The Familee Research Team is directed by Dr. Richard M Lee, Professor of Psychology, at the University of Minnesota. We are interested in the ways in which race, ethnicity, and migration relate to the development, well-being, and mental health of individuals and families from diverse cultural backgrounds. Much of this work has been with diverse Asian American populations, but the team is expanding to study many different minoritized and immigrant populations. Although Dr. Lee and most graduate students are trained in counseling psychology, the research draws heavily from the fields of developmental science, family studies, personality and individual differences, cultural psychology and diversity science, ethnic studies, and critical race theory.
Most all research projects are currently led by graduate students, some by advanced undergraduate students, and just a few studies directly by Dr. Lee. The Familee Research Team works as a collaborative research group in which few studies are individually driven. We also have ongoing collaborations with colleagues in Psychology, Child Development, Family Social Science, and Communication at Minnesota (e.g., Juan Del Toro, Megan Gunnar, Kay Simon, Michelle Pasco, Deborah Yoon), other universities in the United States (UCLA, ASU, University of Texas) and around the world (Canada, South Korea, Germany). Increasingly, we are incorporating open-science practices into our research.
Here are three main lines of research that is conducted by the research team.
- Individual and cultural differences
- Transracial and Transnational Adoption Project
- Migration and adaptation
- Prevention science
We seek to advance theory and measurement of culture-specific psychological constructs, including ethnic/racial identity, perceived discrimination, culture-specific parenting, and intergenerational parent-child conflicts, as well as more general traits, including regulatory focus, mental health literacy/stigma, and family mental health stigma.
Dr. Lee continues to conduct research on the theory and measurement of social connectedness which he began as a graduate student, including the development, revisions, and validation of the Social Connectedness Scale which has been translated into more than a dozen languages and used around the world.
Current or Recent Projects
- Development and validation of self-report measures designed for specific racial, ethnic, or cultural groups, such as social connectedness, bloomer identity, diasporic identity, birth family thoughts, adoptive identity, racial discrimination, and ethnic-racial socialization.
- Understanding how Asian Americans perceive and respond to discriminatory events and cultural conflicts.
- Family ethnic-racial socialization processes and youth adjustment in mono-racial, transracial, and multi-racial families.
- Understanding how Asian Americans in interracial relationships understand and navigate ethnic and racial differences.
- The interplay between puberty, racialized experiences, and health.
- The nature and measurement of belongingness in specific contexts and social connectedness in general.
Link to the Adoption Research Website
Broadly speaking, we are interested in the diaspora experiences of individuals and groups who have been displaced from their homelands, including refugees, adoptees, and other migrant groups (e.g., international students). We have a particular interest in the transracial and transnational life experiences of children, youth and adults adopted internationally from South Korea and raised in White families and communities. We specifically examine how adopted individuals and their families negotiate racial and ethnic differences, work through questions around birth family, adoption and culture, and develop coherent and affirming identities and healthy, positive relationships.
Current or Recent Projects
- Three-wave longitudinal study on Korean adoptees and their families who completed parent surveys in 2007, parent and adolescent surveys in 2014, and parent and young adult surveys in 2019/2020. We also have cross-sectional survey data from over 500 adoptive parents that was collected in 2007.
- Cross-sectional survey, mixed-method, and qualitative interview data on adopted Korean American adults to understand their diverse and unique experiences as Korean adoptees and as parents of multiracial children.
- Investigating attitudes toward genetic testing among international adoptive family members and its role in finding birth family and identity development.
- Intergenerational trauma and communication among immigrant and refugee families and youth.
- Investigating how direct-to-consumer ancestry genetic testing can be used to find birth family and promote ethnic identity development.
- In collaboration with Dr. Peter Titzmann at Hannover University in Germany, conceptualizing and measuring acculturation processes over time.
- In collaboration with Dr. Linda Juang at Potsdam University in Germany and community-based organizations in Europe, identifying and documenting anti-Asian racism in Europe.
- In collaboration with Dr. Kyong Ah Kim at Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea, understanding the role of ambiguous loss in North Korean defectors living in South Korea.
9/17/2024 Update: I am not currently conduction prevention or intervention research with local communities.
In the past, we have developed, tailored, and implemented evidence-based prevention programs to improve the well-being of individuals, families, and organizations. While we are not currently conducting intervention research, we do investigate factors that facilitate or act as barriers to seeking health care services (e.g., health literacy, individual and family mental health stigma). We also are interested in how novel arts-based projects can be used to change people’s attitudes and beliefs.
Current or Recent Projects
- The role of comics to increase racial literacy and change ethnic and racial attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors
- Understanding the role of family stigma in mental health and mental health care utilization.