Meghan Costello, PhD

Assistant Professor

University of South Carolina

Hi! I am a clinical psychologist and researcher focused on understanding and leveraging positive relationship processes in adolescence. I work alongside teens and their communities - caregivers, peers, schools, and other caring adults - to empower youth and boost connections to formal and informal mental health supports. I do this work as an Assistant Professor of School Psychology at the University of South Carolina!

Please visit The Peer Lab to learn more about our work at USC!

Research Interests

My research focuses on adolescent social development and well-being: assessing the positive influence of supportive relationships, leveraging near-peer supports to disseminate scalable programming, and integrating mental health supports into existing school and social systems to promote equitable mental health care.

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Featured Publications

Costello, M.A., Nagel, A.G., Hunt, G.L., Rivens, A.J., Hazelwood, O.A., Pettit, C., & Allen, J.P. (2022) Facilitating Connection to Enhance College Student Well-Being: Evaluation of an Experiential Group Intervention. American Journal of Community Psychology, 70, 314-326. doi: 10.1002/ajcp.12601

Costello, M.A., Pettit, C., Hellwig, A.F., Hunt, G.L., Bailey, N.A., & Allen, J.P. (2024). Adolescent Social Learning Within Supportive Friendships: Self-Disclosure and Relationship Quality from Adolescence to Adulthood. Journal of Research on Adolescence. doi: 10.1111/jora.12947

Costello, M.A., Pascale, M., Potter, K., Knoll, S.J., Bodolay, A., Kaur, J., Du, R., Greenspan, L., Gray, C.A., McIntyre, J., & Schuster, R.M. (2025). Understanding Adolescent Mental Health Symptom Progression in School-Based Settings: The Substance Use and Risk Factors (SURF) Survey. School Psychology. doi: 10.1037/spq0000681

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