Xia invited to present at United Nations

02 May 2018     By Katie Ballue

Yan Ruth Xia, Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies Professor, was invited to present her research at the United Nations this month in an attempt to further explore the importance of family policies for social inclusion and inclusive urbanization.

Xia’s research focus at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln is Asian populations in America and Chinese family relationships in China. She zeroes in on the nature of the relationship between parents and adolescents. She answers questions such as, “what makes a family strong? How can parents and children communicate better? What can bring the best outcomes for parents, children, and other family members?”

Xia has taught coursework on youth development, child and family policy, immigrant families, and global studies and also advises graduate students. She’s had extensive experience with program design and has helped develop multiple programs at the university. She has spent most of her research knee-deep in family studies because she sees how it translates into practice in communities, especially on a global scale. She was also involved on the ground level when the university helped begin the Great Plains IDEA Consortium in 2000.

Mentoring graduate students is a passion of Xia’s, because she sees a need for them to develop cross-discipline research and outreach across the globe. “We need to have future professionals that are globally competent. It’s very important to me and it’s why I think our department has this international initiative that is supported by the College of Education and Human Sciences and the university. Our department is on the front lines, the cutting edge of this global trend. We are the leaders of our profession, and there are a lot of exciting things happening here,” she says.

Xia has been with the university for over seventeen years. Her emphasis on the global context of family studies has gained international attention. Xia was invited to the U.N. to speak on family policies for inclusive societies in an Expert Group Meeting organized by the Division for Social Policy and Development of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs on May 15-16, 2018 in New York City.