Our research addresses questions that extend to four broad categories of social institutions often associated with youth inequality, violence, vulnerability, and marginalization:
Families
Schools
Communities
Juvenile Justice System
 
Moreover, our research primarily focuses on investigating and ameliorating hurdles, barriers, and vulnerabilities that are often faced by:
Racial and Ethnic Minority Youth
Children of Immigrant Families
Girls and Gender Non-Conforming Youth
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Youth
Urban and Rural Youth
Low-Income Youth
Youth with Disabilities/Special Needs
Youth Involved in the Child Welfare and/or Juvenile Justice System
Victimized and At Risk Youth 
International
 
Intersectionality is based on the premise that identity categories, such as race, ethnicity, gender, family, culture, socio-economic status, sexuality, and so on interact in complex ways that influence how individuals engage, participate, and interact with the social and cultural world in which s/he lives. Intersectionality also holds that interacting identity categories are indicators and proxies for structural and institutional mechanism of inequality, violence, vulnerability, and marginalization.