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Qing Zhou Assistant Professor Ph.D., Arizona State University
My research can be broadly defined as the understanding of developmental pathways toward mental health problems and competence in childhood and adolescence. Taking a developmental psychopathology perspective, I am particularly interested in the following processes/aspects of development: a) temperament, or the constitutionally-based individual differences in emotional, motor, and attentional reactivity and regulation; b) emotion-related processing, including emotion regulation, emotionality, appraisal of and coping with stressors; c) family socialization, including parenting, parent-child and family relationship; and d) the larger socio-cultural context, including cultural values and norms. Temperament, Stress & Coping, and Adjustment My colleagues and I have been examining the additive and interactive effects of temperamental regulation (e.g., effortful control) and emotionality (e.g., anger/frustration) on children’s behavior problems and social competence, the relative contributions of effortful versus reactive control/regulation to children’s emotional expressivity, and the links of empathy to children’s social functioning in longitudinal samples of normative and at-risk children. I am also interested in how children react to and cope with stressors (e.g., negative life events), and the roles of stressors and coping in the development of mental health problems. I have investigated the associations between temperament and children’s appraisal of and coping with stressors, and whether appraisal and coping mediate temperamental differences in the development of externalizing and internalizing problems. Family socialization My interest in family socialization focuses on aspects of the family context that relate to or interact with children’s temperament and emotion-related processing (e.g., parenting styles, parental reaction to children’s emotions, parental expressivity, and parental socialization of children’s appraisals of and coping with stressors). For example, we have found that children’s effortful control – an aspect of temperamental regulation – and empathic responding to other’s negative emotions partly mediated the links of parental warmth and positive expressivity to children’s externalizing problems. Culture The third part of my research focuses on cross-cultural differences/similarities in children’s emotion-related processing, its socialization, and implications for mental health and competence. My collaborators in Beijing and I have conducted a 4-year longitudinal study on Chinese school-age children’s temperamental regulation and reactivity, appraisal of and coping with negative life events, parenting styles, and children’s psychosocial functioning (e.g., behavior problems, academic and social competence). Because the majority of existing studies in these areas were based on European-American samples, this study provides a unique opportunity to examine both the developmental processes that are cross-culturally universal and those that are culturally specific. I plan to further investigate these questions through within-culture and cross-cultural comparative research (e.g., a comparative study involving native Chinese, Chinese American, and European-American samples). Current Projects The Risk and Protective Factors for Mental Health Adjustment in 1st- and 2nd- Generation Chinese American Immigrant Children Currently funded by the Young Scholars Program, Foundation for Child Development, this 3-year longitudinal study will examine the risk and protective factors for mental health adjustment and competence in a diverse sample of 250 first and second generation Chinese American (CA) immigrant children starting 1st and 2nd grade. The specific aims are: a) to study the relative strengths and weaknesses in CA children’s mental health adjustment by comparing their scores with national norms for the American population as a whole and with existing data on native Chinese children; and b) to identify the cultural (acculturation), familial (e.g., poverty, SES, parenting), school, neighborhood, and individual (e.g., temperament, coping) risk and protective factors that predict changes in CA children’s mental health adjustment over time, and to study the mediating and moderating mechanisms involved in the operation of these factors. A multi-method (questionnaire, semi-structured interview, behavioral observation and testing, and archival data) and multi-informant (parent, teacher, and child report) methodological approach will be used in assessment. Cultural Adaptation Study of the New Beginnings Program: An Evidence-Based Prevention Program for Divorced Mothers The New Beginnings Program (NBP) was developed by Drs. Sharlene Wolchik and Irwin Sandler at Arizona State University (ASU). This 10-week parent education program focuses on teaching mothers parenting skills to help their children adjust to parental divorce or separation. Randomized controlled studies have shown that the NBP provides many short-term and long-term benefits for children from divorced families, including decreased mental health problems, lower substance use, and better school grades. Because the efficacy trials of the NBP were conducted with predominantly Caucasian, middle-income, and relatively educated mothers, a crucial question to solve before conducting effectiveness trials and disseminating the program to a broader population is: How to engage a more diverse group of families and deliver the program in a way that fits with their values, preferences, and diversity of life circumstances? I am currently collaborating with researchers at ASU in conducting a pilot study on cultural adaptation of the NBP for Asian American families. The study involves delivering to program to groups of Asian American divorced mothers to evaluate whether the program was engaging to participants and sensitive to their specific needs, preferences, cultural values, and concerns. A multi-method approach (including questionnaire, interview, behavioral observation, and focus group) will be used to evaluate the program’s cultural sensitivity. Selected Publications Zhou, Q., Wang, Y., Eisenberg, N., Wolchik, S., Tein, J-Y., & Deng, X. (in press). Relations of parenting and temperament to Chinese children’s experience of negative life events, coping efficacy, and externalizing problems. Child Development. Eisenberg, N., Ma, Y., Chang, L., Zhou, Q., Aiken, L., & West, S. (2007). Relations of effortful control, reactive undercontrol, and anger to Chinese children’s adjustment. Development and Psychopathology, 19, 385-409. Zhou, Q., Hofer, C., Eisenberg, N., Reiser, M., Spinrad, T. L., & Fabes, R. A. (2007). Developmental trajectories of attention focusing, behavioral persistence, and externalizing problems in school age years. Developmental Psychology, 43, 369-385. Zhou, Q., King, K. M., & Chassin, L. (2006). The roles of familial alcoholism and adolescent family harmony in young adults’ substance dependence disorders: Mediated and moderated relations. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 115, 320-331. Eisenberg, N., Zhou, Q., Spinrad, T. L., Valiente, C., Fabes, R. A., & Liew, J. C. (2005). Relations among positive parenting, children’s effortful control, and externalizing problems: A three-wave longitudinal study. Child Development, 76, 1055-1071. Zhou, Q., Eisenberg, N., Wang, Y., & Reiser, M. (2004). Chinese children’s effortful control and dispositional anger/frustration: Relations to parenting styles and children’s social functioning. Developmental Psychology, 40, 352-366. Eisenberg, N., Zhou, Q., Losoya, S. H., Fabes, R. A., Shepard, S. A., Murphy, B. C., Reiser, M., Guthrie, I. K., & Cumberland-Li, A. (2003). The relations of parenting, effortful control, and ego control to children’s emotional expressivity. Child Development, 74, 875-895. Zhou, Q., Eisenberg, N., Losoya, S., Fabes, R. A., Reiser, M., Guthrie, I. K., Murphy, B., Cumberland, A., & Shepard, S. A. (2002). The relations of parental warmth and positive expressiveness to children's empathy-related responding and social functioning: A longitudinal study. Child Development, 73, 893-915.
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