Nan Xiao, PhD

Dr. Nan Xiao received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Hong Kong, where her doctoral research examined boarding preschools and child development among young children in rural China. She subsequently held postdoctoral appointments at The Ohio State University, Tufts University, and Arizona State University. She is currently a Research Scientist in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Irvine. Across these roles, she has applied longitudinal methods, mixed-effects modeling, and social network analysis to the study of children’s development across various educational and community contexts. Her research spans early childhood education and the experiences of adolescents involved in child welfare systems.

As an applied developmental psychologist, her primary research interests include children’s peer and classroom networks; family, teacher, and school relationships; and community-engaged, strengths-based, and technology-assisted research and intervention aimed at strengthening children’s social relationships. Her work has appeared in Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Contemporary Educational Psychology, Stress and Health, School Psychology Review, and Journal of Family Psychology.