Family Processes with a Focus on Father Involvement that Support Children's Wellbeing
My primary research area focuses on studying underlying family processes, with a focus on father involvement, that support children's development and wellbeing, especially those of children from unmarried couple families with low income. My dissertation, Family Processes Underlying Economic Insecurity, Father Involvement, and Child Outcomes in Low-Income Families, examines the links between low family income, material hardship, interparental conflict, father engagement, and children’s socioemotional outcomes. This work is funded by the highly competitive federal Family Strengthening Scholar's grant from the Administration for Children and Families (Children's Bureau), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (90PR0009). I use data from the Building Strong Families project, which includes a large and racially diverse sample of unmarried, heterosexual couples with young children (0-3 years). My work in this area includes:
Lee, S. J., Pace, G. T., Lee, J. Y., & Altschul, I. (2020). Parental relationship status as a moderator of the associations between mothers’ and fathers’ conflict behaviors and early child behavior problems. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/0886260520948514 (Impact Factor: 3.064)
Lee, J. Y., Volling, B. L., & Lee, S. J. (2020). Testing the father-child activation relationship theory: A replication study with low-income unmarried parents. Psychology of Men & Masculinities (Special Issue on Fathering: New Perspectives, Paradigms, and Possibilities). Advance online publication. doi:10.1037/men0000301 (Impact Factor: 1.926)
Lee, J. Y., Pace, G.T., Lee, S. J., & Altschul, I. (2019). The associations of constructive and destructive interparental conflict to child well-being among low-income families. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/0886260519835872 (Impact Factor: 3.064)
Lee, J. Y., Volling, B. L., Lee, S. J., & Altschul, I. (2019). Longitudinal relations between coparenting and father engagement in low-income residential and nonresidential father families. Journal of Family Psychology, 34(2), 226-236. doi:10.1037/fam0000612 (Impact Factor: 2.231)
Volling, B. L., Stevenson, M. M., Safyer, P., Gonzalez, R., & Lee, J. Y. (2019). In search of the father-infant activation relationship: A person-centered approach. Monographs of the Society of Research in Child Development, 84(1), 50–63. doi:10.1002/mono.12404 (Impact Factor: 2.387)
Father Engagement and Father-Friendly Parenting Interventions
The second area of my research focuses on fathering and masculine identity, early father engagement behaviors, and the evidence-base of father-inclusive perinatal parent education programs. Secondary data from the Building Strong Families project and Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study were used along with primary data collected through qualitative interviews and systematic review processes. My work in this area include:
Lee, J. Y., Lee, S. J., Lin, M., Albuja, A. F., & Volling, B. (in preparation) Challenges and joys of becoming a first time parent amongst urban community fathers.
Lee, S. J., Pace, G. T., Lee, J. Y., & Knauer, H. (2018). The association of paternal warmth and parenting stress to child behavior problems. Children and Youth Services Review, 91, 1-10. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.05.020 (Impact Factor: 1.383)
- Lee, S. J., Sanchez, D. T., Grogan-Kaylor, A. C., Lee, J. Y., & Albuja, A. (2018). Father early engagement behaviors and infant low birth weight. Maternal and Child Health Journal. 22(10), 1407-1417. doi:10.1007/s10995-018-2521-2 (Impact Factor: 1.821)
Lee, J. Y., Knauer, H. A., Lee, S. J., MacEachern, M., & Garfield, C. (2018). Father-inclusive perinatal parent education programs: A systematic review. Pediatrics, 142(1), 1-18. doi:10.1542/peds.2018-0437 (Impact Factor: 5.515)
Lee, J. Y., & Lee, S. J. (2018). Caring is masculine: Stay-at-home fathers and masculine identity. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 19(1), 47-58. doi:10.1037/men0000079 (Impact Factor: 1.926)
Clinical Social Work Practice Using Technology
My third research area focuses on using technology, including mobile devices and apps to engage in clinical social work practice with diverse client groups (e.g., Medicaid eligible fathers enrolled in home visitation programs, new or expectant fathers, Latinx clients with low income). I explore both standalone and add-on programs to support existing interventions. Given the recent transition to teletherapy in my clinical practice in response to COVID-19, use of both computer and mobile devices to administer developmentally appropriate therapeutic services, including play therapy and trauma-informed care, to children with maltreatment histories is a growing interest of mine. Thus far, some of my work in this area of research includes:
Lee, S. J., & Lee, J. Y. (2020). Full report: Testing the feasibility of an interactive,mentor-based, text messaging program to increase fathers’ engagement in home visitations. Fatherhood Research & Practice Network. https://www.frpn.org/asset/testing-the-feasibility-interactive-mentor-based-text-messaging-program-increase-fathers%E2%80%99
Lee, S. J., Walsh, T. B., & Lee, J. Y. (2019). Mobile technology in social work practice. In L. Goldkind, L. Wolf, & Freddolino, P. P. (Eds.), Digital social work: Tools for practice with individuals, organizations, and communities (pp.54-71). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Lee, J. Y., & Harathi, S. (2015). Using mHealth in social work practice with low-income Hispanic patients. Health & Social Work, 40(4), 1-4. doi:10.1093/hsw/hlv078 (Impact Factor: 1.115)
Prevention of Child Maltreatment, Wellbeing of Foster Care Children and Families, and Child Welfare System Reform
My next and future area of research I am developing includes prevention of child maltreatment (e.g., identifying risk factors that contribute to child maltreatment), clinical work with fathers at risk of maltreating their children, and systemic reform of the child welfare systems through consent decrees. Most recently, I have begun investigating the wellbeing of foster children and their families during COVID-19 using social media data, as well as the overrepresentation of children of color in the U.S. foster care system to better inform culturally responsive prevention interventions. My work in this area includes:
Lee, J. Y., Ortega, R. M., Ortega, M. B., & Twine, S. L. (in preparation). Working with alleged male perpetrators of child maltreatment: Use of a parenting observation protocol. Social Work. (Impact Factor: 1.667)
Lee, J. Y. (in press). Child welfare reform: The role of federal court oversight in child protective service workers’ caseloads. Child Abuse Review. (Impact Factor: 1.206)
Klika, J. B., Lee, S., & Lee, J. Y. (2019). Prevention of child maltreatment. In J. B. Klika & J. R. Conte (Eds.), The APSAC Handbook on Child Maltreatment, Fourth Edition (pp. 235-251). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Lee, J. Y., Grogan-Kaylor, A. C., Lee, S. J., Ammari, T., Lu, A., & Davis-Kean, P. (2020). Stay-at-home mothers’ and fathers’ discipline-related tweets. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 29(3), 817-830. doi:10.1007/s10826-019-01691-3 (Impact Factor: 1.016)
Lee, J. Y., Gilbert, T., Lee, S. J., & Staller, K. M. (2019). Reforming a system that cannot reform itself: Child welfare reform by class action lawsuits. Social Work, 64(4), 283-291. doi:10.1093/sw/swz029 (Impact Factor: 1.667)
