Applied Developmental Psychology

Jung Yun Na

Ph.D. Student in Developmental Psychology · University of Maryland, Baltimore County

I study culturally grounded pathways to resilience, purpose, and thriving among Asian and multicultural youth and their families — with a focus on family processes, spirituality, identity, and community strengths. As a translational researcher, I carry these findings into family-, faith-, and community-based programs.

Asian American Youth & Families Multicultural Youth in Korea Purpose & Spirituality Resilience & Thriving Mixed Methods
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Jung Yun Na
01
About

A strength-based developmental science of culture

I am a doctoral researcher in developmental psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (Culture, Child, and Adolescent Development Lab; advisor: Dr. Charissa S. L. Cheah). My work asks how culturally meaningful strengths — family relationships, racial-ethnic socialization, spirituality, sense of purpose, and community belonging — help young people recover, find their voice, and thrive within racialized, immigrant, and multicultural contexts.

My current research centers on Asian American adolescents and families, including racial discrimination, racial-ethnic socialization, parent–adolescent communication, mental health, civic engagement, and youth voice. Long term, I aim to bridge Asian American developmental science in the United States with culturally grounded research on multicultural youth in Korea, and to translate evidence into family-, school-, faith-, and community-based prevention and intervention.

My scholarship began with questions about purpose and identity at Cornell, expanded to racial and cultural development at Penn, deepened through theological training in spirituality and meaning-making, and now centers on culturally grounded resilience and positive development among Asian and multicultural youth.

Education
In progress
Ph.D., Developmental Psychology
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
2022
Th.M., Educational Studies
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
2019
M.Div.
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
2016
M.S.Ed., Human Development
University of Pennsylvania
2014
B.S., Human Development / Psychology (Honors)
Cornell University
02
Research at a Glance

Three connected lines, one enduring question

How do culturally meaningful strengths help young people thrive?

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I
Line 1

Spirituality, Purpose, & Resilience

How religiosity, spirituality, meaning-making, and sense of purpose promote resilience, emotional well-being, and prosocial development.

Explore →
II
Line 2

Asian American Families & Youth Voice

How cultural and family processes foster resilience, voice, purpose, mental health, and civic contribution amid racialized experiences.

Explore →
III
Line 3

Multicultural Youth Development in Korea

Culturally specific family, school, spiritual, and community factors that promote belonging, mental health, and positive development.

Explore →
03
Recent News

What's happening

Sep 2026
Co-founded COZY (Creating Opportunities, Zero Barriers for Children, Youth & Families) — a nonprofit translating developmental science into accessible parenting and family programs for families facing barriers to support, with a U.S.–Korea reach.
Sep 2026
Co-leading two new studies in the Cheah lab: Project BRAVE — a pilot racial-ethnic socialization intervention with Asian American parents (with EmbraceRace) — and Project AURA, a three-country longitudinal study of young adults' emotional engagement with AI and socio-emotional adjustment.
Sep 2026
Launched the Multicultural Family Youth Project in South Korea as Principal Investigator — a mixed-methods dyadic study of discrimination, family processes, and positive development in multicultural families.
Sep 2026
Submitted the dyadic study of meaning-making of anti-Asian racism in Korean American families for publication, and began a conceptual review on purpose development among Asian American youth.
Sep 2026
Began the second year of the Ph.D. program at UMBC with continuous full funding, including the Fall 2026 UMBC Psychology Department Award — merit funding received every semester to date.
Jun 2026
Co-authored poster on Asian American adolescents' civic engagement presented at the ISSBD Biennial Meeting in Seoul, South Korea.
Apr 2026
Joined the Bullying Prevention and Mental Health Promotion Lab (Dr. Cixin Wang) at UMD College Park, running the Parent-Child Connect Workshop for Asian American families.
Mar 2026
Presented "How I See Us Matters" — private regard as a protective factor for Asian American adolescents — at the SRA Annual Meeting in Toronto.
2026
Received the Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) Workshop Award from SRA & the Bezos Family Foundation.
2026
Co-authored papers published in Pastoral Psychology and the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry.
2025
Four co-authored papers published, including in Counselling Psychology Quarterly and Race and Social Problems.
Sep 2024
Began the Ph.D. program in Developmental Psychology at UMBC under Dr. Charissa S. L. Cheah.
01
Research Program

Culturally grounded pathways to youth resilience and thriving

How do culturally meaningful strengths help young people recover, find purpose, claim their voice, and thrive?

❧

My research program treats culture as a developmental system — values, histories, language, family roles, spirituality, socialization, and institutions, not merely race or ethnicity. Across three connected lines, I examine risk without defining youth by risk, centering assets, recovery, adaptation, purpose, contribution, and thriving.

Developmental Contexts

Racialization, discrimination, migration, acculturative demands, multicultural stigma, family and school challenges

Culturally Meaningful Assets

Family relationships, racial-ethnic socialization, identity, spirituality, purpose, community belonging, critical consciousness

Resilience Processes

Meaning-making, coping, co-regulation, social support, hope, identity integration, youth voice, recovery

Developmental Outcomes

Emotional well-being, mental health, resilience, purpose, positive youth development, civic engagement, thriving

Translation

Culturally grounded family, school, faith, community, digital, and policy interventions

02
Three Research Lines

The program in depth

I
Line 1

Spirituality, Purpose, & Resilience in Youth Development

How do religiosity, spirituality, meaning-making, and sense of purpose promote resilience, emotional well-being, prosocial development, and contribution among adolescents and emerging adults?

Spirituality and purpose are frequently meaningful in the lives of youth and families, yet developmental research often measures them narrowly or treats them as peripheral. This line examines when, how, and for whom spiritual and purpose-related resources support development — while also recognizing that religious contexts can generate pressure, conflict, or obligation.

Does spirituality foster emotional well-being through sense of purpose and meaning-making?
Can purpose buffer or accelerate recovery from discrimination, family stress, or acculturative stress?
How do adolescents distinguish supportive spiritual coping from pressure, guilt, or obligation?
II
Line 2

Cultural & Family Processes in Asian American Youth Resilience and Voice

How do Asian American youth and families understand and navigate racialized experiences, and how do cultural and family processes foster resilience, voice, purpose, mental health, and civic contribution?

Building on my doctoral training and strongest publication pipeline, this line connects racialized stress with family processes and youth strengths — recognizing bidirectional influence between parents and adolescents, and moving from documenting harm toward explaining culturally grounded resilience, socialization, meaning-making, and youth action.

Which racial-ethnic socialization messages protect mental health, and under what relational conditions?
How do parents and adolescents converge, diverge, and negotiate meaning after racialized events?
How do adolescents socialize parents and influence family understanding of race, culture, and civic engagement?
III
Line 3

Culturally Grounded Mental Health & Positive Development among Multicultural Youth in Korea

What culturally specific family, school, spiritual, and community factors promote mental health, belonging, resilience, purpose, and positive development among multicultural youth in Korea?

This line builds toward research leadership in Korea — not as an application of U.S. theories to a Korean population, but by identifying culturally and institutionally specific developmental processes and building measures, partnerships, and interventions from the lived experiences of youth, families, educators, faith leaders, and service providers.

What strengths and forms of belonging do multicultural adolescents in Korea name for themselves?
How do family obligation, cultural brokering, and language gaps shape identity and well-being?
How can family, school, faith, and community programs promote resilience and purpose?
03
Methodological Signature

How I study these questions

My work combines longitudinal, dyadic, qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method developmental research, progressively strengthened by culturally responsible emerging methods.

Longitudinal & Dyadic Designs

Multi-wave studies of Asian American families; parent–adolescent dyadic and observational research; structural equation and cross-lagged modeling.

Qualitative & Mixed Methods

Codebook development, bilingual interviewing, culturally informed interpretation, and integration of qualitative and quantitative evidence.

Community-Engaged Research

Recruitment and co-design with families, schools, faith communities, and service organizations in the U.S. and Korea.

Emerging Tools

Culturally responsible AI-augmented qualitative analysis, ecological momentary assessment (EMA), and wearable sensing for daily resilience processes.

Technology enters my research program only when it provides information that a conventional survey, interview, or observation cannot capture adequately. The developmental question remains primary; the device or algorithm remains secondary.
04
Guiding Commitments

How I approach the work

Strength-based science

Examine risk without defining youth by risk — center assets, recovery, purpose, and contribution.

Culture as a developmental system

Values, histories, language, family roles, spirituality, and institutions — not just race or ethnicity.

Youth as agents

Adolescents as interpreters, cultural brokers, family influencers, and civic actors.

Within-group specificity

Attend to ethnicity, nativity, generation, language, migration history, religion, and family structure.

Community partnership

Build questions, measurement, and translation with families, youth, schools, faith communities, and service organizations.

Responsible innovation

Use AI, EMA, and wearables only when they improve understanding — addressing privacy, bias, validity, and equity.

01
Scholarship

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Yoo, N., Kang, M., Lee, S. Y., Na, J. Y., Woo, J., & Kim, S. (2026). Effectiveness of a virtual mental health literacy training for Korean American church leaders: Knowledge, behavioral intentions, and confidence. Pastoral Psychology. doi.org/10.1007/s11089-026-01308-9
Keum, B. T., Wong, M., Xie, L., Valdovinos, I. C., Na, J. Y., Morales, B. E., & Yung, J. (2026). Coping with COVID-19-related anti-Asian racism and depressive symptoms: The role of social support. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 96(1), 79–90. doi.org/10.1037/ort0000835
Keum, B. T., Na, J. Y., Nguyen, M., & Wong, M. (2025). Measurement invariance and further validation of the Gendered Racial Microaggressions Scale for Asian American Women across ethnicity, nativity, generational status, and sexual orientation. Counselling Psychology Quarterly. doi.org/10.1080/09515070.2025.2467915
Keum, B. T., Wong, L., & Na, J. Y. (2025). Trauma, depression, and anxiety from gun violence exposure on social media: Development of the Gun Violence on Social Media Scale. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 34(9), 1337–1360. doi.org/10.1080/10926771.2025.2548449
Wong, M. J., Keum, B. T., Xie, L., & Na, J. Y. (2025). Marginalization from COVID-19 anti-Asian racism and smoking among Asian American emerging adults. Race and Social Problems, 17, 322–333. doi.org/10.1007/s12552-025-09443-3
Wong, M. J., Keum, B. T., Nguyen, M., & Na, J. Y. (2025). Gendered racial microaggressions and depressive symptoms among emerging adult Asian American women: Racial/ethnic differences among Asian and White romantic partners. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 12(6), 3865–3875. doi.org/10.1007/s40615-024-02184-w

In the Pipeline

Na, J. Y., Cheah, C. S. L., & Cho, H. S. Korean American adolescents' racial discrimination experiences and mental health: Moderating roles of racial-ethnic socialization and parental warmth. Under Review
Na, J. Y., Cheah, C. S. L., Cho, H. S., Wu, L., Aguiling, W., Deng, X. F., & Bian, S. Meaning making of anti-Asian racism in Korean American parent–adolescent dyads. Under Review
Na, J. Y. Purpose in context: Religiosity, family relational processes, and purpose development among Asian American youth [conceptual review]. In Preparation
Na, J. Y., Cheah, C. S. L., Deng, X. F., Bian, S., & Wu, L.-W. What parents say and what parents do: Socializing civic engagement in Asian American families. In Preparation
Na, J. Y., Cheah, C. S. L., & Bian, S. From parents’ messages to adolescents’ voices: Cultural pluralism and civic engagement in Asian American families. In Preparation
Na, J. Y., Cheah, C. S. L., Sun, Y., Zhang, B., & Bian, S. How I see us matters: Private regard as a protective factor against racial discrimination for Asian American adolescents. In Preparation
Na, J. Y., & Cheah, C. S. L. Culturally grounded flourishing: Ethnic identity, mainstream engagement, and psychological well-being as pathways to parental warmth among Korean and Chinese immigrant mothers. In Preparation
Na, J. Y., & Cheah, C. S. L. Parental racial–cultural beliefs, parental functioning, and socialization practices: Multi-informant pathways to adjustment and civic engagement among Asian American adolescents. In Preparation
02
Conference Activity

Presentations

Na, J. Y., Cheah, C. S. L., Deng, X. F., Bian, S., & Wang, C. (2027). What parents say and what parents do: Socializing civic engagement in Asian American families. Symposium, Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Meeting, Atlanta, GA, United States.
Na, J. Y., Cheah, C. S. L., Wu, L.-W., Bian, S., Deng, X. F., & Wang, C. (2027). From parents’ messages to adolescents’ voices: Cultural pluralism and civic engagement in Asian American families. Poster, Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Meeting, Atlanta, GA, United States.
Na, J. Y. (2026). How I see us matters: Private regard as a protective factor against racial discrimination for Asian American adolescents. Poster, Society for Research on Adolescence, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Deng, X., James, K., Salguero Monge, D., Wu, L. W., & Na, J. Y. (2026). A qualitative examination of the civic engagement experiences of Asian American adolescents. Poster, ISSBD Biennial Meeting, Seoul, South Korea.
Aguiling, W., & Na, J. Y. (2025). Navigating Asian American adolescents' identity: Racial-ethnic microaggressions and colorism's role on socioemotional and behavioral difficulties. Poster, SRCD Biennial Meeting.
Zheng, B., & Na, J. Y. (2025). Growth from disagreement: Unpacking Asian American parents' and adolescents' racial and sociopolitical conversations. Poster, SRCD Biennial Meeting.
Deng, X., & Na, J. Y. (2025). Maternal racial discrimination experiences impact Chinese American preschoolers' adjustment: Protective role of ethnic identity affirmation. Poster, SRCD Biennial Meeting.
Na, J. Y., & Sun, Y. (2025). How I see us matters: Private regard as a protective factor against racial discrimination for Asian American adolescents. Poster, SRCD Biennial Meeting.
Na, J. Y., Cheah, C. S. L., & Cho, H. S. (2024). Korean American adolescents' racial discrimination experiences and mental health: Moderating roles of racial-ethnic socialization and parental warmth. Paper, SRA Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.
Na, J. Y., Sanders, I., Wong, M. J., Nguyen, M., & Keum, B. T. (2023). Gendered racial microaggressions and depressive symptoms among emerging adult Asian American women: Differences in partner race/ethnicity. Poster, 11th Conference on Emerging Adulthood, San Diego, CA.
Wong, M. J., Keum, B. T., Nguyen, M., & Na, J. Y. (2022). Gendered racial microaggressions and depressive symptoms among emerging adult Asian American women: Differences in partner race/ethnicity. Poster, AAPA Annual Convention, Virtual.
01
Curriculum Vitae

Background & experience

A selected overview — the full CV is available by request.

Research Positions
2023 – Present
Culture, Child, & Adolescent Development Lab, UMBC
Graduate Research Assistant · PI: Charissa S. L. Cheah, Ph.D.
Project ARISE (longitudinal study of Chinese, Korean, & Filipino American families), Embrace Race, Project VR — recruitment, bilingual interviews, qualitative & behavioral coding, RA training
2026 – Present
Bullying Prevention & Mental Health Promotion Lab, UMD College Park
Graduate Research Assistant · PI: Cixin Wang, Ph.D.
Parent-Child Connect Workshop for Asian American families
2024 – 2025
School Mental Health Program, University of Maryland, Baltimore
SMHP Connector / Graduate Assistant · PI: Brittany R. Patterson, Ph.D.
Clinical training workshops; Baltimore City community asset map
2022 – Present
Digital Equity & Anti-Oppression Lab / HIIT Lab
Research Assistant · PI: Brian T. Keum, Ph.D. (Boston College / UCLA)
Co-authored five peer-reviewed papers on anti-Asian racism, microaggressions, and mental health
2022 – Present
Mustard Seed Generation
Research Committee Member · Founder: Josephine Kim, Ph.D.
Mental health training research for Korean American church leaders
2013 – 2016
Earlier Training
Penn GSE (Nakkula; Stevenson — Racial Empowerment Collaborative), Cornell (Burrow — Purpose & Identity Processes Lab; Casasola)
Purpose development, racial literacy & socialization, qualitative coding
Honors & Awards
2024 – Present
Five-Year Fully Funded Doctoral Package
UMBC (R1) — tuition, stipend, & assistantship, awarded every semester to date
2024 – 2026
UMBC Psychology Department Award
Merit-based departmental award, received each semester through Fall 2026
2026
YPAR Workshop Award
Society for Research on Adolescence & Bezos Family Foundation
2014 – 2016
GSE Merit Scholarship
University of Pennsylvania
2014 – 2016
Graduate Assistant Scholarship
University of Pennsylvania
Teaching & Mentoring
UMBC
Guest Lecturer, Child Development
Undergraduate lecture on immigrant children
2013 – Present
Academic & Spiritual Mentor
Weekly one-on-one mentoring for under-resourced Korean American youth, centered on purpose and identity
2023 – Present
Youth & Young Adult Ministries, Seoul Onnuri Church
Teacher, mentor, and small-group leader
2019 – Present
English Tutor
Individualized instruction for Korean students of all ages
02
Community

Service & engagement

Over fifteen years of community service across the U.S., Korea, and Japan — serving youth with disabilities, low-income families, and individuals experiencing homelessness through faith communities, NGOs, and grassroots organizations including Uniseed, Goodspoon, the Amherst Survival Center, and a United Nations NGO.

COZY — Co-founder

Co-founded COZY: Creating Opportunities, Zero Barriers for Children, Youth & Families — a nonprofit promoting healthy parenting culture, family resilience, and positive youth development through science-based, accessible programs for families facing social, economic, and cultural barriers, in the U.S. and Korea.

Youth & Families

Educational and spiritual guidance for 30 youth with disabilities (Seoul); mentoring and English lessons for under-resourced students in Korea and Japan.

Food Security

Meal service reaching hundreds of individuals experiencing homelessness in Seoul, Chicago, Cambridge, Washington D.C., and Amherst.

Mental Health Advocacy

Workshops and psychoeducation for Korean and Korean American families; mental-health literacy work with church communities.

Human Rights

Awareness and fundraising for humanitarian crises through campus and international organizations.

03
Toolkit

Skills, affiliations & languages

Methods

Quantitative, qualitative & mixed-methods design; dyadic interviewing; codebook development; observational coding; longitudinal data collection.

Software

SPSS · Stata · Qualtrics · Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop · web development.

Languages

Korean (native) · English (fluent) · Japanese (intermediate) · Greek & Hebrew (basic).

Affiliations

APA (Div. 5, 7, 15, 36, 45) · AAPA · APS · SRA · SRCD · ISSBD · SPSP · SPSSI · APF.

Contact

Let's connect

I welcome conversations about research collaboration, community partnership, mentoring, and culturally grounded youth development in the United States and Korea.

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Department of Psychology · University of Maryland, Baltimore County
1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250