Dr. Mathews' research focuses on both the unique and overlapping contributions of Black and Latinx adolescents’ ethnic racial identity (i.e. the developmental process and significance of one’s racial self-concept) and critical consciousness (i.e.awareness, beliefs, and behaviors engaged to challenge social inequity) to their positive youth development. She is also interested in improving measures of ethnic-racial identity in order to support more rigorous psychometric approaches to capture the complexity of ethnic-racial identity and critical consciousness development across adolescence. Dr. Mathews aims to translate her research into intervention work that supports the positive development of Black and Latinx youth, particularly in schooling and STEM contexts.