Wen Wang

Assistant Professor

Faculty

Human Development and Family Science

Areas of Study & Research

My research focuses on understanding young children’s development of social-emotional skills, prosocial behaviors, and the socialization process of these child outcomes in families with diverse cultural and SES backgrounds. I am specifically fascinated by how young children overcome challenges, become resilient, feel empathy for others, and thrive in at-risk families. I adopted the quantitative methods to analyze a variety of data, including surveys, observations, and large secondary datasets.

Current Projects

My current projects focus on young children’s resilience to failure, the impact of parental stress on their development, and the strengths and challenges of growing up in three-generation families.

Courses Taught

HDFS 320 Prenatal, Infant, and Toddler Development
HDFS 341 Parent-Child Relations
HDFS 705 Quantitative Methods in Developmental Science

Education

Postdoctoral Researcher, T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Doctor of Philosophy in Human Development and Family Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Master of Science in Developmental and Educational Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institution of Psychology, Beijing, China

Publications

(Selected publications)

Wang, W., Vallotton, C., & Bowles, R. (2025). Family processes of socializing young children’s persistence in challenging tasks among ethnic/racial diverse low-income families. Early Childhood Research Quarterly. 73(4), 148 – 157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2025.07.004

Wang, W., Spinrad, T. L., Eisenberg, N. (2023). The development and prediction of young children’s behavioral mastery motivation. Early Childhood Research Quarterly.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2022.09.001