Dr. Germán A. Cadenas

Phone: 
610-758-3255
Fax: 
610-758-3227
Office: 
Room A233-B

Dr. Germán A. Cadenas joined the faculty at Lehigh University in 2018, after completing his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology at Arizona State University, and his Doctoral Internship and Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California Berkeley. His primary research interests are focused broadly on the psychology of undocumented immigrants, including their sociopolitical activism, educational outcomes, career development, and psychological wellbeing. This line also encompasses the development and validation of cultural competencies and social justice strategies for educators and mental health providers working with immigrant communities. On a second line of research, Dr. Cadenas investigates the utility of critical consciousness as a tool to promote educational equity and career development among communities facing social oppression. 

Dr. Germán A. Cadenas identifies as a Latinx immigrant himself and is formerly undocumented. He has a background in policy advocacy and community organizing for immigrant rights, and regularly collaborates with local and national advocacy organizations. His opinion and personal story have been featured in popular media. He currently serves as Vice President for Diversity and Public Interest in the Society of Counseling Psychology (American Psychological Association, Division 17) and is also active in the National Latinx Psychological Association (NLPA). His work has received extramural funding and has been published in outlets such as Journal of Vocational Behavior, Journal of Latinx Psychology, The Counseling Psychologist, and Journal of Diversity in Higher Education

Recent Publications: 

Cadenas, G.A., & McWhirter, E.H. (In Press). Critical consciousness in vocational psychology: A vision for the next decade. Journal of Career Assessment.
 
Cadenas, G.A., Cerezo, A., Carlos Chavez, F., Capielo Rosario, C., Torres, L., Suro, B., & Fuentes, M. (In Press). The citizenship shield: Mediated and moderated links between immigration status, discrimination, food insecurity, and negative health outcomes for Latinx immigrants during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Community Psychology.
 
Garcini, L.M., Domenech Rodriguez, M.M., Mercado, A., Paris, M., Silva, M., & Cadenas, G.A. (In Press). Anti-immigration policy and mental health: Why may DACA recipients in the United States be at high risk of distress during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond? Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy.
 
Cadenas, G.A., Neimeyer, G., Suro-Maldonado, B., Minero, L.P., Campos, L., Garcini, L.M., Mercado, A., Paris, M., Domenech-Rodriguez, M., Silva, M. (In Press). Developing cultural competencies for providing psychological services with immigrant populations: A cross-level training curriculum. Training and Education in Professional Psychology.

Cadenas, G. A., & Kiehne, E. (2021). The undocumented advantage: Intersectional predictors of critical consciousness and academic performance among U.S. Latinxs. Journal of Latinx Psychology, 9(4), 326–343. https://doi.org/10.1037/lat0000163
 
Cadenas, G. A., & Nienhusser, H. K. (2021). Immigration status and college students’ psychosocial well-being. Educational Researcher50(3), 197-200. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X20962470
 
 Santos, C., Cadenas, G.A., Menjívar, C., & Cisneros, J. (2021). The development and evaluation of the stigma of illegality and marginalization of Latinxs (SIML) scale: Links to psychological distress. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742058X21000199   

 Kiehne, E., & Cadenas, G.A. (2021). Development and initial validation of the Latinx immigrant threat attitudes scale. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research12(3), 000-000. https://doi.org/10.1086/715815

 Cadenas, G.A., Liu, L., Melo, K., & Beachy, S. (2021). Promoting critical consciousness, academic performance, and persistence among graduate students experiencing class-based oppression. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000250
 
 Cadenas, G. A., Peña, D., Minero, L. P., Rojas-Araúz, B. O., & Lynn, N. (2021). Critical agency and vocational outcome expectations as coping mechanisms among undocumented immigrant students. Journal of Latinx Psychology, 9(2), 92 – 108. https://doi.org/10.1037/lat0000178

Advocacy, Liberation, Immigration, Vocational Psychology, and Education (ALIVE) Research Lab >>