Meet Kristofer,

He is a Psychology major and an URA Scholar. His future goal is to receive his PhD in either Clinical-Community Psychology or Community Psychology. From there, he wants to bring his skill set to his family home of Hawaii. He plans on working with the indigenous population to develop programs to rebuild and increase empowerment within the community in the hopes of halting the damage being caused by being a trans-colonial state.

Kristofer's research will explore the fastest-growing racial group in the United States: Asian immigrants. Asian immigrants experience a large amount of racial discrimination that includes the behavioral practices or social structures used to denigrate individuals of a group based on ethnic identity or skin color. Racial discrimination in Asian Americans has been shown to decrease the psychological well-being of those that perceive it. His research aims to examine: (1) the association between first-generation Asian immigrant mothers’ perceptions of racial discrimination they experience in the U.S. and their psychological well-being, and (2) the moderating role of maternal perceptions of economic opportunity and social standing in the U.S. in the association between maternal perceptions of racial discrimination and maternal psychological well-being.

Read more about his path to research here…