FACULTY

Contact Information

ccheah@umbc.edu

Lab:
Sondheim Hall 405
p.410-455-5757

Status:

CCAD Lab

Charissa Cheah, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Education

Area of Study

Children's Social and Emotional Development, Parenting, and Culture

Research Interests

Dr. Charissa Cheah’s research interests include: (1) the study of the interactions between individual, peer, and family factors in the social emotional development and health of children; and (2) the exploration of multiple pathways in which cultural factors contribute to social and emotional development.  Currently, Dr. Cheah has several ongoing projects examining these issues. Examples include: (1) Project Parenting which focuses on parenting beliefs and practices, and preschoolers' social skills and development in different cultures around the world; (2) Project ADVANCE examines individual, relational, and socio-cultural factors that may influence positive development for both the adolescent parents and their child.  The sample includes adolescent parents in Baltimore City who are primarily of low SES and high risk environments; (3) Project C-STARS involves Chinese and Korean immigrant families with young children ages 3-5 years, residing in MD.  The community resources available to these families, their adaptation and acculturation, their culturally-specific parenting beliefs and practices will be examined in relation to their preschool children's social emotional development, social skills, and transition into American society.

Selected Publications

Manuscripts

Cheah, C.S.L., Bayram Ozdemir, S. & Leung, C.Y.Y. (in press). Predicting the filial behaviors of Chinese Malaysian adolescents from indebtedness, filial emotions and parent-child relationship quality. Journal of Adolescence.

Cheah, C. S. L., & Sheperd, K. A. (2011).  A cross-cultural examination of Aboriginal and European Canadian mothers’ beliefs regarding proactive and reactive aggression. Infant and Child Development, 20, 330-346. doi: 10.1002/icd.701.

Cheah, C. S. L., Leung, C. Y. Y., Tahseen, M., & Schultz, D. (2009).  Authoritative parenting among immigrant Chinese mothers of preschoolers.  Journal of Family Psychology: Special Issue on Immigration, 34, 311-320. 

Cheah, C. S. L., Chirkov, V. (2008). Parents’ personal and cultural beliefs regarding young children: A cross-cultural study of Aboriginal and Euro-Canadian Mothers. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 39, 402-423.

Hane, A. A., Cheah, C. S. L., Rubin, K. H. & Fox, N. A. (2008). The role of maternal behavior in the relation between maternal report of shyness and observed social withdrawal in early childhood and social withdrawal in middle childhood. Social Development, 17, 795-711.

Cheah, C. S. L. & Park, S. Y. (2006). South Korean mothers’ beliefs regarding aggression and social withdrawal. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 21, 61 – 75.

Cheah, C. S. L., & Rubin, K. H. (2004). Comparison of European American and Mainland Chinese Mothers’ responses to aggression and social withdrawal in preschoolers. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 28, 83-94.

Cheah, C. S. L., & Nelson, L. J. (2004). The role of acculturation in the emerging adulthood of Aboriginal college students. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 28, 495-507.

Cheah, C. S. L., & Rubin, K. H. (2003). European American and Mainland Chinese mothers’ socialization beliefs regarding preschoolers’ social skills. Parenting: Science and Practice, 3, 1-22.

Book Chapters

Cheah, C. S. L., & Leung, C. Y. Y., (2011).  The social development of immigrant children: A focus on Asian and Hispanic children in the U.S.  P. K. Smith & C. H. Hart (Eds.), Wiley-Blackwell handbook of childhood social development, 2^nd Ed. pp. 161- 180. Wiley-Blackwell Publishers.  

Cheah, C. S. L., & Li, J.  (2009).  Parenting of young immigrant Chinese children: Challenges facing their social emotional and intellectual development.  In R. Takanishi and E. L. Grigorenko (Eds.).  Immigration, diversity, and education.  pp. 225-241. Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group.

Rubin, K. H., Cheah, C. S. L., & Menzer, M. M. (2009).  Peer relationships: A cross-cultural perspective.  In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.).  Handbook of cultural developmental science.  pp. 223-238. Mahwah, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers.

Bornstein, M. H. & Cheah, C. S. L. (2006). The place of “culture and parenting” in an ecological contextual perspective on developmental science. In K. H. Rubin & O. B. Chung, (Eds.). Parental beliefs, parenting, and child development in cross-cultural perspective. London, UK: Psychology Press.