Texas Tech University

Wonjung Oh, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Human Development and Family Sciences

Email: wonjung.oh@ttu.edu

Phone: (806) 834-7736

Office: HS 301G

Currently accepting graduate students for Fall 2024

Wonjung Oh

Research Focus

My research program examines the development of social and emotional functioning from early childhood to adolescence.  My work explores how individual characteristics, social interactions, close relationships, and socio-cultural contexts contribute to individual differences in developmental pathways.   My research focuses on understanding how and, more importantly, why these factors function as risk and resilience in shaping developmental trajectories toward adaptive functioning (e.g., social competence, prosociality, self-regulation skills) and maladaptive functioning (e.g., social withdrawal, depression, aggression, dysregulation) across points of normative but major transitions (i.e., birth of a child, birth of a sibling, starting kindergarten, moving to middle school to high school, becoming an adolescent).

Prior to joining the faculty at Texas Tech University, I completed Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Psychology and Women and Infants Mental Health Program in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. I received my Ph.D. in Human Development and a Graduate Certificate (doctoral minor equivalent) in Measurement, Statistics, and Evaluation from the University of Maryland, College Park. I received my B.S. and M.A. in Child and Family Studies, both from Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea.

Areas of Expertise

  • Social and Emotion Development from Early Childhood to Adolescence
  • Relationship Networks: Peer and Family Relationships; Parenting (Mothers and Fathers); Sibling Relationships
  • Developmental Pathways Toward Adaptive and Maladaptive functioning (Social Behavior, Self-Regulations, Mental Health, and Relationships)
  • Risk and Resilience across Transitions in Family and School Environments (Perinatal/Postpartum Transitions, Parenthood, Birth of Child, School Readiness, School Transitions and Adjustment)
  • Socio-Cultural Contexts: Race and Ethnicity; Cross-Cultural Studies; Cultural Specificity and Commonality in Social-Emotional Development
  • Longitudinal, Multi-level, Innovative Quantitative Methods; Observational Methods

Selected Publications

* Denotes Student Collaborator 

Oh, W., Kim, H., Park, S., Mastergeorge, A. M., & Roggman, L. (2022). Maternal and paternal insensitivity, adaptive engagement, and school readiness skills among economically disadvantaged children: A dynamic approach. Early Childhood Research Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2021.09.003

Volling, B. L., Oh, W., Gonzalez, R., Bader, L., & Tan, L. (2022, online first). Changes in children's attachment security to mother and father after the birth of a sibling: Risk and resilience in the family. Development and Psychopathology. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579421001310

Bowker, J. C., Sette, S., Ooi, L. L., Bayram-Ozdemir, S., Braathu, N., Castillo, K. N., Dogan, A., Greco, C., Kamble, S., Karevold, E., Kim, H. K., *Kim, Y., Liu, J., Oh, W., Rapee, R., Wong, Q., Xiao, B., Zuffianò, A., & Coplan, R. J. (in press). Cross-cultural measurement of social withdrawal motivations across ten countries using multiple-group factor analysis alignment. International Journal of Behavior and Development

Oh, W., Bowker, J., Kim, H., Santos, A., Ribeiro, O., Guedes, M., Freitas, M., *Song, S., & Rubin, K. H. (2021). Distinct profiles of relationships with mothers, fathers, and best friends and socio-emotional functioning in early adolescence: A cross-cultural study. Child Development, 92 (6), 1154-1170https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13610

            [received the Open Access Publication Initiative Award, OVPR,Texas Tech University]

Oh, W., Song, J., Gonzalez, R., Volling, B. L., & Yu, T. (2017).  Developmental trajectories of children's withdrawal after the birth of a sibling. Monographs of theSociety for Research on Child Development, 82 (3), 106–117. . https://doi.org/10.1111/mono.12314

Oh, W., Muzik, M., McGinnis, E., Hamilton, L., Menke, R. & Rosenblum, K. L. (2016). Comorbid trajectories of postpartum depression and PTSD among mothers with childhood trauma history: course, predictors, processes and child adjustment. Journal of Affective Disorders, 200, 133-141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2016.04.037

Shah, P., Kaciroti, N., Richards, B., Oh, W., & Lumeng, J. C. (2016). Developmental outcomes of late preterm infants from infancy to kindergarten. Pediatrics, 138(2):e20153496. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2015-3496

Oh, W., Volling, B. L., & Gonzalez, R. (2015). Trajectories of children's social interactions with their infant sibling in the first year: A multidimensional approach. Journal of Family Psychology29 (1), 119-129. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000051           

Oh, W., Rubin, K. H., Bowker, J. W., Booth-LaForce, C. L., Rose-Krasnor, L.,  & Laursen, B. (2008). Trajectories of social withdrawal from middle childhood to early adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 36 (4),553-566. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-007-9199-z

Links

Google Scholar:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=3KIzzYoAAAAJ

Research Lab Website:

Child Development and Relationships Lab