Research
My program of research directly informs my clinical work.
It centers on the mental health impact of interpersonal and structural forms of stigma, and on the clinical interventions that can buffer people from it. It runs along three threads:
- 01The mental health impact of interpersonal and structural forms of societal stigma.
- 02The pathways through which stigma acts on people holding one or more stigmatized identities.
- 03The factors that weaken the link between discrimination and distress.
A second line carries the same logic into childhood, asking how executive functioning is built in children with complex learning profiles — and finding that connection is what makes the skills hold.
So when I help a client locate their distress in the structures producing it, rather than in themselves and their justified feelings, that is not reassurance. It is where the evidence points.
Peer-reviewed publications
2025The power of connection: A relational approach to executive functioning interventions with children and adolescents.Cox, R. A., Jr., & Levy-Warren, A. Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy, 24, 143–156.
2023A test of the integrative mediation model of minority stress with sexual minority adults.Velez, B. L., Kim, S., Cox, R., Jr., Manosalvas, K., & Daheim, J. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 10, 56–69.
2023Finding opportunity in the crisis: Executive functioning coaching during the pandemic.Levy-Warren, A., Gaffney, M., Ferrara, M., & Cox, R., Jr. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 40, 214–220.
2020Toward nonbinary nuance in research and care: Mapping differences in gender affirmation and transgender congruence in an online national US survey.Breslow, A. S., Wojcik, H., Cox, R., Jr., Tran, N. M., & Brewster, M. Transgender Health.
2019Heterosexism, racism, and the mental health of sexual minority people of color.Velez, B. L., Polihronakis, C. J., Watson, L., & Cox, R., Jr. The Counseling Psychologist, 47, 129–159.
2017Discrimination, work outcomes, and mental health among women of color: The protective role of womanist attitudes.Velez, B. L., Cox, R., Jr., Polihronakis, C. J., & Moradi, B. Journal of Counseling Psychology.
2017Minority stress and racial or ethnic minority status: A test of the greater risk perspective.Velez, B. L., Watson, L., Cox, R., Jr., & Flores, M. J. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 4, 257–271.
2016Building a pantheoretical model of dehumanization with transgender men: Integrating objectification and minority stress theories.Velez, B. L., Breslow, A. S., Brewster, M. E., Cox, R., Jr., & Foster, A. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 63, 497–508.