About

Kelly Lynn Mulvey is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at NC State University. She completed her Ph.D. in 2013 in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology at the University of Maryland. Her undergraduate and master's degrees are from Duke University. Prior to her doctoral studies, she was a public school teacher in Durham, North Carolina, and received certification by the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards. Her research interests focus on social-cognitive development, particularly moral and social development. She conducts research examining theory of mind, social exclusion, and group dynamics, including when children challenge peer group norms. Her work emphasizes intergroup contexts and investigates how children's bias, prejudice, and stereotypes influence their intergroup relations. Additionally, her research aims to broaden participation of underrepresented groups in STEM fields and explores stereotypes about who can and should be a scientist.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Sociology
• Social psychology
• Political Science
• Medicine
• Pedagogy
• Computer Science
• Engineering
• Epistemology
• Medical education
• Applied psychology
• Engineering ethics

Selected publications

• Daily fluctuations in adolescents’ political stress

  Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy · 2026-05-06

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract This study explored adolescents' daily political stress during the 2024 US election and how proximal and distal factors shaped stress. Participants completed surveys for 20 consecutive days before, during, and after the election. At baseline, they reported perceptions of peer and family election‐related experiences and anticipated election impact. Daily surveys captured their daily political stress and election‐related exposure. The final sample included 445 daily observations reported by 36 adolescents (aged 13–18, M = 15.61, SD = 1.23) who were mostly white, female, and Democrats. Participants reported significant daily fluctuations in political stress and greater political stress on days when they experienced more frequent election exposure, regardless of their anticipated election impact. On days with little election exposure, participants reported little to no political stress; however, on days with high exposure, participants who anticipated greater election impacts reported significantly more political stress than those who anticipated low impacts. Daily political stress positively related to participants’ election investment compared to their peers; otherwise, perceptions of family and peer election‐related experiences did not shape their political stress. Implications encourage adolescents’ use of anticipatory coping strategies such as limiting their election‐related exposure when feeling overwhelmed.

  PublisherDOI

• Getting Advanced Placement Psychology Students “Ready Through Research”

  Teaching of Psychology · 2025-04-21 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Background Recent changes to Introductory Psychology curricula emphasize the importance of building research skills, but instructors may need additional support. Objective This paper examines outcomes of the Ready Through Research (RTR) program in which research mentors from local universities guide Advanced Placement (AP) Psychology students to design, conduct, analyze, and present their research projects. Method Studies 1 ( N = 72) and 2 ( N = 124) compare changes in students’ research skills and science/psychology persistence self-efficacy and examine student perceptions of RTR outcomes across two program iterations. Results RTR students’ research skill self-efficacy grew significantly in both studies. Further, RTR students in both studies reported that the program made them more interested in pursuing research and psychology in the future. In Study 1, students’ science persistence self-efficacy did not change over time, but in Study 2, RTR students’ psychology persistence self-efficacy increased. Conclusion RTR programming benefits AP Psychology students’ research understanding, skills, and persistence, but students may not consider psychology a science discipline. Teaching Implications To meet new curriculum standards, teachers should engage students in psychological research and emphasize that psychology is a science.

  PublisherDOI

• “A Different Pair of Glasses”: Impacts of a School-Based Antiracist Program on Student and Teacher Critical Race Consciousness

  2025-09-04 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Antiracist education is a highly politicized and contested issue in the United States. This qualitative inquiry with high school students (n = 15, 10 White, 3 Black, 2 Asian) and teachers (n = 7, all White) explored the value of considering students’ and teachers’ engagement in a school-based antiracist program from a critical race consciousness framework (i.e., beliefs, feelings, and actions that challenge racism). Semi-structured, individual interviews revealed how an antiracist program, which involved reading and discussing the book Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, engaged students and teachers in racism analysis, racial reflexivity, and antiracist action. Specifically, participants provided rich descriptions of how the Stamped program encouraged them to gain new perspectives, understand and recognize racism, link historical and modern racism, feel responsible and committed to racial justice, and take internal and interpersonal antiracist action. Some developmental trends emerged in which students were more likely to gain new worldviews and social cognitive mindsets whereas teachers were more likely to be racially reflexive and simultaneously discuss analysis, reflexivity, and action. Implications for antiracist programs as well as educational and developmental theory are discussed.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Adolescents’ Openness to Include Refugee Peers in Their Leisure Time Activities

  Social Sciences · 2025-05-17

  articleOpen access

  Background: Against the backdrop of increasing refugee movements, the integration of refugees is becoming a more and more relevant topic for many European countries. As integration is a bidirectional process, the current study examines the openness of adolescents in Germany to include refugee peers from Syria in leisure time activities. Methods: Participants were presented with a hypothetical scenario in which they had to choose who of two peers (a German peer or a refugee peer from Syria) they would include in their activity. Additionally, we varied the relevant skills of the two protagonists to investigate the role of group functioning aspects for inclusion decisions. Three measures were applied: (1) adolescents’ own decisions, (2) what they expected their peer group to do, and (3) what they thought their peer group should do. Results: The findings demonstrate that the participants were generally very open to include refugees and that the protagonists’ skills were relevant for their decisions, though much more for the expected group decision than for adolescents’ own decisions. Reasoning analyses illustrate adolescents’ considerations for these decisions. Conclusion: This research helps to clarify the interplay of moral considerations and aspects of group functioning in adolescents’ inclusion decisions regarding refugee peers.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Teachers’ and pre-service teachers’ (stereotypical) expectations regarding children’s competencies in different STEM fields

  Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft · 2025-10-12

  articleOpen access

  Abstract There are large gender disparities in the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). Teachers’ gender stereotypes might be one important factor in this context. In two sequential studies in Germany, we assessed (prospective) elementary school teachers’ stereotypical expectations regarding students’ competencies in different STEM domains (math, natural sciences, engineering, computer science). Study 1 included 43 elementary school teachers, Study 2 included 85 elementary school teachers and 174 pre-service teachers. In both studies, we found that teachers expected lower competencies for girls than for boys. These gender differences were more pronounced for the fields of engineering and computer science than for math and natural sciences. In Study 2, we replicated the findings from Study 1 in a larger sample and included in-service teachers as well as pre-service teachers. Interestingly, the stereotypical expectations were stronger for pre-service teachers than for in-service teachers. Thus, teacher training should raise awareness of potential gender-related stereotypes to challenge teachers’ stereotypes even before they start teaching at schools.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• White American Students’ Recognition of Racial Microaggressions in Higher Education

  UNC Libraries · 2025-04-12

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Racial microaggressions often occur in U.S. higher education. However, less is known about how White American students reason about their evaluations of racial microaggressions. The current study investigated how 213 White college students (54.46% cisgender women) attending a PWI in the Southeast U.S. in the Fall of 2019 justified their evaluations of the acceptability of racial microaggressions presented in vignettes. Following Social Domain Theory, to assess participants' social reasoning, we conducted quantitative content analysis of participants' open-ended justifications for their evaluations. Multiple regression analyses revealed that participants were less likely to evaluate racial microaggressions as negative the more they employed justifications focused on 1) assuming that the behaviors in the situation followed conventions of the classroom, 2) judging the professor's response as correct, and 3) asserting that the behavior was likely to happen to anyone. Further, the higher participants' endorsement of color-blind attitudes the more likely they were to evaluate racial microaggressions as appropriate. However, reasoning centered on 1) assuming differential treatment based on race, 2) perceiving the behavior as harmful, and 3) considering the behavior was against conventional expectations was associated with finding racial microaggressions to be more negative. The current study highlights the value of investigating underlying reasoning behind evaluating racial microaggressions in addition to color-blind attitudes. The findings suggest that higher education professionals should consider interventions which pay particular attention to unpacking students' reasoning, untangling acceptance of Ethnocentric narratives and providing information that challenges classroom behaviors that, while potentially appearing conventional, in fact perpetuate harm through microaggressions.

  PublisherDOI

• Children’s Peer Conflicts: A Participatory Science Observational Study

  2025-01-10

  preprintSenior author

  Prior research shows that children negotiate conflicts with their peers through prosocial and peaceful resolution (Spivak, 2017). However, there are limited studies on parental responses to children’s conflicts (Kramer, Chung, & Perozynski, 2003). The current study used participatory science approaches, in which introductory psychology students with basic training collected observational data on parent-child conflicts in public spaces. The aim of the study is to understand how conflicts between children are related to the parental response time and the type of resolution. Findings demonstrated that parents responded more quickly to conflicts involving potential physical harm, such as hitting, than conflicts surrounding gameplay. Additionally, resolutions differed depending on the type of conflict observed, the participants’ ages, and gender. Analyses also revealed differences in the type of conflict based on the gender and age of the children. Findings contribute to the literature on conflicts between children.

  PublisherDOI

• A Latent Class Analysis Predicting STEM Career Interest and Perceptions of Barriers

  Social Development · 2025-02-21

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  ABSTRACT During adolescence, individuals make key decisions about coursework, and career paths, including paths toward careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This study identified groups of adolescents who vary in STEM career interests, feelings of support, and perceptions of barriers in STEM and explored what factors predict group membership. Using a latent class analysis with a sample of 473 9th and 10th grade students from public schools in the Southeastern United States ( M age = 15.14, 48.4% White and 43.6% female), 4 distinct classes of adolescents were identified: low STEM, supported with barriers (38.2%), high STEM with barriers (26%), high STEM without barriers (21.6%), and low STEM with high barriers (14.2%). The likelihood of membership in the high STEM without barriers class was higher for participants who reported greater STEM class belonging, growth mindset, and engagement. Efforts to promote continued STEM trajectories may focus on belonging, mindsets, and fostering STEM engagement.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• “A different pair of glasses”: Impacts of a school-based antiracist program on student and teacher critical race consciousness

  Contemporary Educational Psychology · 2025-12-04

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Advancing a collaborative network toward equitable STEM pathways in intensive youth programs

  Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology · 2025-02-07 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access

  Intensive youth STEM programs serve high school students in informal learning spaces such as museums and community centers. They engage participants over weeks, months, or years, focusing on long-term STEM outcomes, especially for populations historically marginalized in STEM fields. However, many of these programs operate independently or in silos, limiting opportunities for collective learning and improvement. Isolation is driven by factors such as diverse organizational types, funding sources, program sizes, content focus, and research and evaluation capacities. Furthermore, conducting longitudinal studies to track participant outcomes is rare and expensive. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a conversation toward the establishment of a collaborative network to support research collaboration and knowledge integration, exchange, and translation. Such a network would strengthen the capacity of these programs, improve long-term outcomes for participants, and contribute to the broader STEM education and career research community, enhancing the overall impact of intensive youth STEM programs. • Out of school STEM programs for adolescents to explore STEM careers shape short-term STEM & social emotional outcomes. • Many STEM programs do not have the capacity or resources to track their trajectories. • Efforts to understand STEM program outcomes are often isolated, with few opportunities to learn with & from others. • We call for a collaborative network facilitating collaboration, knowledge exchange, integration, & translation to practice. • Beneficiaries of the collaborative network include STEM programs, researchers/ evaluators, & program alumnae(i) and youth.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• CAREER: Promoting Equitable and Inclusive STEM Contexts in High School

  NSF · $1.1M · 2020–2027

Frequent coauthors

• Melanie Killen

  37 shared

• Seçil Gönültaş

  28 shared

• Angelina Joy

  North Carolina State University

  24 shared

• Adam Rutland

  University of Exeter

  24 shared

• Adam Hartstone‐Rose

  North Carolina State University

  24 shared

• Aline Hitti

  University of San Francisco

  21 shared

• Luke McGuire

  19 shared

• Channing J. Mathews

  University of Virginia

  19 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Communication Studies

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  2005

• M.A., Communication Studies

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  2001

• B.A., Communication Studies

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  1998