Muna Aikins

External LIFE Fellow from 2022 to 2025, MPI for Human Development

Dr. phil.

Dissertation defended at FU Berlin in October 2025:

Biosocial Pathways of Racialized Disparities in Children’s and Adolescents’ Mental Health

(Advisor: Laurel Raffington)

Selected Publications

Aikins, M. A. N., Ansah, W., Goosby, B., & Raffington, L. (2025). Everywhere and every day: The impact of navigating racialization on Black German children's mental health. Frontiers in Public Health, 13, Article 1658945. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1658945

Aikins, M.*, Willems, Y.*, Fraemke, D., Mitchell, C., Goosby, B., & Raffington, L. (2025). Linked emergence of racial disparities in mental health and epigenetic biological aging across childhood and adolescence. Molecular Psychiatry, 30, 4296–4306. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-025-03010-3

*Shared first authorship

Aikins, M. A., Willems, Y. E., Fraemke, D., & Raffington, L. (2024). Beyond a shared history: A biosocial perspective on sociogenomics and racism in Germany. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, 76, 573–602. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11577-024-00934-6