Chinese Families Project

The Chinese Families project draws from both the Nanjing Adolescent and Nanjing MetroBaby study, which are longitudinal, mixed methods studies with over 1200 Chinese families and children starting at 7th grade for the adolescent study and birth for the MetroBaby study. The project is a collaboration among New York University (NYU), NYU-Shanghai, University of Pennsylvania, and Southeast University in China. We are interested in how the changing social, economic, and cultural context influences Chinese parents' parenting practices and children’s development. The project is currently conducting a eighteen-year follow-up from the Nanjing MetroBaby and Adolescent projects. Ongoing research papers under development include examining Chinese mothers’ gender socialization, adolescents' gender beliefs and their academic achievements, Chinese fathers’ parenting style and children’s friendship quality, parents' workplace climate and families' mental health.

Team members

Principal Investigators: Niobe Way (NYU); Hiro Yoshikawa (NYU); Sumie Okazaki (NYU); Xinyin Chen (UPenn); Xuan Li (NYU Shanghai); Lixian Cui (NYU Shanghai); Theo Waters (NYU Abu Dhabi); Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng (NYU); Siman Zhao (University of Dayton); Cong Zhang (Harvard); Guangzhen Zhang (Southeast University, China); Zongbao Liang (Southeast University, China)

Post-Docs & Graduate Students: Yufei Gu; Esther Sin; Rui Yang; Mengrun Zhang

Select Publications

Yang, R., Waters, T. E. A., Gu, Y., Way, N., Yoshikawa, H., Chen, X., Zhang, G., & Deng, H. (2024). Developmental antecedents of adherence to masculinity norms: A 9-year longitudinal study of urban Chinese families. Developmental Psychology, 60(6), 1097–1108. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001748

Rogers, L.O., Yang, R., Way, N., Weinberg, S.L. and Bennet, A. (2020), “We're supposed to look like girls, but act like boys”: Adolescent girls’ adherence to masculinity norms. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 30, 270-285. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12475

Gupta, T., Way, N., McGill, R.K., Hughes, D., Santos, C., Jia, Y., Yoshikawa, H., Chen, X. and Deng, H. (2013), Gender-typed behaviors in friendships and well-being: A cross-cultural study of Chinese and American boys. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 23, 57-68. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2012.00824.x

Way, N., Okazaki, S., Zhao, J., Kim, J. J., Chen, X., Yoshikawa, H., Jia, Y., & Deng, H. (2013). Social and emotional parenting: Mothering in a changing Chinese society. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 4(1), 61–70. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031204

Yoshikawa, H. Way, N., and Chen, X. (2012). Large-scale economic change and youth development: The case of urban China. New directions for Youth Development, 135.