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Yessenia Castro, Ph.D., earned her doctoral degree in clinical psychology from The Florida State University in 2008. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2010 that focused on disparities-related research among minority and underserved populations, with an emphasis on smoking cessation among Latinos. She is a full professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin, where she studies the influence of cultural adaptation variables on cancer risk behaviors among Latinos. She is particularly interested in understanding how cultural variables combine with known key determinants of smoking to affect cessation outcomes. Her work also incorporates understanding social determinants health risk behaviors and the adaptation of behavioral interventions and measurement tools among Latinos and other health disparity populations.
Professional Interests
Development, evaluation, and dissemination of interventions for health risk behaviors; effects of cultural factors, gender, and race/ethnicity on health behavior; Latino health; psychometrics.
Research
- Promoting Equity in Cardiovascular & Respiratory Health (2028)
- A 360 analysis of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) use among adolescents (2019)
- Assessing smoking dependence among Spanish-speaking Latino smokers (2019)
- Leveraging the teachable moment to improve brief interventions in healthcare (2018)
- Culturally relevant model of smoking cessation among Latinos (2017)
- Culturally adapted brief motivational intervention for heavy drinking Latinos (2016)