Miguel Villodas, Ph.D.
NIMH Postdoctoral Fellowship
Clinical Services Research Training Program, University of California, San Francisco, CA
Clinical Internship
Semel Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA
Ph.D., Clinical Psychology
University of California, San Diego/San Diego State University Joint Doctoral Program, San Diego, CA
M.S., Clinical Psychology
San Diego State University, San Diego, CA
B.A., Psychology
San Diego State University, San Diego, CA
Bio: I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at San Diego State University, and an affiliated investigator with the Child and Adolescent Services Research Center (CASRC), UCSD IN STEP Center, and the SDSU Health LINK Center. I currently serve as Associate Editor for Psychology of Violence, a publication of the American Psychological Association, and as a member of the Editorial Boards for The Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, The Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology and Child Abuse and Neglect: The International Journal. I am a Licensed Psychologist in the State of California and have been involved in local advocacy in child welfare and education systems as a foster youth mentor, foster parent, and as a member of a number of advisory boards.
Research Interests: I conduct clinical research on the promotion of mental health and psychosocial well-being among at-risk and underserved youth who predominantly come from low-SES and Black and Latinx backgrounds. I use advanced quantitative methods to better characterize how adversity (e.g., poverty, discrimination, maltreatment, violence) affects academic, emotional, and behavioral development among at-risk youth. A large proportion of this work has focused on children and adolescents who are at-risk for child abuse and neglect and/or have been in foster care. However, I also study risk and protective processes among Black and Latinx children and adolescents who are living in under-resourced environments and among children with behavioral challenges related to disruptive behavior and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders.
Building on these findings, I conduct community-based research to adapt and enhance evidence-based psychosocial interventions that promote academic, emotional, and behavioral well-being for implementation in community and school-based settings that are more accessible to Black and Latinx communities. Specifically, these interventions are often targeted for children and adolescents who have difficulty with attention and behavior that interfere with their learning, and/or who are at-risk for violence exposure, living in urban poverty, or have been exposed to other forms of adversity.