Dr. Rashmita Mistry
Human Development & Psychology
School of Education & Information Studies
University of California, Los Angeles
Dr. Mistry and her students study children’s experiences of social inequality and its influences on their academic and social outcomes.
Our research has three principal foci:
Investigating the development, consequences, and malleability of children’s beliefs about social inequality.
Examining the extent to which contextual factors such as poverty, immigration, and social policies, influence family dynamics and, in turn, children’s developmental outcomes.
Understanding children’s racial-ethnic and social class identity development, consequences, and intergroup attitudes.
2026-2027 Cohort
(L-R): Dr. Stephanie Nguyen (2025 alumna), Dr. Rashmita Mistry, Dr. Lauren Kinnard (2026 alumna), Amaesha Durazi, Cynthia Jiao
In the News
Awards
- Dr. Rashmita Mistry was nominated for the 2025 UCLA Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring.
- Dr. Rashmita Mistry was awarded the 2024 CSES Award for Distinguished Leadership in Psychology. 2023 from the American Psychological Association’s Committee on Socioeconomic Status.
- Dr. Rashmita Mistry was recently appointed to serve on the Board of Directors for MDRC
Milestones
- Congratulations to Dr. Lauren Kinnard for successfully defending her dissertation, ““We Have a Responsibility as White People”: The Development of White Youth’s Critical Race Consciousness During Late Adolescence”
Recent Publications
Parental Racial–Ethnic Socialization in the Early Years: A Scoping Review
“The ball is in his court. It’s up to him”: Parental communication about meritocracy
Recent Presentations
- Lauren Kinnard presented at the 2026 Society for Research on Adolescence Biennial Meeting in Toronto, Canada
- Cynthia Jiao presented at the 2026 Cognitive Development Society Biennial Meeting in Montreal, Canada