ICFW Affiliate
Assistant Professor, University of Louisville
Lixia Zhang’s research interests focus on child maltreatment and other negative circumstances that undermine individuals’ health and well-being across the life span. She is also interested in prevention and intervention strategies to avert childhood trauma or mitigate its effects, especially among disadvantaged children and families. Zhang has been involved in a variety of international, national and state research projects. As an ICFW affiliated scholar, she is currently collaborating with Dr. Joshua Mersky on two adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) studies. The first study is a cross-cultural ACEs Study. Dr. Zhang and Dr. Mersky collected original data from more than 1,200 recent high school graduates in China to test the effects of ACEs on psychosocial well-being in emerging adulthood. The second study is an intergenerational ACEs study. Dr. Zhang and Dr. Mersky are working with families and schools to determine how parents’ exposure to ACEs can affect the emotional and behavioral development of their school children.
Lixia holds a master’s and PhD in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.