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Dr. Laurie McCubbin
is an assistant professor in the department of Educational Leadership and Counseling Psychology at Washington State University. She received her Ph.D. in counseling psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a focus on multicultural counseling, and her master’s degree from Boston College in mental health counseling. Dr. McCubbin’s research interests and expertise include: risk and protective factors and resilience among people of color, cultural identity development, and multiracial family processes. She is the Chair for the Section on Ethnic and Racial Diversity for the Division of Counseling Psychology for the American Psychological Association. She has served as a community research consultant, serving Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Asian Americans, focusing on positive adaptation among children, adolescents, youth in foster care, and older adults. She is the author of several publications including “Kanaka Maoli: Native Hawaiians and Their Testimony of Trauma and Resilience” and “Culture and Ethnic Identity in Family Resilience: Dynamic Processes in Trauma and Transformation of Indigenous People.”
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Educational Leadership and Counseling Psychology
Laurie McCubbin
Pathways of Resilience in
Later Adulthood and Aging
Download a printable pdf
Dr. McCubbin’s research program flows from her work on the study of cultural resilience factors and their impact on psychological and physical functioning of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Her research will examine the interaction between critical periods in the life cycle, focusing on specific protective and recovery factors and processes which increase the probability of reducing and eliminating physical and mental health disparities among this understudied population.
Earlier investigations reveal risk factors in infancy, childhood, and adolescence (such as chronic poverty, prenatal stress, parental psychopathology and family dysfunction, disabilities, teenage pregnancy, incarceration, and drug abuse), turning points at critical time periods in early adulthood (ages from 17 to 30), and mediating factors such as ethnic identity, problem solving communication, and hardiness can lead to positive adaptation in midlife at age 40 (including family relationships, employment, life satisfaction and mental and physical health). Yet, in comparison to their high-risk peers, those youth deemed resilient in infancy, childhood, and adolescence may be more at-risk for stress-related physical and mental illnesses in adulthood. Preliminary analyses found that those youth deemed resilient by age 18 were twice as likely to suffer from stress-related health problems. The research focusing on pathways in overcoming adversity in infancy, childhood, and adolescence have yet to reveal resilient processes in later adulthood and aging.
Using and building on a longitudinal database from prenatal to age 40, Dr. McCubbin is developing a multi-method research protocol to follow a multiracial cohort through their 50s, 60s, and 70s to examine the aging processes and linking these pathways to predictors from birth, youth, adulthood and middle years in an effort to identify specific pathways to various physical and mental health outcomes. Dr. McCubbin’s previous research with these racial groups has found relationships between cultural resilience factors and lower levels of depression, anxiety, chronic pain, and higher levels of overall psychological and family wellbeing. Working with this unique cohort of baby boomer racial minorities can reveal effective pathways within racial groups (and by gender) and can identify critical factors and time periods across the lifespan for the prevention and intervention of physical and mental illnesses in later adulthood.
Contact Information
Laurie McCubbin, Ph.D
Assistant Professor
Educational Leadership and Counseling Psychology
PO Box 642136
Pullman, WA 99164-2136
Telephone: 509-335-2816
E-mail: mccubbin@wsu.edu |
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