CREAR Lab
Who Are We?
Welcome to CREAR Lab, where we embody our name in action: Community Research Exploring Adolescent Resilience. 'Crear', meaning 'to create' in Spanish, symbolizes our commitment to creating, or fostering, positive psychological well-being among youth exposed to violence. Through rigorous research and compassionate outreach, we strive to empower young lives, creating pathways to resilience and brighter futures. Join us in our journey to transform challenges into opportunities for growth and healing.
Our research in this lab is oriented towards identifying factors that contribute to adolescents’ optimal well-being and resilience in the face of contextual risk factors, with a particular focus on community settings. Our program of research focuses on interpersonal and sociocultural influences on the academic and psychological well-being of adolescents (ages 11–18). Aims of this research include identifying factors that may act as protective in the face of violence (i.e., community violence exposure, sexual harassment, interpersonal violence). Protective factors of interest include cultural values like familismo, and dimensions of parent-adolescent relationships like parent-adolescent communication and parental involvement. While our lab has a particular interest in Latino/as in the U.S. and Mexico, we are interested in adolescents of color more broadly.
Principal Investigator and Director of CREAR Lab
Bienvenidos! I’m Dr. Andrea S. Medrano (she/her/ella). I am Director of CREAR Lab and an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh in the Developmental program. Before coming to Pittsburgh, I received my Ph.D. in Social Work and Developmental Psychology from the University of Michigan, where I also received a MSW (Master’s of Social Work) and MS in Psychology. I received my BA in Psychology, with a minor in Applied Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).
Our Values
The CREAR lab is made up of passionate undergraduate, post-baccalaureate, and graduate student researchers committed to promoting positive health and well-being for youth and families of color experiencing contextual risk factors through a strengths-based approach. As a team, we collaboratively discussed and drafted the following living document that describes our shared values:
Recognizing the importance of our unique lived experiences, we intentionally integrate our diverse knowledge to enrich the work that we do. This includes actively working to make the lab an inclusive, accessible, and welcoming space for everyone to experience authentic belonging. As well as, valuing the experiences and perspectives of each individual as they hold significant meaning and importance.
Our team is motivated and united by our shared passion to show up and deliver our best work. Thus, individual responsibility is integral to our approach; when tasks arise, we all strive to excel towards their successful completion. In conjunction with this, in an effort to create collective success, we prioritize mutual support, open communication, working collaboratively and respectfully with one another.
With a commitment to each lab member, the CREAR lab aims to produce rigorously trained researchers that have the skill sets and ability to pursue additional scholarly activities beyond their time in the lab. Valuing professional growth and development, our lab aims to provide an array of opportunities towards skill development. Working alongside members of the lab, task and projects are assigned in an effort to support the student's goals and foster optimal professional growth. This often is through supporting students in pursuing professional training opportunities such as research scholarships, grant submission and proposals, submitting/presenting research at national and international conferences, and publishing research.