- Department of Psychology; Behavioral Science
- Email: becky.smith@uri.edu
Major Professor: Bethany Kotlar, PhD
Lab: Family Matters Lab (Fam Lab)
Biography
Rebecca (Becky) Smith earned her BA in Psychology from Rhode Island College in 2022 and is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Behavioral Science Psychology program at URI. Her research experience spans social cognition, gender identity measurement, and substance use amount autistic adolescents and young adults. Having worked as a researcher in Dr. Anthony Spirito’s RAYS lab at Brown University, Becky has received extensive training in participant assessment and community engaged research.
Research
Becky is interested in exploring how intersecting identities-including sexual and gender minority status, neurodiversity, and race-shape minority stress, substance use and overall mental health across development. As such, she is currently working with Dr. Ethan Moitra of Brown University to examine the role of outness on self-efficacy within LGBTQ + populations