Dr. Naomi Andrews

Dr. Naomi Andrews is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Child and Youth Studies at Brock University. She holds a Ph.D. in Family and Human Development from the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University. She also completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Mothercraft’s Breaking the Cycle program – a prevention and early intervention program for mothers with substance use issues and their young children – and the LaMarsh Centre for Child and Youth Research at York University.

Broadly, her research focuses on applying a relational perspective to understand children and youth’s social adjustment and problem behaviors (e.g., aggression, victimization). From the lens that these problem behaviors are inherently social phenomena, she has focused on disentangling the complex social relationship processes that underlie problem behaviors. Through three related but distinct lines of work, Dr. Andrews is interested in: 1) understanding how children and youth’s peer relationships and the social context contribute to involvement in problem behaviors; 2) considering youth’s gender identity and gender-based peer experiences, particularly in relation to problem behaviors, social functioning, and relationships; and 3) applying a relational perspective to conduct meaningful, community-based intervention and evaluation research. Her goal is for this basic and applied research to have meaningful implications for decreasing children and youth’s involvement in problem behaviors in school or other social settings, understanding gender identity and intergroup relations, and promoting healthy relationships.