, social stress, and mental health in lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations: conceptual issues and research evidence. Psychological bulletin, 129(5), 674–697. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.129.5.674
• Nadal, K. L., Issa, M., Leon, J., Meterko, V., Wideman, M., & Yinglee, W. (2011a). Sexual orientation microaggressions: “Death by a thousand cuts” for lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth. Journal of LGBT Youth, 8, 234–259.
• Nadal, K. L., Wong, Y., Issa, M., Meterko, V., Leon, J., & Wideman, M. (2011b). Sexual orientation microaggressions: Processes and coping mechanisms for lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals. Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling, 5, 21–46.