Margaret Beale Spencer
Margaret Beale Spencer is the Marshall Field IV Professor of Urban Education in the Department of Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago, and is an alumna of the Committee on Human Development. Before returning to Chicago, she was Director of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Health Achievement Neighborhood Growth and Ethnic Studies (CHANGES), and also guided as its director the W. E. B. Du Bois Collective Research Institute. Spencer's Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST) serves as the foundation for her gendered and race-ethnicity focused research emphasis, which addresses resiliency, identity, and competence formation processes for diverse youth both in the United States and abroad.
In addition to Spencer's ongoing program of research, she frequently collaborates with groups for the purpose of applying the research findings to settings having a stated mission or purpose which addresses youths' emerging capacity for healthy outcomes and constructive coping methods. Given that the basic evaluation research activities of intervention collaborations occur in challenging contexts, the outcomes of the collaborations have significant implications for understanding not just the "what" of human development but the "why" of particularly developmental trajectories. The life-course coping knowledge accrued, as a function of basic research as well as collaborative applications, together, promote new lines of basic scholarly inquiry. Thus, in addition to the ongoing basic research, as a recursive process, the outcomes of application opportunities have implications for Spencer's ongoing theory-building efforts. Her many publications include the most recent text, Adolescence: Development in a global era. London: Elsevier Publishers (with Swanson & Edwards, 2010).
Contact Information
mbspencer@uchicago.edu
Current Research Activities
Coping Processes and Opportunities of Youth in Charter School and Residential Care Settings
The basic research effort on adolescent coping processes and achievement includes two parallel collaborations representing similar populations of youth in mid-western Charter School and Residential Care settings. The parallel efforts include young people who come from similar neighborhood contexts although one group has been remanded to a residential care facility for obtaining extra support while the second group's challenges are associated with enrollment in a Charter School assumed to be viewed as a more supportive setting. The basic questions have to do with coping processes, which should afford insights about whether or not adolescents view these "enriched environments of support" are experienced as, indeed, psychologically and physically supportive. The phenomenological inquiry pursued, as a youth meaning-making exercise, is whether or not exogenously labeled support is experienced as, in fact, supportive.
Welfare Leavers Project
Analysis of data continues for a Leavers Study and collaborative effort with the Department of Public Welfare for an eastern state. Its purposes include gaining understanding of why families leave welfare recipient roles (i.e., from a policy perspective a status believed to be one of "support") when children and families remain in financially troubling situations.
NIMH Adolescent Data Base
Ongoing data analysis tasks stemming from NIMH, NSF and foundation sponsored longitudinal adolescent development data bases continue. Analytic tasks completed represent a current collaboration with Chapin Hall data analysts. Analyses are integrated into presentations and included in publications. Specifically, a Chapin Hall associated data analysis collaboration provides the data findings used for ongoing invited presentations, research papers, book projects, and conference contributions.s
Relevant Publications
Manuscripts (In-press)
Harpalani, V., Khalid, A. Q., Spencer, M.B. (expected 2011) Doll Studies, International Encyclopedia of Race and Ethnicity. W. Darity (Ed.)
Spencer, M. B. & Tinsley, B.,. (expected 2011). Educational preparation: Fostering the self-efficacy and resilience of urban adolescent youth. International Encyclopedia of Education
Fegley, S., Dupree, D. & Spencer, M. B. (expected 2011). Child development entry. International encyclopedia in the social sciences.
Spencer, M. B., Dupree, D., Tinsley, B., McGee, E. O., Hall, J., Fegley, S. G., & Elmore, T. G. (expected 2011). Resistance and resiliency in a color-conscious society: Implications for learning and teaching. In K. R. Harris, S. Graham, T. Urdan (Editors-in-Chief), C. B. McCormick, G. M. Sinatra, & J. Sweller (Associate Editors), APA educational psychology handbook: Vol. 1. Theories, constructs, and critical issues. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Swanson, D. P., Cunningham, M., Youngblood, J. & Spencer, M. B. (expected, 2011) Racial identity development during childhood. Handbook of African American psychology.
Spencer, M. B., Tinsley, B., Dupree, D. & Fegley, S. (expected 2011). Maximizing cultural and contextually-sensitive assessment strategies in developmental and educational research. In W. Tate & C. Yakey (Eds.) Neighborhoods, schools and communities: Transitioning towards social responsibility and equality.
Brittian, A. S. & Spencer. M. B. (expected, 2011). Assessing the relationship Between ethnic and religious identity among and between diverse American youth (Chap. 10). In Warren, A. E. A., Lerner, R. M., & Phelps, E. (Eds.), Thriving and spirituality among youth: Research perspectives and future possibilities. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Spencer, M. B., Dupree, D., Tinsley, B., McGee, E., Hall, J., Fegley, S., & Ellmore, T. (expected, 2011). Resistance and resiliency in a color conscious society: Implications for learning and teaching.(Volume dedicated to the scholarship of Emmy Werner).
McGee, E. & Spencer, M. B. (in-production). Theoretical analysis of resilience and identity: An African American Engineer's Life Story. In Gordon, E. & Gordon, E. W. (Editors).
Articles and Chapters (Published)
Spencer, M. B., Swanson, D. P. & Edwards, M. (2010). Sociopolitical contexts of development. In D. P. Swanson, M. Edwards & M. B. Spencer (Eds.)(pp. 1-27), Development in a global era, London: Elsevier Publishers.
Tinsley, B., Wilson, S., Spencer, M.B. ( 2010). Hip-Hop culture, youth creativity and the generational crossroads: A commentary from a human development perspective. In C. Milbrath & Cynthia Lightfood (Eds.)(pp. 83-95), Jean Piaget Society Volume: Arts and Human Development. New York: Psychology Press, Taylor and Francis Group.
Harpalani, V. and Spencer, M. B. (2009), Social status and child development entry. Chicago Companion to the Child.954-956.
Davido Dupree, Mary Beth Gasman, Kevin James, and Margaret Beale Spencer (2009). Identity, Identification, socialization: Preparation and Retention of African American Male Students in Institutions of Higher Education. In H. Frierson (Ed.) Black American Males in Higher Education: Research, programs and academic diversity in higher education (Vol. 7), 1-20. Emerald Group Publ, Bingley: United Kingdom.
Slaughter-Defoe, D., Johnson, D., and Spencer, M. B. (2009). Race and children's development entry. Chicago Companion to the Child. 801-805.
Spencer, M. B. and Tinsley, B. (2008). Identity as coping: Youths' diverse strategies for successful Adaptation, Prevention Researcher,15(4), 17-21.
Spencer, M. B. (2008). Lessons learned and opportunities ignored post-Brown v. Board of Education: Youth development and the myth of a colorblind society, Educational Researcher, 37(5), 253-266.
Spencer, M. B., & Harpalani, V. (2008). What does "acting White" actually mean?: Racial identity, adolescent development, and academic achievement among African American youth. In J.U. Ogbu (Ed.), Minority status, collective identity and schooling.: Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Spencer, M. B. (2008). Phenomenology and Ecological Systems Theory: Development of Diverse Groups In W. Damon and R. Lerner (Eds.), Child and adolescent development: An Advanced course (Chap. 19) (pp. 696-735). New York: Wiley Publishers.
Fegley, S. G., Spencer, M. B., Goss, T. N., Harpalani, V., & Charles, N. (2008). Bodily self- awareness: Skin color and psychosocial well-being in adolescence. In W. Overton & U. Mueller (Eds.), Body in mind, mind in body: Developmental perspectives on embodiment and consciousness (pp. 281-312). Mahwah, NJ: LEA Inc.
Dupree, D., Spencer, M. B., & Fegley, S. (2007). Identity as coping in diverse levels of context: Adolescents' developmental challenges and opportunities. In Rainer K. Silbereisen & Richard M. Lerner (Eds.)(pp.111-131), Multiple Contexts of Positive Youth Development. Thousand Oakes, CA: Sage Publications.
Fegley, S., Dupree, D. & Spencer, M. B. (2007). Child development entry. W. Darity (Ed.), 2nd Ed. International encyclopedia in the social sciences, Farmington Hills, Mich.: Macmillan Reference USA,
Seaton, G., Dell' Angelo, T., Spencer, M. B., & Youngblood, J. (2007) Moving Beyond the Dichotomy: Meeting the Needs of Urban Students through Contextually-Relevant Education Practices, Teachers Education Quarterly, Spring 2007, 163-183.
Spencer, M. B. (2006) Commentary, Research in Human Development, 2006, Vol. 3, No. 4, Pages 271-280
Spencer, M. B. (2006) September/October) Invited editorial: Revisiting the 1990 Special Issue on Minority Children: An editorial perspective 15 years later, Child Development, Vol. 77(5), 1149-54.
Spencer, M. B., Fegley, S. and Dupree, D. (2006). Investigating and Linking Social Conditions of African-American Children and Adolescents with Emotional Well-Being. Ethnicity & Disease, 16(2) 63-67.
Spencer, M. B. (2006). Phenomenology and Ecological Systems Theory: Development of Diverse Groups In W. Damon and R. Lerner (Eds.), (6th Edition) Handbook of Child Psychology, vol. 1, (Chap. 15, Theory Volume) (pp. 829-893). New York: Wiley Publishers.
Spencer, M. B., Harpalani, V., Cassidy, E., Jacobs, C., Donde, S., Goss, T.,Miller, M.-M., Charles, N., Wilson, S. (2006). Understanding vulnerability and resilience from a normative development perspective: Implications for racially and ethnically diverse youth (Chap. 16). In D. Chicchetti and E. Cohen (Ed.) Handbook of Developmental Psychopathology, Vol. 1, pp. 627-672. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publishers.
Spencer, M. B. (2006) A brief "history" of two milestone developmental publications on black children. In Our children too: A history of the black caucus of the society for research in child development, 1973-1997. SRCD Monographs (Editors D. Slaughter, A. Garrett, and Al Harrison) (Chap. 10). Society for Research in Child Development, Vol. 71(1) Serial No. 283, Ann Arbor, MI.
Slaughter-Defoe, D, Spencer, M. B. and Oyemade, U. (2006) The Atlanta child murders and the Black caucus of SRCD. In Our children too: A history of the black caucus of the society for research in child development, 1973-1997. SRCD Monographs (Editors D. Slaughter, A. Garrett, and Al Harrison) (Chap. 6). Society for Research in Child Development, Vol. 71(1) Serial No. 283, Ann Arbor, MI.
Spencer, M. B. (2005) Crafting identities and accessing opportunity post Brown. American Psychologist, 60(8), pp. 821-830.
Spencer, M.B., & Swanson, D.P. (2005). Ethnocentrism. In A.H. Forman APA encyclopedia of psychology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, pp. 263-265.
Swanson, D., Cunningham, M., Spencer, M.B., (2005) (REPRINT). "Black Males' Structural Conditions, Achievement Patterns, Normative Needs, and "Opportunities" in (Olatokunbo Fashola, Editor) Educating African American males ( pp. 229-254), Corwin Press: Thousand Oaks, CA. (Reprinted)
Spencer, M.B., Noll, E., Cassidy, E. (2005). Monetary incentives in support of academic achievement: results of a randomized field trial involving high-achieving, low-resource, ethnically diverse urban adolescents, Evaluation Research, 29(3), 199-222.
Harpalani, V., & Spencer, M.B. (2005). Racism, In C.B. Fisher & R.M. Lerner (Eds.), Applied developmental science: An encyclopedia of research, policies, and programs (pp. 905-909). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
