Kyongboon Kwon, Associate Professor in Educational Psychology.

Kyongboon Kwon, PhD

  • Associate Professor, Educational Psychology
  • Program Director, School Psychology MS/EdS

Kyongboon Kwon teaches courses in cognitive assessment, social/emotional assessment, cognitive and behavioral interventions in school, and practicum. Her primary research interests focus on children’s socialization in the peer group and its impact on children’s school-related functioning.

Kyongboon is interested in children’s naturally occurring peer groups (e.g., cliques, friendship groups) that have a potentially significant impact on children’s social and academic development. She is also interested in the application of social network analysis in studying children’s peer groups. For example, Kyongboon has examined the impact of clique membership on children’s behavior nominations, the contribution of clique types to children’s social adjustment, perceived cohesion of cliques, and children’s social identification with a friendship group.

Current Research/Projects

More recently, Kyongboon started researching the role of peers in children’s emotion socialization. Much research has focused on the role of parents in children’s emotion development, and relatively less is known regarding the nature and the mechanisms of emotion socialization in the peer group. In her recent studies, Kyongboon found that peers are good evaluators of others’ emotions in that peer perceived emotions predict school-related outcomes, such as social behavior, social status in the peer group, and academic functioning. Also, children’s emotion-focused relationships do not exactly overlap with friendships, and emotion-focused relationships are uniquely associated with adjustment outcomes. She hopes to further unpack children’s emotion socialization in the peer group through identifying meaningful constructs, developing measures, and providing practical implications.

Recent Publications

Kwon, K., Kupzyk, K, A., & Benton, A. (2018). Negative Emotionality, Emotion Regulation, and Achievement: Cross-Lagged Relations and Mediation of Academic Engagement. Learning and Individual Differences, 67, 33-40.

Kwon, K., Willenbrink, J. B., & Hanrahan, A. R. (2018). Peer-assessed emotional expressivity: Unique association with status in the peer group. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 38, 902-922.

Kwon, K., Hanrahan, A., & Kupzyk, K. A. (2017). Emotional expressivity and emotion regulation: Relation to academic functioning among elementary school children. School Psychology Quarterly, 32, 75-88.

Curriculum Vitae (PDF)