Matters for Well-being
In addition to examining individual and cultural factors that drive the development of social-cognitive skills, our research also investigates the developmental consequences of social cognition for well-being and the role of culture in shaping the process. One particularly important and consistent pattern of findings is that although some social-cognitive skills – as well as the associated socialization practices – similarly facilitate psychosocial functioning across cultures, others have different impacts on well-being as moderated by culture. These findings highlight the functional significance of social-cognitive skills that develop in response to the specific ecological environment and social context in which individuals reside.
We are currently investigating the pathways through which social-cognitive skills, such as memory specificity, emotion knowledge, and subjective perspectives, and the pertinent socialization practices interact with culture in affecting well-being outcomes.
Selected Publications
Yang, Y., Song, Q., Doan, S. N., & Wang, Q. (2020). Maternal reactions to children’s negative emotions: Relations to children's socio-emotional development among European American and Chinese immigrant children. Transcultural Psychiatry. doi:10.1177/1363461520905997 PDF
Wang, Q., Hou, Y., Koh, J. B. K., Song, Q., & Yang, Y. (2018). Culturally motivated remembering: The moderating role of culture for the relation of episodic memory to well-being. Clinical Psychological Science, 6(6), 860-871. doi:10.1177/2167702618784012 PDF
Doan, S. N., & Wang, Q. (2018). Children’s emotion knowledge and internalizing problems: The moderating role of culture. Transcultural Psychiatry, 55(5), 689-709. PDF
Reese, E., Myftari, E., McAnally, H. M., Chen, Y., Neha, T., Wang, Q., Jack, F., & Robertson, S. (2017), Telling the tale and living well: Adolescent narrative identity, personality traits, and well-being across cultures. Child Development, 88, 2, 612-628. doi:10.1111/cdev.12618 PDF
Yang, Y. & Wang, Q. (2016). The relation of emotion knowledge to coping in European American and Chinese immigrant children. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 25, 452–463. doi: 10.1007/s10826-015-0224-5 PDF
Song, Q., & Wang, Q. (2014). Harmed or not harmed? Culture in interpersonal transgression memory and self-acceptance. International Journal of Applied Psychology, 4, 5, 188-195. doi: 10.5923/j.ijap.20140405.03. PDF
Song, Q., & Wang, Q. (2013). Mother-child reminiscing about peer experiences and children’s peer-related self-views and social competence. Social Development, 22, 280-299. PDF
Chen, Y., McAnally, H. M., Wang, Q., & Reese, E. (2012). The coherence of critical event narratives and adolescents' psychological functioning. Memory, 20, 667-681. doi:10.1080/09658211.2012.693934 PDF
Doan, S. N., & Wang, Q. (2010). Maternal discussions of mental states and behaviors: Relations to emotion situation knowledge in European American and immigrant Chinese children. Child Development, 81, 5, 1490-1503. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01487.x PDF
Lu, H., Su, Y., & Wang, Q. (2008). Talking about others facilitates theory of mind in Chinese preschoolers. Developmental Psychology, 44, 6, 1726-1736. doi:10.1037/a0013074 PDF
