About
Dr. Lemon’s research examines and addresses social determinants of Latinx mental health with a focus on suicide prevention. Her strengths-based research blends participatory and population science methodologies among immigrant and U.S. born Latinx youth to promote mental health equity. Funded by a NIMH R36 award, she most recently investigated the impact of immigration enforcement policies on Latinx depressive symptoms and suicide ideation and social cognitive mechanisms. Using innovative quasi-experimental statewide policy analysis within a structural equation modeling framework, she examined the role of immigration-related arrests on depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation via school connectedness and neighborhood collective efficacy. Her findings contributed new understandings of how these mechanisms link statewide policies to depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation differently for Latinx youth compared to White youth. She then conducted a YPAR photovoice study (PARA Jóvenes) with Latinx youth who identified additional mechanisms along with individual and community resilience factors. She evaluated the YPAR process and found that several components were promotive of youth resilience (e.g., cultural affirmation, near-peer facilitators, creating sanctuary space, artistic expression). Based in the Rio Grande Valley, Dr. Lemon is expanding her research to border communities and migrant youth impacted by immigration enforcement at the border. She plans to pilot the PARA Jóvenes with youth impacted by immigration enforcement policy across multiple communities in the interior U.S. and along the U.S.-Mexico border. In addition, she will continue population-level studies evaluating the role of local and statewide policies on adolescent suicide risk and resilience.
Center Affiliation
Research Interests
- Adolescent Health
- Behavioral/Mental Health
- Border Health
- Community Health Practice
- Health Equity
- Social Determinants of Health