About

Sandra (Sandi) Simpkins is a developmental psychologist specializing in child and adolescent development. Her research primarily focuses on how families, friendships, and social position factors such as ethnicity and culture influence adolescents' organized after-school activities and motivation. Her work aims to understand the social and developmental processes that shape youth behavior and engagement, contributing valuable insights into the factors that support positive development during adolescence.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Pedagogy
• Developmental psychology
• Social psychology
• Mathematics education

Selected publications

• Changes in math motivation profiles among adolescents with non-college-educated parents: Relations to perceived parent support, teacher support, and academic outcomes.

  Developmental Psychology · 2026-02-19

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  ). Adolescents' math motivational profiles were somewhat stable, with about half of students remaining in their same profile from ninth to 11th grade. Perceived parent and teacher supports were positively related to changing into stronger motivational belief profiles, and adolescents in stronger motivational belief profiles had stronger science, technology, engineering, and math outcomes than adolescents in lower motivational belief profiles. Our findings indicate that although adolescents' math motivational beliefs were somewhat stable, many high school students' math motivational beliefs changed across high school and that perceived parent and teacher support was positively associated with the adolescents' math motivational belief profiles. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

  PublisherDOI

• Organized After-School Activity and Adolescents’ Ethnic-Racial Identity: A Systematic Literature Review

  Developmental Review · 2026-02-04

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Combining Replication and Meta-Analyses to Identify Racial/Ethnic Differences in Students’ Math Competence-Related Beliefs Across Gender and Multiple Datasets

  Zeitschrift für Psychologie · 2026-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract: In this conceptual replication, we examined differences in adolescents’ math competence-related beliefs across broader racial/ethnic groups (African-American, Asian-American, European-American, and Latiné-American) and assessed whether these patterns were replicated among male and female students across four US datasets. The datasets included 32,170 adolescents in 9th to 12th grade (51% male, 12% African-Americans, 10% Asian-Americans, 45% European-Americans, 33% Latiné-Americans). We applied meta-analytic techniques by calculating both dataset-specific and overall effect sizes to examine the robustness and heterogeneity of racial/ethnic differences within gender groups. On average, African-American students reported higher math competence-related beliefs after controlling for parent education, income, and students’ achievement. In total, 60% of the observed racial/ethnic differences for the full sample of each dataset did not replicate among either gender. Moreover, greater variation across racial/ethnic groups emerged among female than male students. These two patterns highlight the importance of applying an intersectional lens when understanding adolescents’ math competence-related beliefs.

  PublisherDOI

• Adolescents of color have greater mathematics values than White adolescents across gender: Replication evidence across high school and datasets in the U.S.

  ZDM · 2026-01-19 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract The unequal mathematics education system in the U.S. highlights the need to examine racial and ethnic differences in mathematics subjective task values as precursors to participation in mathematics-related careers. We investigated whether and to what extent mathematics subjective task values (i.e., interest, utility, and attainment) vary across the four largest U.S. racial/ethnic groups (i.e., Asian, Black, Latine, and White) among boys and girls, separately. We also tested whether these patterns replicated across high school years and across datasets. Using two U.S. large-scale longitudinal datasets (i.e., CAMP and HSLS), results showed that adolescents of color reported higher mathematics subjective task values than White adolescents, with differences favoring Asian over White adolescents and Black over Latine adolescents. These patterns were consistent across gender, though slightly more pronounced among boys, and replicated across both datasets. The findings demonstrate racial and ethnic variability in mathematics values within gender groups, highlighting the need for intersectional approaches to understanding adolescents’ motivational experiences and identifying the barriers that prevent Black and Latine adolescents from fully leveraging their motivational strengths in mathematics learning.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The relations between math expectancy-value belief development and STEM outcomes among Asian and Latine adolescents

  Contemporary Educational Psychology · 2025-12-13

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Centering Culture in Program Quality: Charting the Associations between Culturally Responsive Practices and Latine Adolescents’ Basic Needs in a U.S. Math After-School Activity

  IJREE – International Journal for Research on Extended Education · 2025-04-17 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Scholars have increasingly argued that we need to attend to adolescents’ race, ethnicity, and culture in after-school activities to ensure positive effects. Still, little is known about adolescents’ perceptions of culturally responsive practices in after-school activities (i. e., the use of diverse teaching practices, cultural engagement, and affirming diverse language preferences), including whether they are stable over time and beneficial to Latine adolescents, who are minoritized in U.S. society. Theoretically, culturally responsive practices are expected to help after-school activities meet adolescents’ three basic needs as conceptualized by self-determination theory: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Findings based on 134 Latine adolescents (53% girls, Mage =11.74 years) participating in an afterschool math enrichment activity suggest adolescents’ perceptions of culturally responsive practices in the activity were moderately stable from winter to spring. There were no significant differences in adolescents’ perceptions of culturally responsive practices based on gender or preferred language (i. e., English or Spanish), and significant positive associations emerged between adolescents’ perceptions of diverse teaching practices and their feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. This study offers insights for future theory development in the after-school field, particularly in the context of program quality, culturally responsive practices, and their implications for adolescent development and well-being.

  PublisherDOI

• Consensus statement on developmentally appropriate policy and practice for adolescents in foster care

  Children and Youth Services Review · 2025-07-26 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Relations between Trajectories of Math Expectancy-Value Beliefs and Stem Outcomes Among Asian and Latine Adolescents

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Global Perspectives on Organized Activities: Challenges and Future Directions to Supporting Young People's Health and Well-Being

  Journal of Adolescent Health · 2025-07-02

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Black and Latine parent’s science and math support matters: How patterns of parent support relate to adolescents’ motivational beliefs and course taking across high school.

  Developmental Psychology · 2025-02-06 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  profile was associated with the lowest motivation and course taking. This suggests that STEM encouragement from parents, combined with other supportive behaviors, may be particularly crucial for Black and Latine adolescents, and high support across all indicators may not be the optimal approach, especially for high-achieving students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Who's Motivated to Pursue Math and Science? Testing Replications of Processes from Grade School to Occupations in Multiple Datasets

  NSF · $1.6M · 2021–2025

• Exploring High-Quality and Culturally Responsive Math Afterschool Program Practices for Under-Represented Minority Youth

  NSF · $165k · 2018–2021

• CAREER: How Families Motivate Mexican-Origin Adolescents to Pursue Physical Science in High School

  NSF · $682k · 2011–2015

• Family Support of Math and Science: Examining an Untapped Source of Resilience for Diverse High School Students

  NSF · $980k · 2018–2022

• CAREER: How Families Motivate Mexican-Origin Adolescents to Pursue Physical Science in High School

  NSF · $186k · 2015–2017

Frequent coauthors

• Sandra Simpkins-Chaput

  79 shared

• Jacquelynne S. Eccles

  University of California, Irvine

  32 shared

• A. E. Vest

  30 shared

• Alex R. Lin

  Vanguard University

  16 shared

• Deborah Lowe Vandell

  University of California, Irvine

  16 shared

• Ta‐yang Hsieh

  14 shared

• Melissa Y. Delgado

  University of Arizona

  14 shared

• Jennifer A. Fredricks

  Union College

  13 shared

Education

• PhD, Psychology

  University of California Riverside

  2000