Bio:

Dr. Wen-Jui Han has an extensive background in the issues surrounding policies and services designed to enhance the welfare of children and their families. She has extensive research experience in the area of child care, maternal employment, and child well-being. Dr. Han’s current research focuses on: 1) maternal employment and child cognitive and social and emotional well-being, 2) the extent to which parental work schedules (e.g., working at evenings, nights, or rotating shifts) on child care arrangements and on child well-being, 3) the effects of family leave policies on parents’ use of parental leave and how this might affect children’s later cognitive and socio-emotional outcomes, and 4) the developmental experiences of U.S. young children in immigrant families. 

Her work has been published in leading academic journals including the Child Development, Demography, Developmental Psychology, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Journal of Marriage and Family, Journal of Adolescence, and Social Services Review.


Research Interests:

• Social welfare policy, with an emphasis on children and families
• Effects of maternal employment and child care on children's cognitive and social and emotional outcomes
• Impact of welfare reform and child care subsidies on families
• Parental work schedules, child care use, and child well-being
• Cognitive and socio-emotional outcomes of children in immigrant families.

Awards:

• Outstanding Reviewer by the American Educational Research Journal (2010)

Current Projects:

• Bilingualism and Academic Social Development, funded by the Foundation for Child Development PK-3 initiative.
• Nonstandard Work Schedules and Child Outcomes, funded by Smith Richardson Foundation
• Cognitive and Socio-emotional Outcomes of Children of Immigrants, funded by Foundation for Child Development
• Maternal employment and child care on children's later outcomes, in collaboration with Dr. Jane Waldfogel and Dr. Jeanne Brooks-Gunn.
• Effects of Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) on men's and women's leave-taking usage, in collaboration with Dr. Jane Waldfogel, funded by NICHD.
• Work Schedule and Child Care Use of Low-Income and Welfare Families, funded by National Survey of American Families small grant.
• Nonstandard work schedules among families with children across nations.
  

Selected Publications:

Book Chapters
Han, W-J. (in press). Bilingualism and academic achievement: Does generation status make a different? In C. Garcia Coll & A. Marks (Eds.), Is becoming American a developmental risk? American Psychological Association.

Journal Articles
Brooks-Gunn, J., Han, W-J., & Waldfogel, J. (2010). First-year maternal employment and child development in the first seven years. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), 75(2), 1-147.

Han, W-J., Miller, D. P., & Waldfogel, J. (in press). Parental work schedules and adolescents’ risky behaviors. Developmental Psychology.

Feng, Y. J., & Han, W-J. (2010). Maternity leave in Taiwan. Family Relations, 59, 297-312.

Han, W-J. (2010). Bilingualism and socioemotional well-being. Children and Youth Services Review, 32(5), 720-731.

Han, W-J. & Huang, C-C. (2010). The forgotten treasure: Bilingualism and children’s emotional and behavioral health. American Journal of Public Health, 100(5), 831-838.

Han, W-J. & Bridglall, B. L. (2009). Assessing school supports for ELL students using ECLS-K. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 24, 445-462.

Last updated September 30, 2010.