Supporting Asian/Asian American Children and Youth during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This 60-minute webinar, co-sponsored by SRCD’s Asian Caucus, gives parents, caregivers, and educators a chance to ask leading child development experts pressing questions on how to support Asian and Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) children during the coronavirus pandemic. How can parents support their kids if they or their friends are experiencing bullying? What are some strategies educators can use to cultivate an inclusive virtual classroom? How might parents and educators talk about xenophobia and stereotypes? Participants will have the option to submit questions in advance or post them in real time during the event.

Meet the Experts:

Charissa S. L. Cheah, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Psychology (Applied Developmental Program) at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.  As a cultural developmental scientist, she utilizes mixed-method approaches to understand how individual characteristics, relationships, socialization agents, and contexts interact to influence child and adolescent social-emotional development and physical health, particularly among families from ethnic/racial/religious minority, immigrant, and marginalized groups. Dr. Cheah is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and a recipient of a Fulbright Research Fellowship. She also received a Young Scholar Award from the Foundation for Child Development’s Changing Faces of America’s Children program, and a Visiting Scientist Fellowship from the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey. Dr. Cheah is the past-Chair of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) Asian Caucus and serves on the International Affairs Committee and Rapid Assessment and Response Strategy Team of the SRCD. She is also an elected member of the Executive Committee of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development (ISSBD).  Dr. Cheah is a consulting editor for the journals Child Development and Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology and is on the editorial boards of Parenting: Science and Practice and The International Journal of Behavioral Development. Her research on Asian American families has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and other private foundations. Dr. Cheah received an NSF RAPID (Rapid Response Research) award to examine racial discrimination, identity development, and adjustment among Chinese American families during COVID-19.

Yoonsun Choi, Ph.D., is a Professor at the School of Social Service Administration, the University of Chicago and Chair-elect for SRCD Asian Caucus. Her research centers on the roles of race, ethnicity, culture and immigration in youth development, with a particular focus on Asian American and multiracial youth. With the support from the NICHD, Professor Choi has been leading the Midwest Longitudinal Study of Asian American Families (MLSAAF), the largest in size and study scope targeting Asian American youth in Midwest. Her investigation team of the study aims to identify the diverse developmental trajectories of Asian American youth and the factors that predominate in the determination of these outcomes. The study also seeks to formulate a family process model that incorporates several unique issues of the target group, such as racial prejudice and discrimination, ethnic identity, acculturation of adolescents and their parents, parent-child cultural conflicts, and culturally distinct parenting behaviors. Her scholarship questions the adequacy of existing theoretical accounts of the developmental trajectories of children who are racially, ethnically and culturally different from the dominant group. She argues that for developmental theory to be useful, it must account for cultural variability. Professor Choi has been pursuing a robust research agenda with significantly enhanced cultural specificity, with an aim to use this knowledge to develop culturally appropriate preventive interventions to reduce developmental disparities and to maximize youth potential.

Richard M. Lee, Ph.D., is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. His scholarship centers on the ways Asian American parents and youth navigate differences in racial and ethnic experiences, including ethnic identity development, acculturation, discrimination, and socialization practices. For the past twenty years, he has studied the transracial and transnational experiences of international adoptees from South Korea. He also has been studying the unique discriminatory experiences of Asian Americans, including being perceived and treated as a perpetual foreigner. Dr. Lee is the current Chair of the Society for Research on Child Development Asian Caucus, past President of the Asian American Psychological Association, and past Editor of Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology.

Rashmita S. Mistry, Ph.D., is Professor and Vice Chair of Undergraduate Programs in Education & Social Transformation in the Department of Education at the University of California, Los Angeles. She received her doctorate in Human Development and Family Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin and completed postdoctoral training at the Center for Developmental Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. A developmental psychologist, Dr. Mistry’s research examines the consequences of family socioeconomic resources and disadvantage on children’s developmental outcomes, and children’s perceptions, reasoning, and experiences of social status (i.e., social class, race/ethnicity, nationality). Her scholarship has been recognized by a Distinguished Research Award (Human Development) from the American Educational Research Association (Division E) and a Social Policy Award for Best Edited Book from the Society for Research on Adolescence. She is recipient of the Lena Astin Faculty Mentoring Award and a Teaching & Mentorship Award from UCLA’s Department of Education, and the Outstanding Teaching and Mentorship Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. She is a member of SRCD’s Governing Council and past-Chair of SRCD’s Equity & Justice Committee. She was a member of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) 2019 Presidential Deep Poverty Initiative Working Group, and is a Fellow of the Association of Psychological Science (APS). She has consulted with Sesame Workshop and the Center for Scholars and Storytellers, and blogs for Psychology Today on issues related to social class and child development.

Kaveri Subrahmanyam, Ph.D., is Associate Dean & Professor of Psychology in the College of Natural and Social Sciences at California State University, Los Angeles, and is the Associate Director of the Children’s Digital Media Center @ Los Angeles. Dr. Subrahmanyam is Chair of the Social Policy Subcommittee of SRCD’s Asian Caucus.  In one strand of her research, she investigates the cognitive and social implications of interactive media use for development. She conducted one of the first training studies to demonstrate the effect of informal computer game use on spatial skills, and pioneered the use of a developmental lens to investigate the role of new digital worlds in learning and development. In another strand of research, she investigates Latino children’s dual language development. Her current research investigates the relation between technology use, school belonging, and academic performance among first generation college students and the relation between parents’ and children’s home media use and children’s sleep, behavior problems, and oral language development. In 2013, she was a recipient of the Cal State LA Outstanding Professor Award.  She is on the editorial board of Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, and Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace; previously she was consulting editor for Developmental Psychology and on the editorial board for Emerging Adulthood. She has co-edited a special issue for the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology (2008) and a special section for Developmental Psychology (2012). She is a co-author (with Dr. David Smahel) of Digital Youth: The Role of Media in Development (Springer, 2010).

Tiffany Yip, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology at Fordham University. She completed an undergraduate degree at Cornell University, earned her M.A. and Ph.D. at NYU, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan. Her research on ethnic identity, discrimination, and sleep among ethnic/racial minority adolescents and young adults has been published in American Psychologist, Child Development, Developmental Psychology, and Current Directions in Psychological Science. She serves as an Associate Editor for Developmental Psychology and was a former Associate Editor for Child Development, Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, and the Asian American Journal of Psychology. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science, and her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Her research has been featured in outlets such as the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Psychology Today.

Laura L. Namy, Ph.D. (moderator), is Executive Director of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD). Dr. Namy’s responsibilities include overseeing all staff and business operations of the Society, working in partnership with Governing Council, Committees, and Caucuses to further SRCD’s Strategic Goals, and representing SRCD’s interests in science advocacy settings and in collaborations with sister associations and societies. Prior to taking the helm of SRCD in 2017, Dr. Namy spent 19 years on the Faculty of the Psychology Department at Emory University where she ran the Language and Learning Lab. At Emory, she also directed the interdisciplinary Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture, designed and coordinated a joint major in Psychology and Linguistics, directed a Psychology Summer Study Abroad Program, and directed the Graduate Program in Cognition and Development. Dr. Namy’s professional experiences have included serving as an officer of the Cognitive Development Society, Editor of the Journal of Cognition and Development, and most recently, serving for three years as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and has been a career-long member of SRCD. Dr. Namy earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from Northwestern University and her B.A. in Psychology and Philosophy from Indiana University.