On May 15, Professor Michelle Porche and Counseling Psychology doctoral student Sarah Anais Mejia were part of an invited Presidential Symposium, “Translating the Evidence for the Next Generation: Addressing the Mental Health of Youth and Emerging Adults of Color.” Chaired by Dr. Lisa Fortuna of the Boston Medical Center, the symposium was part of the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in Atlanta, GA.

Professor Porche and Ms. Mejia’s talk, entitled “Why Capable Young People Struggle: Educational Attainment and Mental Health in Communities of Color,” highlighted Professor Porche’s recently published research on early trauma and associations with academic outcomes. It also touched on preliminary results of speakers’ currently-in-progress work conducting a secondary analysis of data from the Boricua Youth Study.

The Boricua Youth Study is a longitudinal study of the development and mental health of Puerto Rican children living in the Bronx and in Puerto Rico headed by Principal Investigator Dr. Margarita Alegria at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. The analysis being conducted in collaboration with Dr. Alegria and researchers at MGH investigates risk of high school dropout for Puerto Rican youth exposed to school violence and other trauma experiences.