Biography
Assistant Professor Sara Goodkind earned a PhD in social work and sociology, a graduate certificate in women’s studies, and an MSW, all from the University of Michigan.
Goodkind’s research focuses on programs and services for young people, particularly those in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. She is interested in how understandings of gender, race/ethnicity, class, sexuality, and age shape service design and delivery and how these, in turn, affect the mental health and well-being of young people, parents, and staff members. Much of her work has focused on programs for girls in the juvenile justice system, and she has been involved with efforts to improve the system and prevent and develop alternatives to girls’ involvement with it. Goodkind’s current research explores the experiences of young people aging out of the child welfare system and transitioning into adulthood.
Selected Funded Grants
- Co-Principal Investigators: Jeffrey Shook and Sara Goodkind, Understanding Transitions to Adulthood among Child Welfare Involved Youth. Funder: Department of Human Services, Allegheny County (Primary funding from the Pittsburgh Foundation and Eden Hall Foundation
Selected Publications
Goodkind, Sara. 2009. “You can be anything you want, but you have to believe it”: Commercialized feminism in gender-specific programs for girls. Signs 34(2):397-422.
Sara Goodkind, Mary Ruffolo, Deborah Bybee, and Rosemary C. Sarri. 2009. Coping as a mediator of the effects of stressors and supports on depression among girls in juvenile justice. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice 7(2):100-118.
Goodkind, Sara. 2009. “You may even be President of the United States one day”: Challenging commercialized feminism in programming for girls in juvenile justice. In Childhood, Youth, and Social Work in Transformation, eds. Lynn Nybell, Jeffrey J. Shook, and Janet Finn. New York: Columbia University Press.
Wallace, John M., Jr., Sara Goodkind, Cynthia Wallace, and Jerald Bachman. 2008. Racial/ethnic and gender differences in school discipline among American high school students: 1991-2005. The Negro Educational Review 59(1/2):47-62.
Goodkind, Sara, Irene Ng, and Rosemary C. Sarri. 2006. The impact of sexual abuse in the lives of young women involved or at risk of involvement with the juvenile justice system. Violence Against Women 12(5):456-77.
Goodkind, Sara and Diane L. Miller. 2006. A widening of the net of social control? “Gender-specific” treatment for young women in the U.S. juvenile justice system. Journal of Progressive Human Services 17(1):45-70.
Goodkind, Sara. 2005. Gender-specific services in the juvenile justice system: A critical examination. Affilia 20(1):52-70.
Ruffolo, Mary, Rosemary C. Sarri, and Sara Goodkind. 2004. Study of delinquent, diverted and high-risk adolescent females: Implications for mental health prevention and intervention. Social Work Research 28(4):237-45.