Han, Meekyung
Professor
Co-Director of Child Welfare Partnership for Research and Training
School of Social Work
Preferred: meekyung.han@sjsu.edu
Telephone
Preferred: (408) 924-5825
Office Hours
By appointment
Education
- Ph.D., Social Welfare, UC Berkeley, California, United States
- MSW, Social Work, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, United States
- B.A. in Social Welfare, South Korea
- B.S. in Chemistry, South Korea
Bio
I am a professor and co-director of Child Welfare Partnership for Research and Training in the School of Social Work at San José State University. I came to the United States from South Korea as an international student pursuing my MSW at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. After earning the MSW degree, I worked as a Child Protective Service worker at the Department of Family and Children Services in St. Louis, MO, and then moved to California to attend a doctoral program in social welfare at the University of California, Berkeley. After receiving my Ph.D. degree, I joined SJSU.
Since joining SJSU, I have established a strong research agenda with which I have secured multiple external grants and significantly engaged in interdisciplinary research with faculty, community-based agencies, and international scholars. My primary research interests focus on child welfare, mental health issues, the general well-being of Asian Americans, and the enhancement of competent, culturally sensitive practices among ethnic minority populations. Recently, I, as the Principal Investigator (PI), have completed the multi-year research project entitled “Vicarious trauma and its impact on well-being among family caregivers of person with mental illness: A Comparative Exploration of self-care practices among Asians and Caucasians.” Recently, the SJSU team (Co-PI) worked together with the Hawai’i State Department of Public Health (PI) and CSU East Bay on the SAMHSA Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Behavioral Health Center for Excellence (AANHPI-'Ohana CoE) Grant. I am a Program Specialist for this SAMHSA grant, which has an almost $3.5 million budget.
In acknowledgment of my prolific scholarly productivity and contribution toward understanding various mental health issues among various cultural groups, I received the College’s Committee to Enhance Equity and Diversity Award. Also I was named a Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) Fellow. This prestigious honor is bestowed upon social work scholars who have promoted a diverse and equitable society and advanced research on social work practice and policy. In recent years, I have been honored with several awards. These include an award from the South Bay Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers for my teaching, and the Senior Excellence Scholarly Award from my college for my outstanding scholarship.
I am committed to expanding the depth and breadth of my professional and academic experiences as well as my contribution to the social work field in order to advance the well-being of people around the world. I am a proud Spartan!
Selected Publications
[Note: * Corresponding Author]
Han, M., Jung, S., Seo, H-L, Kim, N., Bae, Y., & Kim, J. (In press). Voices of Korean youth with developmental disabilities: Transition to adulthood. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education.
Castaneda, L., & Han, M*. (2024). Everyone benefits when there is another MSW in child welfare: Exploring ways to support Title IV-E MSW student-employees. Journal of Public Child Welfare. Online Published https://doi.org/10.1080/15548732.2024.2357128.
Park, S-W., & Han, M. (2024). Exploring the Suitability of the U.S. Mentor Parents Program for Child Protective Services in Korea. Society and Welfare, 6(1), 95-119.
Yabusaki, A. S., Han, M., & Ida, D. J. (2024). Using standardized patients to improve the quality of care for AAPI populations. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, 10(1), 44–55. https://doi.org/10.1037/stl0000257
Han, M., & Diwan, S., Cole, T., Hay, K., & Paturzo, M. (2022). Service utilization, self-efficacy, positive attitude and well-being among Asian American family caregivers of persons with serious mental illness. Community Mental Health Journal. Online published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-021-00912-8.
Jung, S., Seo, H-L, Han, M., Kim, N., Bae, Y., & Kim, J. (2022). School life environment of youth with disabilities: Perspectives from professionals and parents. The Korean Association of Youth Welfare (in Korean)
Seo, H-L., Jung, S., & Han, M. (2022). Exploring the lived-experiences amid COVID-19: Stories from transition-age youth with developmental disabilities in South Korea. Journal of Developmental Disability (in Korean).
Goyal, D., Han, M., Feldman-Schwartz, T. & Le, H-N. (2022). Perinatal Experiences of Asian American Women During the COVID-19 Pandemic. MCN, The American Journal of Maternal Child Nursing, 47(2). Online available.
Han, M., Goyal, D., Lee, J., Cho, I., & Kim, A. (2020). Korean immigrant women’s
postpartum experiences in the United States. MCN The American Journal of Maternal Child Nursing. 45(1), 42-48.
Xiaoping, X., & Han, M*. (2020). The Link Between Family Violence in Childhood and Internalizing and Externalizing Problems in Later Life Among College Students in China: Attachment as a Mediator. Social Work in Mental Health, 18(1), 39-54.
Han, M., Diwan, S., Chang, M., Comfort, K., & Forward, K. (2020). Caregiving burden and self-care among European-American and Chinese-American family caregivers of people with mental illness, Journal of Family Studies, 26(3), 441-458.
Han, M., Diwan, S., & Sun, K. (2019). Exploring caregiving-related experiences among Chinese American and European American family caregivers of persons with mental illness. Transcultural Psychiatry, 56 (3), 491-509.
Goyal, D., & Han, M*. (2019). Perinatal Depression Knowledge, Attitudes,and Beliefs among Graduate Social Work Students.Advances in Social Work, 18(4),1135-1146.
Oh, A., Han, M., Choi, Y., Lau, S., & Shum, M. S. (2019). Exploring relationship among child maltreatment experience in childhood and behavior problems as young adults: Role of social support among college students in Hong Kong. International Social Work. Published online in March: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0020872818762718)
Park, I., & Han, M. (2018). US Outpatient Treatment Orders, Crisis Response, and DomesticImplications, Medical Law, 19 (1), 23-80. [In Korean]
Bui, N., Han, M*., Diwan, S., & Dao, T. (2018). Vietnamese-American family caregivers of persons with mental illness: Exploring caregiving experience in cultural context. Transcultural Psychiatry, 55 (6), 846–865.
Teppang, N., Han, M*., & Lee, Y.J. (2017). Exploring Ethnic Identity and Its Development Process Among Late Adolescent Filipino Americans. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Social Work. Published online in December 2017: https://doi.org/10.1080/15313204.2017.1409679.
Han, M., Cha, R., Lee, H., & Lee, S. (2017). Mental health stigma among Korean immigrants: Role of culture and de-stigmatization strategies. Asian American Journal of Psychology,8(2), 134-141.
Han, M., Nguyen, D., Cohen, E. Drabble, L., Nugyen, H., Sen, S., & Tuan, T. (2016). Exploring the Transferability of Competency-Based Education Model To Social Work Education in Vietnam. Social Work Education: The International Journal. Online published in March 2016:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02615479.2016.1162782.
Hines, A., Cohen, E., Hoa, N., Drabble, L., Han, M., Sen, S., & Tuan, T. (2015). Improving Social Work Education in Vietnam Through International Cooperation: the “Social Work Education Enhancement Project”. Social Work Education: The International Journal. Online published in July 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2015.1052391
Han, M., Choi, Y., & Jung, S. (2015). Exploring the relationship between exposure to interparental violence and child physical abuse in childhood and the impacts on mental health problems in later young adulthood among Korean college students, International Social Work, 1-5. Online published in May 2016: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0020872814562481?journalCode=iswb
Han, M., & Pong, H. (2015). Mental Health Help-Seeking Behaviors Among Asian American Community College Students: The Effect of Stigma, Cultural Barriers, and Acculturation. Journal of College Student Development, 56, 1-14.
Han, M., Cao, L., & Anton, K. (2014). Exploring the role of ethnic media and the community readiness to combat stigma attached to mental illness among Vietnamese immigrants: The Pilot project Tam An (Inner Peace in Vietnamese), Community Mental Health Journal.Published online. doi: 10.1007/s10597-014-9745-4.
Chaij, C., Han, M*.,& Graziano, L. (2014). Latino Families with a Child with Prader-Willi Syndrome: Exploring Needs for Support. Journal of Social Work in Disability & Rehabilitation, 13(3), 207-225.
Han, M., Valencia, M., De Leon, J., & Lee, Y. (2012). Development and Implementation of the Culturally Competent Program with Cambodians: The Pilot Psycho-Social-Cultural Treatment Group Program. Journal of Ethnic Minority & Diversity in Social Work, 21(3), 212-230.
Han, M., Lee, S. E., & Lee, P. A. (2012). Role of personal attributes on burnout among entering MSW students. Journal of Social Work Education, 48(3), 439-457.
Han, M. & Lemon Osterling, K. (2012). Characteristics and factors impacting reunification outcomes among Vietnamese immigrant families in the child welfare system. Children and Youth Services Review, 34(1),103-111.
Ying, Y., Han, M., & Tseng, M. (2012). Acculturation and Post-Migration Stress in Middle-Aged Chinese Immigrant Women in Philadelphia: Variation between the Fujianese and the non-Fujianese women. Journal of Human Behaviors in the Social Environment, 22(1), 20-38.
Covarrubias, I. & Han, M*. (2011). Impact of social contact and beliefs about serious mental illness (SMI) on two mental health stigma: social distance and restrictions. Social Work, 56 (4), 317-325.
Han, M. & Lee, M. (2011). Risk and protective factors contributing to depressive symptoms in Vietnamese-American college students. Journal of College Student Development, 52(2), 154-166.
Osterling, K., L. & Han, M. (2011). Reunification outcomes among Mexican immigrant families in the child welfare system. Children and Youth Services Review, 33, 1658-1666.
Han, M., & Chow, J. C. (2010). What changes MSW students’ view on the mission of Social work?, Social Work Education: International Journal, 29(2), 205-221.
Ying, Y. & Han, M. (2009). Stress and coping with professional challenges in entering MSW students: The role of self-compassion. Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought, 28(3), 263-283.
Ying, Y. & Han, M. (2008). Variation in the prediction of cross-cultural adjustment by ethnic density: A longitudinal study of Taiwanese students in the United States. College Student Journal, 42(4), 1075-1086.
Ying, Y. & Han, M. (2008). Parental Contributions to Southeast Asian American adolescents’ well-being. Youth & Society. 40 (2), 289-306.
Ying, Y. & Han, M.(2008). Cultural orientation in Southeast Asian American young adults. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 14(1), 29-37.
Ying, Y. & Han, M. (2008). Parental cculturation, parental involvement, intergenerational relationship and adolescent outcomes in Filipino Asian American families. Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies, 6(1), 112-131.
Ying, Y., Han, M. & Wong, S. L. (2008). Cultural orientation among adolescents Asian Americans: Variation by age and ethnic density. Youth & Society, 39(4), 507-523.
Han, M., & Stone, S. (2007). Access to Psycho-social services among pregnant and parenting teens: Generating questions using Youth reports and GIS mapping Techniques. Child & Youth Care Forum (former Child & Youth Care Quarterly), 36 (5/6), 213-224.
Han, M., Carnochan, S., & Austin, M. (2007). The challenges to promoting collaboration
between child protection services workers and court professionals: An exploratory
study of case records. Journal of Public Child Welfare, 1(3), 115-131.
Ying, Y., & Han, M. (2007). Familism and mental health: Variation between Asian American children of refugees and immigrants. International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 4(4), 333-348.
Ying, Y., & Han, M. (2007). A Longitudinal effect of intergenerational gap in acculturation on conflict and mental health in Southeast Asian American Adolescents, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 77(1), 61-66.
Ying, Y., & Han, M. (2007). A test of the International Congruence in Immigrant Families-Child scale in Southeast Asian Americans, Social Work Research, 31(1),35-43.
Carnochan, S., Abraham, A., Han, M, Taylor, S., Rashid, S., & Austin, M (2006). Child Welfare and the Courts: An exploratory study of the relationship between two complex systems, Journal of Public Child Welfare,1 (1), 117-136.
Ying, Y., & Han, M. (2006). The effect of intergenerational conflict and school-based racial discrimination on depression in Filipino American adolescence. Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies, 4(4), 19-35.
Ying, Y., & Han, M. (2006). The contribution of personality, acculturative stressors, and social affiliation to adjustment: A longitudinal study of Taiwanese students in the United States.International Journal of Intercultural Relations. 30(5),623-635.
Han, M. (2006). Relationship among perceived parental trauma, attachment, and sense of coherence in Southeast Asian American late adolescents. Journal of Family Social Work, 9(2), 25-45.
Stone, S., & Han, M. (2005). Perceived school environment, perceived discrimination, and school performance among children of Mexican immigrants. Children and Youth Services Review, 27(1), 51-66.