Jane Leer, Ph.D.

Bio

Jane Leer is an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at San Diego State University. Her research aims to understand and mitigate inequities in youth mental health and education outcomes by focusing on context (e.g., contexts of race and class inequities in schools and neighborhoods, social policies of housing assistance and family support services). She has two main lines of research:

(1) How do neighborhood, school, and family contexts shape developmental processes such as youth mental health, academic engagement, and social cognition (e.g., beliefs about inequality, aspirations and expectations for social mobility)?

(2) How can social policies that aim to alter these contexts more equitably serve diverse populations and mitigate poverty and racism-related inequities?

She uses a variety of methods, including causal inference analyses of linked survey, Census, and large-scale administrative data, impact evaluations of social policies and programs (e.g., natural experiments, field experiments), and qualitative methods.

Jane Leer’s work is informed by her unique interdisciplinary training and community-based research experience in the US, Latin America, and West Africa. Her research has been published in leading journals including Child Development, Developmental Psychology, and the Journal of Early Adolescence.

She has received generous funding from internal and external agencies, such as the American Psychological Association, the Society for Research in Child Development, and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.