Jenny Padilla
William J. Shaw Center for Children and Families Assistant ProfessorFaculty Fellow of the Institute for Latino Studies

- Office
- 7 Center For Children & Families
South Bend, IN 46635 - jpadill5@nd.edu
Latino Adolescents, Siblings, and Families Lab
Professor Padilla is open to admitting graduate students for fall 2024 matriculation.
Research and teaching interests
Research: Latinx family relationships; siblings; cultural values; psychological adjustment; family systems -- Teaching: developmental psychology; families in context
Biography
Grounded in developmental, family systems, and cultural-ecological perspectives, Dr. Padilla's research focuses on families as a context of development and psychological adjustment, primarily in adolescence and young adulthood. With respect to the larger contexts of family systems dynamics, she is most interested in the role of sociocultural ecology. A major goal of her research is to advance understanding of the diversity of youth and family experiences within the Latinx population and larger family context factors as well as the cultural practices and values within families that impact family roles and relationships and youth well-being. To address questions about changes in multiple individuals, dyads, and larger family systems—within their changing contexts-- she is also interested in advance psychological research methods, particularly quantitative analytic approaches (e.g., multilevel models, actor-partner interdependence models, multitrait-multimethod confirmatory factor analysis) for capturing complex family dynamics. In working with longitudinal family data, she utilizes multilevel models to capture variation at the within-person, between-person, and between-family levels.
Education
Ph.D., M.A. The Pennsylvania State University
B.A. University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Representative Publications
Padilla, J., Vazquez, E. J., Updegraff, K. A., McHale, S. M., & Umaña-Taylor, A. J. (2020). "Mexican-origin youth’s ethnic-racial identity development: The role of siblings." Developmental Psychology, 57(2), 302-308. doi: 10.1037/dev0001072
Padilla, J., Jager, J., Updegraff, K. A., McHale, S. M., & Umaña-Taylor, A. J. (2020). "Mexican-origin family members’ unique and family perspectives of familism values and their links with parent-youth relationships." Developmental Psychology, 56(5), 993-1008. doi: 10.1037/dev0000913
Padilla, J., Sang, S., Updegraff, K. A., McHale, S. M., Umaña-Taylor, A. J., & Rodriguez, S. A. (2019). "Siblings’ appraisals of fairness and jealousy in response to parental differential treatment: Longitudinal links to Mexican-origin young adults’ adjustment." Emerging Adulthood. doi: 10.1177/2167696819851435.
Gallagher, A. M., Updegraff, K. A., Padilla, J., & McHale, S. M. (2018). "Longitudinal associations between sibling relational aggression and adolescent adjustment." Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 47(10), 2100-2113. doi: 10.1007/s10964-018-0871-0
Padilla, J., McHale, S. M., Rodríguez De Jesús, S. A., Updegraff, K. A., & Umaña-Taylor, A. J. (2017). "Longitudinal course and correlates of parents’ differential treatment of siblings in Mexican-origin families." Family Process, 57(4), 979-995. doi: 10.1111/famp.12328