Dr. Becker is a child & adolescent psychiatry clinician-researcher whose work seeks to improve mental health outcomes for children, adolescents, and families by identifying modifiable psychosocial, health service, and policy factors that influence developmental trajectories, treatment engagement, and recovery. His research integrates mixed-methods, epidemiology, clinical trials, and evidence synthesis across three complementary areas: (1) developmental stigma science and intervention research; (2) adolescent substance use and co-occurring mental health conditions; and (3) clinical evidence synthesis and guideline development.

His primary research program focuses on understanding how stigma develops, influences youth mental health trajectories, and can be modified to improve outcomes for children, adolescents, and their families. Supported by an AACAP Pilot Research Award, his work has synthesized the literature on parental stigma, identified family-level mechanisms and intervention targets through qualitative research informed by medical anthropology, and is evaluating scalable digital interventions for parents and adolescents through randomized controlled trials. His long-term goal is to develop mechanism-informed interventions that reduce stigma and improve engagement, treatment effectiveness, and family well-being in child and adolescent mental health care.

Dr. Becker's complementary research examines adolescent substance use as a major contributor to youth mental health morbidity. His work has included widely cited reviews on adolescent vaping and psychiatric comorbidity, epidemiologic analyses using national datasets, and policy-relevant studies evaluating the public health implications of cannabis legalization. These studies seek to inform evidence-based prevention strategies, clinical practice, and public policy related to adolescent substance use.

He also contributes to national efforts in clinical evidence synthesis and guideline development. As a member of the AACAP Committee on Quality Issues, he has collaborated on multiple AACAP Clinical Practice Guidelines, including substance use disorders, ADHD, OCD, and has co-authored systematic reviews addressing child and adolescent mental health interventions. His research training included an NIMH-funded R25 fellowship. For nearly a decade he has developed expertise in stigma science, mixed-methods research, epidemiology, and intervention development through mentorship with Dr. Lawrence Yang.