I am a social scientist / research methodologist of Project Mosaic and lead the consulting service and the workshop program of the unit. I am also a faculty in the College of Education teaching graduate courses in Applied Statistics.

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Featured Research

Addressing the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Examining Micro- and Macro-Level Variables that Affect School Disengagement and Subsequent Felonies (Susan McCarter, Kailas Venkitasubramanian, Katherine Bradshaw)

We examine the School-to-Prison Pipeline by identifying individual legal and extra-legal variables and school-level factors that predict juvenile/criminal justice involvement using 2006-2012 matched data from the education and justice systems. The role of school disengagement is also assessed, measuring unexcused absences that follow suspensions in the previous academic year.Our findings suggest that addressing the school-to-prison pipeline will require focus on more than individual-level behaviors (school disengagement and school-based offenses) and attention to the impact of extra-legal variables and systemic implicit bias.

Status: In Press (Journal of Social Service Research)

Does rejection sensitivity affect the severity of substance abuse? Evidence from North Carolina (Christie Nelson, Kailas Venkitasubramanian)

Rejection sensitivity (RS) is cognitive-affective processing disposition that undermines how one relates to the world. Prior rejection experiences are hypothesized to lead people to form insecure working models of relationships that set the stage for how they behave in their subsequent relationships and orientation to the world. RS has been correlated to poor quality of adult attachment. Although attachment-related processes have been linked to both adult RS and adult problematic substance use, there is yet to be a determination of the link between RS and substance use in adults. We investigate this link. 

Status: Working Paper