Su Yeong Kim

Interests

Mexican American and Chinese American families and immigration, acculturation, language brokering, parenting, depressive symptoms, school achievement, measurement invariance

Biography

Postdoctoral Fellow, Prevention Research Center, Arizona State University 
Ph.D., Human Development, University of California, Davis 
B.A., Psychology (Departmental Honors), University of Southern California
B.S., Business Administration (Information Systems), University of Southern California

Research Interests

Su Yeong Kim, Ph.D., is Professor of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. She studies the intersection of family and cultural contexts in understanding the development of children of immigrants in the United States, with a focus on children of Chinese and Mexico-origin.  Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Kim examines how culturally relevant developmental processes (acculturation), cognitive processes (executive functioning), and physiological (cortisol, inflammation) and social stressors (discrimination) directly, indirectly, or interactively influence parent-child relationships (parenting, tiger parenting, father-child relationships) and adjustment transitions and outcomes (academic achievement, depressive symptoms) in minority adolescents and young adults. She also develops and tests the measurement invariance of culturally relevant measures for use with ethnic minorities. For example, she developed measures of language brokering to capture the subjective experiences of adolescents translating for monolingual, immigrant parents with limited English skills. 

Her research has revealed that the commonly held perception of Asian American parents as “tiger parents” being responsible for producing child prodigies is inaccurate. In fact, her eight year longitudinal study of Chinese American families demonstrate supportive parenting as the most common type of parenting leading to the most optimal outcomes in terms of both academic and socio-emotional adjustment in Chinese American adolescents. Her studies on language brokering among Mexican American adolescents reveals that children experience both a sense of burden and efficacy in translating for their non-English fluent, Spanish-speaking parents, and that their perceptions of the language brokering experience relate directly to their socio-emotional adjustment.

Dr. Kim is accepting new Ph.D. students for Fall 2022. Application deadline is December 1, 2021 for the Human Development and Family Sciences Ph.D. program at the University of Texas at Austin. Please inquire directly with Dr. Kim at su.yeong.kim@utexas.edu

HDFS faculty webpage

Courses

Grants

Current Federal Funding: Principal Investigator

Previous Federal Funding: Principal Investigator

Publications

Select Publications (103 Journal Publications)

Shen, Y., Seo, E., Walt, D. C., & Kim, S. Y. (in press). Stress of language brokering and Mexican American Adolescents' adjustment: The role of cumulative risk. Journal of Early Adolescence. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431619847526 

Zhang, M., Kim, S. Y., & Hou, Y., & Shen, Y. (2020). Parent-adolescent acculturation profiles and adolescent language brokering experiences in Mexican immigrant families. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 49, 335-351. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-01064-5

Chen, S., Hou, Y. , Benner, A. D., & Kim, S. Y. (2020). Discrimination, language brokering efficacy, and academic competence among adolescent language brokers. Journal of Adolescence, 79, 247-257. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2020.01.015

O’Gara, J. L., Calzada, E. J., & Kim, S. Y. (2020). The father’s role in risk and resilience among Mexican-American adolescents. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 90, 70-77. https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000394

Kim, S. Y.,Chen, S., Hou, Y., Zeiders, K., H. & Calzada, E. J. (2019). Parental socialization profiles in Mexican-origin families: Considering cultural socialization and general parenting practices. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 25, 439-450. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000234

Sim, L.,Kim, S. Y., Zhang, M., & Shen, Y. (2019). Parenting and centrality: The role of life meaning as a mediator for parenting and language broker role identity.  Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 48, 510-526.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0963-x

Shen, Y., Kim, S. Y., & Benner, A. D. (2019). Burdened or efficacious? Subgroups of Chinese American language brokers, predictors, and long-term outcomes. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 48, 154-169.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0916-4

Kim, S. Y., Schwartz, S. J., Perreira, K. M., & Juang, L. P. (2018).  Culture’s influence on stressors, parental socialization, and developmental processes in the mental health of children of immigrants.  Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 14, 343-370. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-050817-084925 

Kim, S. Y., Zhang, M., Zeiders, K., Sim, L., & Gleason, M. E. J. (2018). Acute salivary cortisol response among Mexican American adolescents in immigrant families.  Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 24,510-520.https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000218

Kim, S. Y., Hou, Y., Song, J., Schwartz, S. J., Chen, S., Zhang, M., Perreira, K. M., & Parra-Medina, D. (2018). Profiles of language brokering experiences and contextual stressors: Implications for adolescent outcomes in Mexican immigrant families. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 47, 1629-1648. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0851-4

Hou, Y.,Kim, S. Y., & Benner, A. D. (2018). Parent-adolescent discrepancies in reports of parenting and adolescent outcomes in Mexican immigrant families. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 47, 430-444.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-017-0717-1

Hou, Y., Neff, L. A., & Kim, S. Y. (2018). Language acculturation, acculturation-related stress, and marital quality in Chinese American couples. Journal of Marriage and Family, 80, 555-568.https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12447

Juang, L. P., Hou, Y., Bayless, S. D., & Kim, S. Y.  (2018). Time-varying associations of parent-adolescent cultural conflict and youth adjustment among Chinese American families. Developmental Psychology, 54, 938-949.https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000475

Kim, S. Y., Hou, Y., & Gonzalez, Y. (2017). Language brokering and depressive symptoms in Mexican American adolescents: Parent-child alienation and resilience as moderators. Child Development, 88, 867-881. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12620  

Kim, S. Y.,Hou, Y., Shen, Y., & Zhang, M. (2017). Longitudinal measurement equivalence of subjective language brokering experiences scale in Mexican American adolescents. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 23, 230-243.https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000117

Hou, Y., Kim, S. Y., Hazen, N., & Benner, A. D. (2017). Parents’ perceived discrimination and adolescent adjustment in Chinese American families: Mediating family processes. Child Development, 88, 317-331.  https://doi.org/doi:10.1111/cdev.12603 

Awards and Honors

Research Award

• Outstanding Contribution to Research on Asian/Asian Americans, Society for Research in Child Development Asian Caucus, 2017

Top 25 Downloaded Article

• In July 2013, Kim et al. (2013) tiger parenting paper recognized as Top 25 downloaded papers in the previous 3 months by the American Psychological Association's PsycNET database

Best Paper Award

• Kim et. al (2013)’s tiger parenting paper (Does “Tiger Parenting” Exist? Parenting Profiles of Chinese Americans and Adolescent Developmental Outcomes”) recognized with Asian American Journal of Psychology Best Paper Award, 2014

 Fellow Status

• Fellow, American Psychological Association, Division 45 (Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race), 2014
• Fellow, Association for Psychological Science, 2013
• Fellow, Asian American Psychological Association, 2013

 Early Career Awards

• Young Scientist Award, International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development, 2010
• Early Career Award for Distinguished Contributions (Scholarship), Asian American Psychological Association, 2010

Courses Taught

Graduate

HDF 380k.1 (Human Development and Family Sciences): Research Methods in Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin

HDF 394 (Human Development and Family Sciences): Immigration and the Family, University of Texas at Austin

Undergraduate     

HDF 315L (Human Development and Family Sciences): Research Methods in Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin

HDF 343 (Human Development and Family Sciences): Human Development in Ethnic Minority and Immigrant Families, University of Texas at Austin

Student Opportunities

Undergraduate research assistants are sought for various positions, including interviewing and calling participants, data management, data analysis, transcriptions, and general office tasks related to the reserach. Contact su.yeong.kim@utexas.edu for more information and to schedule an interview. Students with written and verbal proficiency in Spanish or Chinese (Cantonese) are encouraged to inquire about current research opportunities. Spanish/Chinese language fluency is desirable but not required.

Dr. Kim is accepting new Ph.D. students for Fall 2021. Application deadline is December 1, 2020 for the Human Development and Family Sciences Ph.D. program at the University of Texas at Austin. Please inquire directly with Dr. Kim at su.yeong.kim@utexas.edu.

Doctoral Students Currently Supervised by Dr. Kim

The following students are currently being supervised by Dr. Su Yeong Kim, for the Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Sciences

• Jinjin Yan
• Jiaxiu Song
• Wen Wen
• Hin Wing (Florence) Tse