Teaching Pathway Postdoctoral Faculty, Psychological Sciences
- PhD, Human Development and Family Science, University of Arizona
- MS, Human Development and Family Science, University of Arizona
- BA, Psychological Science, California State University San Marcos
Dr. Sarsar received her PhD in Human Development and Family Science, minoring in Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine at the University of Arizona. Her research investigates the impacts of systemic racism on individual-level psychological and physiological processes among adolescents and young adults from marginalized backgrounds. Her work utilizes daily diary, longitudinal, and salivary sampling methods to explore the ways that stress “gets under the skin” to impact Latinx youths’ development and health-related trajectories. Specifically examining the impact of overt and covert forms of racial discrimination on mental health symptoms and the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal axis. In addition to studying contextual and racism-related stressors, her work also centers on recognizing the cultural assets and resources that youth possess, as factors that contribute to their well-being. Coping processes, self-compassion, and ethnic-racial identity (ERI) are individual-level and cultural assets that her work has focused on.