Andrea J. Romero

Associate Professor
Hispanic Departments of Family Studies & Human Development
Mexican American and Raza Studies
University of Arizona

Andrea J. Romero, Ph.D., is an associate professor with joint appointments in the Departments of Family Studies & Human Development, and Mexican American and Raza Studies at the University of Arizona. In addition, she has affiliated positions in the psychology department, Latin American studies, women’s studies, and public health. She received her doctorate in social psychology from the University of Houston in 1997 with a minor in quantitative methods. She then worked at Stanford University in the Stanford Center for Research and Disease Prevention for two and a half years on prevention of obesity and substance use among minority children.

Dr. Romero has focused her research career on understanding cultural strengths of ethnic minority adolescents and how they relate to health disparities. She has published several articles that investigate the risk and protective factors embedded in families, ethnic identity, discrimination and neighborhoods. Her research demonstrates that although discrimination can increase stress and has a negative impact on adolescent mental health and risky behaviors, adolescents with a strong ethnic identity seem to fare better. Dr. Romero has also found that stronger values of familism are associated with more parental monitoring and fewer risky behaviors among Latino adolescents. A central element of Dr. Romero’s research approach is that of participatory action research, which is done in dialogue and collaboration with community members.

Over the past 10 years, Dr. Romero has been working with the South Tucson Prevention Coalition to address underage drinking and prevention of HIV/AIDS. She conducts professional reviews for the National Institutes of Health, Ford Foundation, and several peer reviewed journals. Dr. Romero has received federal funded grants to conduct research on substance use and HIV prevention programs for middle school-aged Latino adolescents. She advocates for equal rights at her institution of higher education as a leader of the Association for Women Faculty, the Diversity Coalition, and the Minority Women Faculty. Dr. Romero continues to be active in the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies and in the National Latino/a Psychological Association.