Fuhua Zhai

Fuhua Zhai, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Phone: 631-444-3176
Email: fuhua.zhai@stonybrook.edu

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EDUCATION

Ph.D., Columbia University (social work)
Mphil., Columbia University
MSW, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
BA, China Youth University for Political Sciences

AREAS OF INTEREST

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Zhai, F., Raver, C. C., & Li-Grining, C. (in press). Classroom-based interventions and teachers’ perceived job stressors and confidence: Evidence from a randomized trial in Head Start settings. Early Childhood Research Quarterly

Zhai, F., Waldfogel, J., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (in press). Estimating the effects of Head Start on parenting and child maltreatment. Children and Youth Services Review

Hill, J. L., Weiss, C. C., & Zhai, F. (in press). Challenges with propensity score strategies in a high-dimensional setting and a potential alternative. Multivariate Behavioral Research

Zhai, F., Brooks-Gunn, J., & Waldfogel, J. (2011). Head Start and urban children's school readiness: A birth cohort study in 18 cities. Developmental Psychology, 47, 134-152.

Raver, C. C., Jones, S., Li-Grining, C., Zhai, F., Bub, K, & Pressler, E. (2011). CSRP's impact on low-income preschoolers' pre-academic skills: Self-regulation and teacher-student relationships as two mediating mechanisms. Child Development, 82, 362-378.

Gao, Q., Yoo, J. Y., Yang, S., & Zhai, F. (2011). Welfare residualism: A comparative study of the basic livelihood security systems in China and South Korea. International Journal of Social Welfare, 20, 113-124.

Zhai, F., Raver, C. C., Jones, S., Li-Grining, C., Pressler, E., & Gao, Q. (2010). Dosage effects on school readiness: Evidence from a randomized classroom-based intervention. Social Service Review, 84, 615-654.

Zhai, F., & Gao, Q. (2010). Center-based care in the context of one-child policy in China: Do child gender and siblings matter? Population Research and Policy Review, 29, 745-774.

Gao, Q., Zhai, F., & Garfinkel, I. (2010). How does public assistance affect family expenditures? The case of urban China. World Development, 38, 989-1000.

Gao, Q., & Zhai, F. (2010). Demographic changes and household income in urban China: 1988-2002.  Journal of Asian Public Policy, 3, 18-36.

Zhai, F., & Gao, Q. (2009). Child maltreatment among Asian Americans: Characteristics and explanatory framework. Child Maltreatment, 14, 207-224.

Gao, Q., Garfinkel, I., & Zhai, F. (2009). How effective is the Minimum Living Standard Assistance policy in urban China? Review of Income and Wealth, 55, 630-655.

Raver, C. C., Jones, S., Li-Grining, C., Zhai, F., Metzger, M., & Solomon, B. (2009). Targeting children’s behavior problems in preschool classrooms: A cluster-randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 77, 302-316.

Raver, C. C., Jones, S., Li-Grining, C., & Zhai, F. (2009). Reducing young children’s risk of behavioral difficulty in Head Start: New evidence for the benefits of a classroom-based approach. National Head Start Association (NHSA) Dialog: A Research-to-Practice Journal for the Early Intervention Field, 12, 1-7.

Zhai, F., & Gao, Q. (2008). Center-based early childhood education and care in China: Policies, trends, and implications. Asian Social Work and Policy Review, 2, 127-148.

Waldfogel, J., & Zhai, F. (2008). Effects of public preschool expenditures on the test scores of 4th graders: Evidence from TIMSS. Educational Research and Evaluation, 14, 9-28.

Ryan, J. P., Testa, M. F., & Zhai, F. (2008). African American youth in foster care and the risk of delinquency: The value of social bonds and permanence. Child Welfare, 87, 115-140.

Ryan, J. P., Garnier, P., Zyphur, M., & Zhai, F. (2006). Investigating the effects of caseworker characteristics in child welfare. Children and Youth Services Review, 28, 993-1006.

LINK TO PDF OF FULL CV

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He received his Ph.D. in social work from Columbia University and worked as a post-doctoral scholar at New York University's Institute of Human Development and Social Change. He earned his Mphil. from Columbia University, MSW from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and BA from China Youth University for Political Sciences. His research focuses on the impacts of early intervention policies and programs on children's developmental outcomes measured in multiple dimensions, including academic, social-emotional, behavioral, and health outcomes. His work includes Head Start and other early childhood education and care programs, classroom-based interventions, child maltreatment, cross-national comparative child and family policies, and quantitative methodology.

One of Dr. Zhai's ongoing projects is the Chicago School Readiness Project (CSRP), which is currently funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The CSRP uses a cluster-randomized, experimental design to investigate the impacts of multi-component classroom-based interventions in Head Start programs. The services provided for children and teachers include 30 hours of teacher training on behavior management strategies, weekly class visits by mental health consultants, stress-reduction services and workshops for teachers, and one-on-one mental health consultation services for children who had high behavioral problems. Overall, the CSRP included 90 teachers serving 602 children in 35 classrooms at 18 Head Start sites in very disadvantaged Chicago neighborhoods. The data on children’s developmental outcomes have been collected before and after the intervention as well as in kindergarten, first grade, and third grade. A follow-up data collection of the participating children has been conducted in fifth grade. As a Co-Investigator of the CSRP, Dr. Zhai has been working on studies to evaluate the short- and long-term effects of the CSRP on children and teachers as well as the effects of participation (or dosage) levels and the roles of subsequent school experiences on children's behavior problems, social-emotional skills, and cognitive development.

Another project that Dr. Zhai has been working on is to study the effects of Head Start and other child care arrangements on children’s developmental outcomes. He received a dissertation grant from the American Educational Research Association (AERA) to investigate the effects of Head Start on child outcomes (i.e., test scores, childhood overweight and obesity, and social-emotional development), using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K). He has extended this research through the work with Dr. Jane Waldfogel and Dr. Jeanne Brooks-Gunn at Columbia University. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), they have focused on the effects of Head Start on school readiness as well as on parenting and child maltreatment.

Child maltreatment and child welfare has been another research area of Dr. Zhai. As the Co-Principal Investigator (with Dr. Qin Gao at Fordham University), Dr. Zhai has received two grants from the Lois and Samuel Silberman Fund and the Fahs-Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation to investigate the cultural values and childrearing practices among Asian Americans and their associations with child maltreatment. They have been working on a primary data collection among 500 Asian parents in New York City and its adjacent areas. Dr. Zhai previously has used administrative data from Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to study the effects of social bonds and perceptions of permanence of African American youth in foster care on the risk of delinquency and to examine the roles of caseworker characteristics in determining outcomes in child welfare.

Dr. Zhai’s another research area is cross-national comparative child and family policies. He previously worked with Dr. Sheila Kamerman and Dr. Alfred Kahn at the Clearinghouse on International Developments in Child, Youth and Family Policies at Columbia University to study cross-national, comparative policies, programs, and services in both developed and developing countries. He has conducted a series studies to investigate child and family policies and their impacts in a cross-national context, including the effects of public preschool expenditures on the test scores of 4th graders in OECD countries, public assistance policies in China and South Korea, and child care policies and programs in China.