Professor
Contact Information:
Email: ccheah@umbc.edu
Office: Math/Psychology 330
Phone: (410)455-1059
Fax: (410)455-1055
Lab: Sondheim 404
Phone: (410)455-5757
Website: https://ccadlab.umbc.edu/
Cheah CV – Updated August 2025
Education:
Ph.D. – University of Maryland, College Park
Area of Study:
Research Interests:
Dr. Cheah uses mixed-method and innovative approaches to understand how individual characteristics, relationships, socialization agents, and contexts interact to influence child and adolescent social-emotional development and physical health. Her research focuses on families from underrepresented (ethnic/racial, religious minority), immigrant, and low-income backgrounds in the United States and across different countries.
Learn more about Dr. Cheah’s research interests and the current research projects in the Culture, Child and Adolescent Development Laboratory.
Courses Taught:
Psychology and Culture (PSYC 230)
Child Development and Culture (PSYC 330)
Cultural Aspects of Human Development (Psyc 635)
Parenting (Psyc 730)
Graduate Research and Training Opportunities:
Graduate students are provided ample opportunities to contribute to research design on various projects, obtain experience with quantitative and qualitative methodologies, collaborate and lead on publications, network and participate in cross-cultural/international research projects.
“UMBC lab draws developmental psychology students from across the globe.” – Featured in the UMBC Magazine
Graduate Research and Training Opportunities:
Accepting new graduate students for Fall 2025
Undergraduate Research and Training Opportunities:
YES: Undergraduate opportunities available
Undergraduate research assistants can obtain experiences in data collection (interviewing parents and children, questionnaire assessments, observations of behaviors), data entry and management, library research, involvement in conference presentations and publications, and conducting independent research projects.
Graduate Program Affiliation(s):
Applied Developmental Psychology
Selected Publications (* the asterisks denote student authors mentored by Dr. Cheah):
Cheah, C. S. L., Kiang, L., Aguiling, W. A., Bumo, Z., & Wu, L.-W. (in press). Discrimination among Asian American families during the COVID-19 pandemic. In T. Yip (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of ethnic/racial discrimination and youth development. Cambridge University Press.
Song, C., Cheah, C. S. L., & Doan, S. N. (2025). Intergenerational effect of childhood food insecurity: Maternal food insecurity in childhood and child hair cortisol. International Journal of Behavioral Development. Advance online publication https://doi.org/10.1177/016502542513618
Zhang, B.,* Cheah, C. S. L., & Ren, H. (2025). Considering children’s characteristics in Chinese American mothers’ attributions, well-being, and parenting practices. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2025.101817
Aquino, A. K.*, Cheah, C. S. L., Zhang, B.*, Cho, H. S.*, & Sun, Y.* (2025). Competency matters: Chinese American parents’ racial socialization and adolescents’ well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 16(1), 61–70. https://doi.org/10.1037/aap0000360
Sun, Y.*, Cheah, C. S. L., Hart, C. H., Yu, J., & Sun, S. (2025). Chinese American mothers’ authoritative parenting moderates the associations between maternal psychological control and child relational aggression. International Journal of Behavioral Development. Advance online publicationhttps://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01650254251327374
Gürsoy, H.*, Cho, H. S.*, Cheah, C. S. L., & Balkaya-Ince, M., (2025). From home to community: The role of parenting and religious identity in Muslim emerging adults’ civic engagement. American Journal of Community Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12771
Balkaya-Ince, M.*, Cheah, C. S. L., Gürsoy, H.*, & Amer, M. (2025). Time-varying and gender differences in religious socialization and associations with Muslim American adolescents’ religious identity. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 17(2), 105–113. https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000517
Zong, X.*, Cheah, C. S. L., & Ren, H.* (2024). Age-varying associations between COVID-19-related racial discrimination and Chinese American adolescents’ political civic engagement. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 53(2), 446–458. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01879-3
Cho, H. S.*, Gürsoy, H.*, Cheah, C. S. L., Zong, X.*, & Ren, H.* (2024). To maintain or conceal one’s cultural identity? Chinese American parents’ ethnic-racial socialization during COVID-19. Journal of Family Psychology. 38(1), 26–37. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0001169
Ren, H.*, Cheah, C. S. L., Cho, H. S.*, & Aquino, A. K.* (2024). Cascading effects of Chinese American parents’ COVID-19 racial discrimination and racial socialization on adolescents’ adjustment. Child Development, 93(3), 862-878. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.14037
Zong, X.*, Cheah, C. S. L., Ren, H.*, & Hart, C. H. (2023). Longitudinal pathways linking racial discrimination and Chinese American mothers’ parenting. Developmental Psychology, 59(11), 2119-2132. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001608
Schmidt, C.*, Cho, H. S.*, & Cheah, C. S. L. (2023). To be in harmony: Chinese American adolescents’ and parents’ bicultural integration during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 54(4), 475–489. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220221231171062
Malti, T. & Cheah, C. S. L. (2021). Towards complementarity: Specificity and commonality in social-emotional development. [Introduction to the Special Section “Specificity and commonality: Sociocultural generalizability in social-emotional development”]. Child Development, 92(6), 1085-1094. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13690
Yip, T., Cheah, C. S. L., Kiang, L., Hall, G., & Comas-Diaz, L. (2021). “Rendered invisible: Are Asian Americans a model or a marginalized minority? [Introduction to the Special Issue “Rendered invisible: Are Asian Americans a model or a marginalized Minority?”]. The American Psychologist, 76(4), 575–581. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000857
Cheah, C. S. L., Wang, C., Ren, H.*, Zong, X.*, Cho, H. S.*, & Xue, X.*, (2020). COVID-19 racism and mental health in Chinese American families. Pediatrics, Nov 146(5). https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2020/08/28/peds.2020-021816
Cheah, C. S. L., Barman, S.*, Vu. K. T. T.*, Jung, S.*, Mandalapu, V., Masterson, T., Zuber, R., Boot, L., & Gong, J. (2020). Validation of a virtual reality buffet environment to assess food selection processes among emerging adults. Appetite, 153, 1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2020.104741
Cheah CV – Updated August 2025