Research

Healthy Living Behaviors Among Chinese American Preschool-Aged Children: Results of a Parent Survey

Published July 2017

Virginia Rall Chomitz, Alison Brown, Victoria Lee, Aviva Must, Kenneth Kwan Ho Chui

An academic paper reporting findings about childhood obesity among Chinese children from a collaboration project between BCNC, Asian Women for Health, and Dr. Virginia Chomitz of Tufts University. The goal of the project was to better understand rising obesity rates among Chinese children by gathering information on nutrition and physical activity. The project involved a survey completed by parents and caregivers of children in childcare programs in Boston Chinatown.

Healthy Eating and Active Living: Opportunities and Challenges for Young Children in Boston Chinatown, Massachusetts

Published September 2015

Virginia Rall Chomitz, PhD, Victoria Lee, MPH, Bernadette Davidson, Chien-Chi Huang, Giles Li, Kenneth Kwan Ho Chui, PhD, MS/MPH        

A report of the findings and recommendations from a community health assessment was performed by the Healthy Chinatown Alliance at BCNC in 2013. The alliance was a collaboration between BCNC, Asian Women for Health and Tufts University School of Medicine. The project was undertaken to determine childhood obesity and pre-obesity in Boston Chinatown and the find ways to promote healthy eating, physical activity, and healthy living.

Visualizing Air Pollution: Communication of Environmental Health Information in a Chinese Immigrant Community

Published April 2019

Carolyn Wong, Hsin-Ching Wu, Ekaterina G. Cleary, Allison P. Patton, Alan Xie, Georges Grinstein, Susan Koch-Weser & Doug Brugge

An academic journal article on the development and evaluation of the Interactive Map of Chinatown Traffic Pollution. The interactive map was used to communicate information about traffic-related air pollution to the Chinese immigrant community in Boston’s Chinatown. The work was supported by the collaboration between university academics and community partners. BCNC youth supported this community research.

Chinatown Health Needs Assessment Survey

Published April 2019

Susan Koch-Weser, Giles Li

This study uses communication infrastructure theory (CIT) to examine the associations between connections to community-based organizations, civic engagement, and protective health behaviors within the context of Boston Chinatown’s Chinese immigrant community. According to CIT, neighborhood communication resources encourage residents to engage in civic activities and health-related problem-solving behaviors. BCNC worked with Tufts University researchers to survey Chinatown residents to understand their health needs and concerns.

Asian-Serving Social Services in the City of Quincy: A deep dive into Quincy’s Asian communities and social services

Completed September 2022

Tufts University Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life Community Research Center and Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center

Lina Huang, Awes Hassan, Yeojin Kim, Nicole Setow, Abi Vixama, Wendy Xu

In the fall semester of 2021, Tisch College Community Research Center (TCRC) sought out community organizations for a partnership that would invite student researchers, and TCRC to work on a research project with the community organization as a driving lead. Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC) demonstrated interest in collaborating for their investigation of the City of Quincy’s existing and missing social services for their Quincy site. The purpose of the study is to help BCNC understand Quincy and the services available for their Asian and Asian American residents, especially pertaining to family services and youth services. TCRC sought out students with an interest in community research, and some initial knowledge about Quincy. The students recruited had a great knowledge about the city, with a few of them being lifelong residents of Quincy. This study focuses particularly on the culturally responsive nature of services and this information may be used to inform future programming and staff professional development. The research project was conducted over the spring semester, and along with a written element there was also a story map created with community images.

Arts, Culture, and Creativity as a Strategy for Countering the Negative Social Impacts of Immigration Stress and Gentrification. 

Published May 2021

Carolyn Leung Rubin, Virginia Rall Chomitz, Cynthia Woo, Giles Li, Susan Koch-Weser, Peter Levine

A collaboration project between academic researchers, Pao Arts Center, and BCNC which investigated the role of arts, culture, and creativity in supporting social connection in the wake of gentrification in Boston Chinatown. The research investigates the role of a community arts center in an ethnic neighborhood that is under stress due to gentrification. The research was funded by ArtPlace America, Tufts Collaborates, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Untold Stories, Unsung Heroes: Using Visual Narratives to Resist Historical Exclusion, Exoticization, and Gentrification in Boston Chinatown

Published September 2020

Carolyn Leung Rubin, Loan Thi Dao, Izabela Villanueva, Cynthia Woo

An article presenting the Inside Chinatown project which allowed current and former residents and workers in Boston Chinatown to use photography and visual storytelling. The participants were able to create their own stories about the current moment in Chinatown’s history.

Critical Ambiguity: The Performance of Pao Arts Center in Boston’s Chinatown, 2017–2018

Published Fall 2022 in Verge: Studies in Global Asias, Volume 8, Issue 2, pp.144-169.

Yizhou Huang

As the first community-based arts center in Boston’s Chinatown, Pao Arts Center invites further discussion about the intricate relationship between art, gentrification, and the building of minority communities. Based on the data collected in a year-long research project, this article examines Pao Arts Center’s performance in its inaugural year, 2017-2018. Using performance studies methods and Henri Lefebvre’s theory of the production of space, I argue Pao Arts Center takes on a layered performance of critical ambiguity. The center’s spatial relationship to Boston’s inner city embodies a specific urban history that has produced and shaped the Chinatown community while its artistic practice performs a pan-Asian identity based on an open interpretation of Chinese-ness.

Mental health priorities and cultural-responsiveness of the Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training for Asian immigrant populations in Greater Boston, Massachusetts

Published July 2024

Min Kyung Kim, Grace S. Su, Angel N.Y. Chan, Yuxin Fu, Yanqing Huang, Chien-Chi Huang, Ben Hires and MyDzung T. Chu

Asians and Asian Americans have the lowest rate of mental health service utilization (25%) in the US compared to other racial/ethnic groups (39 − 52%), despite high rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. The lack of culturally-responsive mental health trainings hinders access to mental health services for these populations. We assessed the mental health priorities of Asian communities in Greater Boston and evaluated cultural responsiveness of the Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), a first-responder training teaching participants skills to recognize signs of mental health and substance use challenges, and how to appropriately respond.

Parent and Provider Perspectives on the Diagnoses and Management of Autism in a Chinese Immigrant Population

Published May 2019 in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics

Christina Sakai, MD, Christina Mulé, Ph.D., Amy LeClair, Ph.D., Frances Chang, MEd, Samantha Sliwinski, MPH, Yoyo Yau, MA, and Karen M. Freund, MD, MPH.

This was a research project on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Chinese immigrant families in the Greater Boston area funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and led by Doris Duke Fellows and Child Well-Being Research Network members. Minority families experience disparities in the diagnosis and management of autism spectrum disorder (hereafter “autism”). To date, the experiences of Chinese immigrant families in the United States have not been explored. Utilizing parent and provider perspectives, this research sought to identify barriers and facilitators to the diagnosis and management of autism among Chinese immigrant children.

Establishing a Parenting Program for Transnationally Separated Chinese Immigrant Families: Community-Based Pilot Program

Published August 2020 in Psychiatric Services

Published June 2020 by Leslie K. Wang, Ph.D., Sylvie H. M. Wong, Ed.M., Stephen H. Chen, Ph.D., Yoyo Yau, M.A., Giles Li, Cindy H. Liu, Ph.D.

This is a scientific study paper looking into transnational separation. Children who experience transnational separation (TS) from their parents, often referred to as “satellite babies,” endure a relatively common but underdiscussed experience. To date, no evaluations of clinical interventions to specifically support transnationally separated families have been described. This column describes implementation of a group therapy pilot program for parents to address parenting and emotional concerns related to TS at a social services agency in Boston’s Chinatown. Parent and therapist interviews indicated increased skills in negotiating parental feelings of guilt, shame, and regret caused by TS. These insights can guide practitioners and researchers who wish to address family separation in their communities.

Chinese American “Satellite Babies,” Raised Between Two Cultures

Published Fall 2018

Leslie K. Wang

A look into the phenomenon of “satellite babies” and the affects of transnational separation. Particularly, it looks at the intersection between two different cultural models of parenting and family and how that affected the children. The article includes stories of children who have experienced being sent to China as young children to be raised by their grandparents.

Depressive Symptoms in Chinese Immigrants Mothers: Relations With Perceptions of Social Status and Interpersonal Support

Published 2021 in American Psychological Association

Stephen H. Chen, Wellesley College, Emily Zhang and Cindy H. Liu, Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Leslie K. Wang, University of Massachusetts Boston

Immigrants’ perceptions of their social status relative to others in their host country can differ dramatically from their perceived status in their countries of origin. Results from the present study indicated that downward shifts in perceived social status are associated with more symptoms of depression among Chinese immigrant mothers, even after accounting for their levels of income and education and their access to interpersonal support.

Self-Regulatory Development in Children from Chinese Immigrant Families: Evidence for Commonality and Specificity

Published November/December 2021 in Child Development

Stephen H. Chen, and Xue Fang Deng, Wellesley College, Emily Zhang, Wellesley College and Harvard Medical School, Leslie K. Wang, University of Massachusetts Boston, Cindy H. Liu, Harvard Medical School

A central theme of acculturative specificity is the heterogeneity of the immigrant experience. This study integrated this application of the Specificity Principle with intergenerational transmission models of self-regulation and identified both common and specific pathways in the self-regulatory development of Chinese American children in immigrant families (N = 169, Mage = 9.2 years). Consistent with intergenerational transmission models, results indicated associations between parents' and children's effortful control, with the mediation of these associations via authoritarian parenting. Parental education, family income, and children's bilingual proficiency were also uniquely associated with children's executive function and effortful control. Together, findings provide new directions for research with ethnic minority immigrant families, and underscore the utility of within-group approaches in advancing research on ethnic minority children's development.

Perceptions of Social Status in Chinese American Children: Associations With Social Cognitions and Socioemotional Well-Being

Published 2019 in Asian American Journal of Psychology

Stephen H. Chen, Tracy R. Gleason, and Michelle M. Wang, Wellesley College, Cindy H. Liu, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center—Harvard Medical School, Leslie K. Wang, University of Massachusetts—Boston

Children’s perceptions of both their own and others’ social status are important components of their socioemotional development during middle childhood. For Chinese American children from immigrant families, these processes may be shaped by specific sociocultural experiences and may play a critical role in their understanding of race and social status, as well as in their socioemotional well-being.

Asian CARES Research Report: Unpacking the Root Causes of Problem Gambling in the Asian Community

Published September 2021

Heang Leung Rubin, Mia Colby

This was a community engaged research project on problem gambling in the Asian community which was conducted by Asian CARES (Center for Addressing Research, Education, and Services). Asian CARES is a community partnership comprised of BCNC, Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence (ATASK), the Vietnamese American Initiative for Development (VietAID), Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association (CMAA), and Tufts CTSI. The research report relates the findings from 40 interviews conducted by community fieldworkers in language. Interviews were conducted in Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Khmer, and Korean. The report includes key findings from research as well as recommendations based on these findings.

Everett Community Level Health Project

Published June 2021

Heang Leung Rubin, Mia Colby

This is a report on the findings and recommendations of the Everett Community Level Health Project prepared for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Office of Problem Gambling Services. BCNC was the lead organization in the project which included the participation of two community engagement consultants, Eliot Family Resource Center, Everett Haitian Community Center, Cambridge Health Alliance, and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. The goal of the project was to listen to the community, particularly minorities and linguistically and culturally isolated communities, to develop recommendations to mitigate and prevent gambling related health concerns.  

Talking about Casino Gambling: Community Voices from Boston Chinatown

Published October 2019

Carolyn Wong, Giles Li

BCNC partnered with Dr Carolyn Wong, PhD, from the Institute for Asian American Studies, University of Massachusetts Boston on a research project looking into casino gambling among residents and workers in Boston Chinatown. The goal of the project was to better understand gamblers in the Chinatown community, including their motivations for gambling, how they gamble, and how their gambling effected both themselves and their families.

Unpacking the root causes of gambling in the Asian community: Contesting the myth of the Asian gambling culture

Published November 2022 in the journal Frontiers in Public Health

Mia Han Colby, Ben Hires, Lisette Le, Dawn Sauma, May Yoyo Yau, MyDzung Thi Chu, and Heang Leung Rubin

Problem gambling is a public health issue both in the United States and internationally and can lead to mental health and socioeconomic concerns for individuals, families, and communities. Large epidemiological studies on problem gambling have neglected to include working-class, immigrant Asian Americans, who are at higher risk for problem gambling. The lack of data on Asian American gambling may explain a subsequent lack of culturally and linguistically appropriate treatment and prevention services. Additionally, the invisibility of Asian American data in published literature has helped to perpetuate a commonly held myth of an Asian gambling culture. This stereotype of the “Asian gambler” is a form of anti-Asian racism which serves to ignore and minimize the root causes of problem gambling in the Asian American community.

HEAR US: a qualitative study of racial discrimination in Boston’s Chinatown and empowering change from within the community

Published September 2023 in the journal Frontiers in Public Health and Community Series In Mental-Health-Related Stigma and Discrimination: Prevention, Role, and Management Strategies – Volume II

Siyu Chen, Yajing Luo, Kimberly R. Dong, Yoyo Yau, Ben Hires, Shiwei Liang, and Alice M. Tang

BCNC partnered with Dr. Kimberly Dong and Dr. Alice Tang from Tufts University School of Medicine, Department of Public Health and Community Medicine and Tufts CTSI ADAPT to qualitatively explore the impact of anti-Asian racism in a Chinese community in the greater Boston area between June and September 2021.

The ‘invisible’ targets of hatred and hardship: Lower-income Asian Americans the focus of new COVID-19 study

Published April 2022

Dr. Carolyn Wong, PhD and Ziting Kuang, B.A.

BCNC partnered with Dr Carolyn Wong, PhD, and Ziting Kuang, B.A. from the Institute for Asian American Studies, University of Massachusetts Boston on a research survey to examine COVID-19 pandemic experiences in Greater Boston. BCNC assisted in outreach to survey participants during very challenging conditions of the pandemic's first  year.