Stephanie Lechuga-Peña

• Ph.D.
• Professor (Assistant) at Arizona State University

This narrative provides an overview of my educational journey as a young, Chicana student mother and now assistant professor in a large public research university in the Southwest. It documents the leakage points in my educational pipeline as well as the pivotal moments that contributed to my success, as only .2% of Chicanx earn a PhD. I offer reco...

The paper explores the intersection of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Latinx Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) within Latinx communities, focusing on Photovoice as a method to understand systemic inequalities and power dynamics. Drawing on Freire’s concept of critical consciousness, CRT and LatCrit frameworks delve into institutional racism and inters...

We propose that the profession is theoretically at a point of convergence between CRT and LatCrit. Both theories are united in the production of knowledge to dismantle oppression. This article provides a brief review of CRT and a comprehensive understanding of LatCrit as a starting point for critical social work education perspectives. We discuss i...

Social workers must participate in ongoing anti-racist and culturally attuned approaches to disrupt white supremacy in our profession, institutions, and society. Our social work mission, values, and ethics demand that we engage in social work education, practice, and scholarship that seeks social justice for all people. In line with these expectati...

Anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies in the USA have increased in recent decades. Immigration detention has more than tripled since the 1990s, and recently there has been an increase in women and children being held in immigration detention. The length of detention and treatment immigrant detainees face often violate international human rights laws...

Photovoice is a qualitative community-based participatory research (CBPR) method used by researchers and communities to inform policy and advocate for community change. Photovoice was piloted within an established community-based intervention, Your Family, Your Neighborhood (YFYN), within a predominantly Latinx community. YFYN is a dual-generation,...

The challenges BIPOC junior faculty face when preparing for tenure is not a new phenomenon, however doing so during a global pandemic magnifies these issues and requires us to consider the significant impact this has on earning tenure and promotion. Extent literature on pre-tenure BIPOC women faculty highlight their experiences of isolation and add...

Social work is contending with an increasingly racially and ethnically diverse population and an academic field that is facing mounting pressure to diversify its curriculum to meet the needs of its students and the communities that social workers serve and inhabit. This article draws on the history of ethnic studies and the work that the field has...

The COVID-19 global pandemic led to the unprecedented shuttering of nearly all K–12 public education settings across the United States from March through June 2020. This article explores how school social workers’ roles, responsibilities, and work tasks shifted during spring 2020 distance learning to address the continuing and changing needs of fam...

Your Family, Your Neighborhood (YFYN) was developed to strengthen parent-child relationships among families living in low-income and subsidized housing communities, using a dual-generation approach. Few, if any, family-based interventions with a primary focus of enhancing parent-child relationships target parents and their children between the ages...

African Americans and American Indians experience disproportionately high rates of Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and are approximately two times as likely to be diagnosed with T2DM as non-Hispanic Whites in the United States (U.S.). African Americans and American Indians represent unique populations in the U.S., as they are the descendants of ent...

Background: Stress and compromised parenting often place children at risk of abuse and neglect. Child maltreatment has generally been viewed as a highly individualistic problem by focusing on stressors and parenting behaviors that impact individual families. However, because of the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), families across the wo...

Background: Stress and compromised parenting often place children at risk of abuse and neglect. Child maltreatment has generally been viewed as a highly individualistic problem by focusing on stressors and parenting behaviors that impact individual families. However, because of the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), families across the wor...

Global environmental changes can happen quickly or over extended periods and have compounding effects. Indigenous communities experience environmental changes that can lead to a decline in quality of life, illness or disease, and unwelcome cultural adaptations that extend to future generations. Due to limited resources and political marginalization...

The objective of this study was to ascertain whether participation in the Your Family, Your Neighborhood (YFYN) intervention, an intervention for families living in low-income neighborhoods, leads to improved perceptions of neighborhood social cohesion and informal neighborhood social control. Fifty-two families in three low-income, urban neighborh...

Numerous studies describe mental health effects of pre-migration trauma and post-resettlement stress among refugees, yet less research examines these associations with non-refugee immigrants. Additionally, few studies assess the prevalence and impact of traumatic experiences after settlement in a new country. Using a U.S.-based representative sampl...

Background School-based parent involvement is associated with child academic outcomes, positive behaviors, and social skills. Research on school-based parent involvement among low-income mothers is limited and even less understood for low-income mothers who receive financial housing assistance. Objective This study examined the association between...

Latinx faculty have an opportunity to influence a growing population of incoming Latinx students. As Chicana/Latina social work faculty, we seek to raise consciousness about our biculturalism and demonstrate how it could play a role in educating students. To that end, we highlight issues related to language. The meaning of language is complex, mani...

Your Family, Your Neighborhood (YFYN) is a dual-generation, skill-building intervention designed to strengthen the parent-child bond, increase parent engagement, academic success, and health/well-being for families living in project-based subsidized housing. The curriculum focuses on strengthening the bond between parents and children, increasing p...

Parent involvement is associated with child academic outcomes, positive behaviors, and social skills. This qualitative study explored school-based parent involvement barriers experienced by nine low-income mothers. In-depth interviews were used to collect data from mothers participating in a community-based program offered in a large public housing...

Many families living in poverty rely on housing subsidies. Housing subsidies restrict the housing stock and neighborhood choices for families living in poverty. Fortunately neighborhood social cohesion can protect families from many of the deleterious consequences associated with living in a low-income neighborhood. This study uses panel data from...

Latina/os experience some of the lowest academic outcomes and youth of Mexican-origin are among the most educationally disadvantaged of all Latina/o subgroups. These disparities impact many Latina/o students including our family. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Chicana/o Movement focused on fighting for equality and access to quality education for Chic...

The most common reason for lease violations among residents of subsidized housing in the United States is late and nonpayment of rent, which can lead to eviction. However, little is known about what services offered to residents assist in retaining housing. Mercy Housing, the third largest nonprofit provider of subsidized housing in the United Stat...

Objective Positive Youth Development (PYD) is a resilience-based framework that accentuates positive traits in youth. PYD constructs are characteristics that are hypothesized to promote healthy development. However, measures to assess PYD constructs are lacking. Methods An instrument was created to assess PYD. One hundred and forty youth between t...

Purpose: Positive Youth Development (PYD) is a resilience-based framework that accentuates positive traits and resources in the lives of children and youth. PYD constructs include well-defined individual and social characteristics that are hypothesized to promote healthy child and adolescent development. These constructs include the 5 C’s of compet...

Background and Purpose Low-income families living in public housing neighborhoods face considerable obstacles in helping their children achieve academic success. Bridge for Families (BFF) is a dual generation after work program designed to support parents in their efforts to provide children with an effective and supportive educational environmen...