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Burrow, A. L., & Ratner, K. (in press). Within-person variability in daily purpose moderates the association between trait purpose and adolescent adjustment. Journal of Research on Adolescence. 

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​Ratner, K. (2025). How institutions of higher education support and thwart students’ negotiations of identity and self-direction: Exploring derailment in the college context. In P. L. Hill & A. L. Burrow (Eds.), Purpose in life as ancient but nascent: Perspectives from psychology, philosophy, and human development (pp.130-157). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009407427.007

 

Ratner, K., Budesheim, E. F., Alexander, C. S., Klein, R. C., Leinenweber, S., Zhang, L., Zhao, T. Y., Garcia Romero, O., & Napolitano, C. M. (2025). Hurry up and wait: Developmental anxiety during the transition to adulthood. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 17(3), 483-505. doi:10.1111/jftr.12621

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Xie, H., Ratner, K., Fegley, S. G., & Nakkula, M. J. (2025). Heterogeneity in the developmental trajectories of Chinese youth educational aspirations: Identifying predictors and outcomes. Child Development, 96(3), 1220-1235. doi:10.1111/cdev.14234

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Rule, P. D., Ratner, K., Willroth, E. C., & Hill, P. L. (2025). Development and validation of the Physical Disability Identity Scale: A multi-study quantitative investigation with participant feedback. Rehabilitation Psychology. Advance online publication. doi:10.1037/rep0000606.

 

Ratner, K., Xie, H., Zhu, G., Estevez, M., & Burrow, A. L. (2025). Trajectories and predictors of adolescent purpose development in self-driven learning. Child Development, 96(2), 691-704. doi:10.1111/cdev.14201

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Ratner, K., Zhu, G., Li, Q., Rice, M., Estevez, M., & Burrow, A. L. (2024). Derailment in adolescence: Factor analytic structure and correlates. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 34(3), 1099-1106. doi:10.1111/jora.12954

 

Zhu, G., Zheng, J., Ratner, K., Li, Q., Estevez, M., & Burrow, A. L. (2024). How trait and state positive emotions, negative emotions, and self-regulation relate to adolescents’ perceived daily learning progress. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 77, 102275. doi:10.1016/j.cedpsych.2024.102275

 

Ratner, K., Gladstone, J. R., Zhu, G., Li, Q., Estevez, M., & Burrow, A. L. (2024). Purpose and goal pursuit as a self-sustaining system: Evidence of daily within-person reciprocity among adolescents in a self-driven learning program. Journal of Personality, 92(6), 1556-1570. doi:10.1111/jopy.12911

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Ratner, K., Zhu, G., Li, Q., Estevez, M., & Burrow, A. L. (2023). Interacting with supportive adults predicts greater same-day psychosocial functioning among adolescents in a self-driven learning program. Journal of Adolescence, 95(4), 729–739. doi:10.1002/jad.12149

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Ratner, K., Li, Q., Zhu, G., Estevez, M., & Burrow, A. L. (2023). Daily adolescent purposefulness, daily subjective well-being, and individual differences in autistic traits. Journal of Happiness Studies, 24(3), 967-‌989. doi:10.1007/s10902-023-00625-7

 

Jeon, H. J., Ratner, K., & Wang, Q. (2023). The effects of labeling and health identity on subjective health. British Journal of Health Psychology, 28(1), 174-187. doi:10.1111/bjhp.12618

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Ratner, K., Burrow, A. L., Mendle, J., & Thoemmes, F. (2023). Derailment and depression in college: Tests of 3-year predictive capacity and moderation by self-reflection, brooding, perfectionism, and cognitive flexibility. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 70(2), 212-222. doi:10.1037/cou0000649

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Ratner, K., Burrow, A. L., Thoemmes, F., & Mendle, J. (2022). Invariance of the Derailment Scale-6: Testing the measurement and correlates of derailment across adulthood. Psychological Assessment, 34(4), 320–331. doi:10.1037/pas0001093

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Rosenfeld, D. L., Balcetis, E., Bastian, B. Berkman, E. T., Bosson, J. K., Brannon, T. N., ... Ratner, K., ... Tomiyama, A. J. (2022). Psychological science in the wake of COVID-19: Social, methodological, and meta-scientific considerations. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 17(2), 311-333. doi:10.1177/1745691621999374 

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Ratner, K., Porcelli, S. E., & Burrow, A. L. (2022). Purpose in life, dispositional urgency, and the propensity to engage in risky and self-destructive behaviors. Motivation and Emotion, 46(1), 59-73. doi:10.1007/s11031-021-09915-0

 

Burrow, A. L., Ratner, K., Porcelli, S. E., & Sumner, R. (2022). Does purpose grow here?: Exploring 4-H as a context for cultivating youth purpose. Journal of Adolescent Research, 37(4), 471-500. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558420942477 

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Ratner, K., Burrow, A. L., Mendle, J., & Hill, P. L. (2022). A prospective study of college student depressive symptoms, sense of purpose in life, and response to a COVID-19 campus shutdown. Personality and Individual Differences, 189, 111475. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2021.111475  

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Ratner, K., & Burrow, A. L. (2021). Derailment within the landscape of psychopathology. Current Opinion in Psychology, 41, 21-27. doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.01.009

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Pfund, G. N., Ratner, K., Allemand, M., Burrow, A. L., & Hill, P. L. (2021). When the end feels near: Purpose predicts well-being as a function of future time perspective. Aging and Mental Health, 26(6), 1178-1188. doi:10.1080/13607863.2021.1891203

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Ratner, K., Burrow, A. L., & Mendle, J. (2020). The unique predictive value of discrete depressive symptoms on derailment. Journal of Affective Disorders, 270, 65–68. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2020.03.097

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Jeon, H. J., Wang, Q., Burrow, A. L., & Ratner, K. (2020). Perspectives of future health in self and others: The moderating role of culture. Journal of Health Psychology, 25(5), 703–712. doi:10.1177/1359105317730897

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Ong, A. D., Thoemmes, F., Ratner, K., Ghezzi-Kopel, K., & Reid, M. C. (2020). Positive affect and chronic pain: A preregistered systematic review and meta-analysis. Pain, 161(6), 1140-1149. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001828. 

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Ratner, K., Burrow, A. L., & Hill, P. L. (2020). Autistic traits and purpose in emerging adulthood: Associations with pathways to purpose and perceived adult status. Emerging Adulthood, 8(5), 420-427. doi:10.1177/2167696818817446

 

Burrow, A. L., Hill, P. L., Ratner, K., & Fuller-Rowell, T. E. (2020). Derailment: Conceptualization, measurement, and adjustment correlates of perceived change in self and direction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 118(3), 584–601. doi:10.1037/pspp0000209. Find the 10-item Derailment Scale here.

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Berman, S. L., Montgomery, M. J., & Ratner, K. (2020). Trauma and identity: A reciprocal relationship?. Journal of Adolescence, 79, 275-278. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2020.01.018
 

Ratner, K., Burrow, A. L., Burd, K. A., & Hill, P. L. (2019). On the conflation of purpose and meaning in life: A qualitative study of high school and college student conceptions. Applied Developmental Science. Advance online publication. doi:10.1080/10888691.2019.1659140

 

Ratner, K., Mendle, J., Burrow, A. L., & Thoemmes, F. (2019). Depression and derailment: A cyclical model of mental illness and perceived identity change. Clinical Psychological Science, 7(4), 735-753. doi:10.1177/2167702619829748

 

Ratner, K., & Burrow, A. L. (2019). Identity and purpose in life as building blocks for wisdom. In R. J. Sternberg & J. Glück (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Wisdom (pp. 519–550). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108568272.025

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Burrow, A. L., Hill, P. L., Ratner, K., & Sumner, R. (2018). A better tomorrow: Toward a stronger science of youth purpose. Research in Human Development, 15(2), 167-180. doi:10.1080/15427609.2018.1445926

 

Ratner, K., & Burrow, A. L. (2018). Autistic features in the general population: Implications for sensing purpose in life. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 13(5), 494-501. doi:10.1080/17439760.2017.1315647

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Burrow, A. L., Hill, P. L., & Ratner, K. (2018). Purpose. In R. J. R. Levesque (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Adolescence (2nd ed., pp. 2993-3302). Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing AG.

 

Ratner, K., Burrow, A. L., & Thoemmes, F. (2016). The effects of exposure to objective coherence on perceived meaning in life: A preregistered direct replication of Heintzelman, Trent, and King (2013). Royal Society Open Science, 3(11), 1-15. doi:10.1098/rsos.160431

 

Ratner, K., & Berman, S. L. (2016). Identity boundaries: An empirical perspective. Personality and Individual Differences, 90, 89-92. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2015.10.047

 

Ratner, K., & Berman, S. L. (2015). The influence of autistic features on identity development in emerging adults. Emerging Adulthood, 3(2), 136-139. doi:10.1177/2167696814559305

 

Berman, S. L., Ratner, K., Cheng, M., Li, S., Jhingnon, G., & Sukamaran, N. (2014). Identity distress during the era of globalization: A cross-national comparative study of India, China, and the United States. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 14(4), 286-296. doi: 10.1080/15283488.2014.944698

 

Ratner, K., & Berman, S. L. (2014). The role of parenting and attachment in identity style development. The University of Central Florida Undergraduate Research Journal, 7(1), 15-26.