Professor Diane Hughes Receives APS Lifetime Achievement Award for Transformative Scholarship

Reflecting on the recognition, Hughes shares, “Dr. James S. Jackson was directing the first-ever National Survey of Black Americans when I was a first-year graduate student, so my initial research training and research job–cold calling on a random sample of households to complete a 90-minute survey–was under him. I would have never imagined, at that time, that I would later be receiving an award for my own work, but I am very grateful.”

For over 25 years, Diane L. Hughes, PhD, has transformed how scholars understand one of developmental psychology’s most powerful ideas: racial socialization. As a professor at NYU Steinhardt, Hughes pioneered a framework that reveals how parents share messages about race, ethnicity, and racism with their children.

Her research shifted the narrative. Instead of focusing solely on families’ experiences of racism, Hughes illuminated how families take action, crafting ways to cope, resist, and rise above, while guiding their children to do the same. She also showed that racial socialization is unique to each family, shaped by their own contexts, values, and aspirations.

One of her most influential ideas, “preparation for bias,” explores how children can be empowered to face discrimination. Hughes’s work reveals that when parents actively equip their children for the realities of bias, it can soften the impact of both subtle and blatant racism.

The James Jackson Lifetime Achievement Award honors Dr. Hughes’ sustained contributions to psychological science, mentorship, and transformative scholarship.

Today, Hughes’s research remains a cornerstone for the field, inspiring new generations of scholars and deepening our understanding of how families nurture resilience amid systemic inequality.