Wen-Jui Han

Dr. Wen-Jui Han is a professor at the Silver School of Social Work. She has an extensive background in the issues surrounding policies and services designed to enhance the welfare of children and their families with extensive research experience in the area of paternal employment and child well-being and child well-being in immigrant families. Dr. Han's research focuses on: 1) the short-term and long-term effects of different dimensions of parental employment (e.g., timing, intensity, and work schedules) on child cognitive and social and emotional well-being, as well as the mechanisms and the contexts for such effects; 2) the home (e.g., family resources and language capacity) and school environments on the developmental experiences of US young children in immigrant families; and 3) the effects of family policies (e.g., family leave policy) on parents' behavior and how this might affect children's later cognitive and socio-emotional outcomes.

Her work has been published in leading academic journals, including the American Journal of Public Health, Child Development, Demography, Developmental Psychology, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Journal of Adolescence, Journal of Marriage and Family, and Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.

Research Projects

Bilingualism and Academic Social Development, funded by the Foundation for Child Development PK-3 initiative

Cognitive and Socio-emotional Outcomes of Children of Immigrants, funded by Foundation for Child Development

Nonstandard Work Schedules and Child Outcomes, funded by Smith Richardson Foundation

Maternal employment and child care on children's later outcomes (in collaboration with Dr. Jane Waldfogel and Dr. Jeanne Brooks-Gunn at Columbia University)

Effects of Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) on men's and women's leave-taking usage (in collaboration with Dr. Jane Waldfogel at Columbia University and Dr. Chris Ruhm at University of Virginia)

Bilingualism and school mobility in shaping children's well-being in immigrant families

Selected Publications

Han, W-J., & Liana, F. (in press). Parental work schedules and children's later cognitive achievement. Journal of Marriage and Family.

Han, W-J. (in press). Bilingualism and academic achievement. Child Development.

Han, W-J. (2012). Bilingualism and academic achievement: Does generation status make a different? In C. Garcia Coll & A. Marks (Eds.), Is becoming American a developmental risk? (pp. 161-184). New York, NY: American Psychological Association.

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, 46(5), 1245-1267.

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.