Christy Rogers, Ph.D.

Affiliations

• Texas Tech University
  
  • Faculty Affiliate of Women’s and Gender Studies
  • Associate Director of STEM Center for Outreach, Research, and Education
  • Co-Organizer of Sexism|Cinema
• Professional
  • Society for Research on Adolescence
  • Society for Research on Child Development
  • National Council on Family Relations

Research Focus

My program of research investigates adolescent development and the transition into emerging adulthood through a family lens. My research highlights that families, particularly sibling relations, can promote positive adolescent development. I use an interdisciplinary approach to capture how siblings and parents support adolescent development, including behavioral coding of family interactions, obtaining questionnaires to assess perceptions of relationships and well-being, and acquiring behavioral and brain imaging data to examine the social influence on decision-making. I am interested in how families, particularly sibling relations, can promote positive adolescent development socio-emotionally, biologically, and cognitively, and how interactions between these domains of development inform youth well-being. My work also extends these themes in identifying resiliency factors in family systems for youth who identify as sexual and/or gender diverse.

Areas of Expertise

• Adolescent/Emerging Adult Development
• Sibling Relations and Support
• Family influences on the Adolescent Brain and Behavior
• Adolescent Identity and Well-Being
• Interdisciplinary and Longitudinal Methodology

Selected Publications

Sibling Relationships and Development

Rogers, C. R., & Telzer, E. H. (early view, 2026). Older sibling prosocial behavior toward younger siblings during adolescence: A multi-informant multi-method longitudinal investigation. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075261469656

Rogers, C. R., Morgan, D. D., Dees, T. B., & Disney, J. L. (2026). The protective role of siblings in sexual diverse emerging adult well-being. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships: Special Issue on Sibling Relationship Processes Across the Lifespan. https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075241303531

Morgan, D. D., Martin, M. J., Ingram, P. B., Oh, W., & Rogers, C. R. (2026). Intolerance of uncertainty, psychopathology, and sibling relationships in emerging adulthood. Current Psychology, 45, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-026-09413-x

Morgan, D., & Rogers, C. R. (2026). Sibling problem-solving as a mediator between sibling closeness and social motivations. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 43, 1545–1569. https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075251411351

Rogers, C. R., & Morgan, D. D. (2025). Identifying the role of siblings in adolescent decision making: A developmental processes approach. Journal of Research on Adolescence: Special Issue on Advancing Studies of Adolescent Development from Bence Science to Preventive Interventions and Policy Through Interdisciplinary Research, 35. http://doi.org/10.1111/jora.13027

Masarik, A. S., & Rogers, C. R. (2024). Behavioral pathways from sibling relationships in adolescence to romantic partnerships in adulthood. Journal of Research on Adolescence: Special Issue on Celebrating the Legacy and Work of John Schulenberg: Taking the Long View on Adolescence. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12974

McClellan, L., Fry, C., Telzer, E. H., Rogers, C. R. (2024). Exploring family obligation as a buffer between parental differential treatment and sibling hostility. Journal of Child and Family Studies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-024-02814-1

Rogers, C. R., Morgan, D. D. (2024). Sibling relationships. In: Troop-Gordon, W., Neblett Jr., E.W. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Adolescence, vol. 2. Elsevier, Academic Press, pp. 490–502. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-96023-6.00004-X

Rogers, C. R., Fry, C. M., Lee, T., Galvan, M., Gates, K. M., & Telzer, E. H. (2022). Neural connectivity underlying adolescent social learning in sibling dyads. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 7, 1007–1020. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsac025

Fry, C. M, Telzer, E. H., Rogers, C. R. (2021). Siblings as buffers: Social problems and internalizing and externalizing behaviors across early adolescence. Journal of Family Psychology, 35, 939–949. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000876

Rogers, C. R., Lee, T., Fry, C. M., & Telzer, E. H. (2021). Where you lead, I will follow: Exploring sibling similarity in brain and behavior during risky decision-making. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 31, 34–51. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12581

Masarik, A., & Rogers, C. R. (2020). Sibling support moderates the intergenerational transmission of romantic relationship hostility. Journal of Marriage and Family, 82, 1431–1443. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12654

Rogers, C. R., McCormick, E., van Hoorn, J., Ivory, S. L., & Telzer, E. H. (2018). Neural correlates of sibling closeness on externalizing behavior in adolescence. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 13, 977–999. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsy063

Rogers, C. R., Guyer, A. E., Nishina, A., & Conger, K. J. (2018). Developmental change in sibling support and school commitment during adolescence. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 28, 858–874. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12370

Parent-Adolescent Relationships and Development

Morgan, D. D., Higgins, C. D., & Rogers, C. R.† (2025). The role of parents in shaping adolescent mental health following the onset of COVID-19. Family Relations, 74, 583-601. https://doi.org/10.1111/fare.13123

Rogers, C. R., Jimenez, V., Benjamin, A., Rudolph, K. D., & Telzer, E. H. (2023). The effect of parents and peers on the neural correlates of risk taking and antisocial behavior during adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 52, 1674–1684. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10964-023-01789-4  

Rogers, C. R., Chen, X., Kwon, S-J., McElwain, N. L., & Telzer, E. H. (2022). The role of early attachment and parental presence in adolescent behavioral and neurobiological regulation. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 5, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2021.101046

Rogers, C. R., Qu, Y., Lee, T., Liu, S., & Kim, S. (2022). Editorial: Similarities and discrepancies across family members at multiple levels: Insights from behavior, psychophysiology, and neuroimaging. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 1–3. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.831048

Rogers, C. R., Perino, M. T., & Telzer, E. H. (2020). Maternal buffering of adolescent dysregulation in socially appetitive contexts: From behavior to the brain. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 30, 41–52. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12500