Room 4 - Dr. Su Yeong Kim

• In Event: Wednesday Afternoon Chat with Leaders

Abstract

Su Yeong Kim is Professor of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the Editor of Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. She is also a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, American Psychological Society, and the Asian American Psychological Association. Dr. Kim’s research examines the intersection of family and cultural contexts in the development of children of immigrants in the United States, with a focus on children of Chinese and Mexican origin. This work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, Russell Sage Foundation, and Spencer Foundation. Dr. Kim’s studies examine how culturally relevant developmental and cognitive processes, as well as physiological and social stressors, influence parent-child relationships and adjustment transitions and outcomes in minority adolescents and young adults. Dr. Kim’s research has revealed that the commonly held perception of Asian American parents as “tiger parents” who are adept at producing child prodigies is inaccurate. In fact, her eight-year longitudinal study of Chinese American families demonstrated that supportive parenting was the most common type of parenting, and moreover that it led to the most optimal outcomes for Chinese American adolescents, in terms of both their academic and socio-emotional adjustment. Dr. Kim’s studies on language brokering among Mexican American adolescents has revealed that children experience both a sense of burden and efficacy when translating for their Spanish-speaking parents, and that their perceptions of the language brokering experience relate to their physiological functioning, as assessed through cortisol functioning.

Author

• Su Yeong Kim, University of Texas at Austin
  Leader