Na Zhang

Assistant Professor

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I will consider accepting graduate students for matriculation in Fall 2025. I mentor students in three specialization areas: Child and Adolescent Development; Couples, Parents, and Families; Health, Wellbeing, and Prevention.

My research investigates the application of mindfulness training for parents, with the goal of maximizing the reach and effectiveness of family interventions to prevent mental health problems and promote resilience. I am interested in studying developmental processes that explain adaptation or maladaptation in children, with an emphasis on understanding the predictors and outcomes of high-quality parenting. In my research lab, we use a variety of methods including advanced quantitative research methods, qualitative interviews, and research synthesis. We also adopt Human-Centered Design (HCD) methods for developing engaging and sustainable family-based interventions.

I am also a mindfulness practitioner and a qualified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher.

Selected Awards

2025                Junior Faculty Research Excellence Award, Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy, UConn
2023                Mentorship Excellence Award, Office of Undergraduate Research, UConn. Link.
2021                Barbara Thompson Excellence in Research on Military and Veteran Families Award, Military Family Research Institute, Purdue University. Link.

Research Funding

Principal Investigator, “A digital mindfulness-informed parenting intervention for high-risk divorced families”
Funded by National Institutes of Health/NIH, National Institute of Mental Health/NIMH (2022-27)

Educational Background:

NIDA T32 Post-Doctoral Fellow, Prevention Science, REACH Institute, Arizona State University, USA
Ph.D. in Family Social Science (Prevention Science Minor), University of Minnesota, USA
M.Ed. in Psychology (Clinical Science Track), Tsinghua University, China
B.S. in Psychology, Capital Normal University, China

Selected Mindfulness-Based Instructor Training Experience

2025              Five-day program, “Love’s Journey: Polishing the Mirror of the Heart”. With Saki Santorelli.
2024              Invitational eight-day program, “Deepening inquiry, practice, and community in the greater mindfulness universe: An experimental international retreat within the non-dual embrace of noble silence and dialogue”. With Jon Kabat-Zinn.
2017              Nine-day program, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Fundamentals. With Bob Stahl and Carolyn West.
2013              Seven-day program, “Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in Mind-Body Medicine”. With Jon Kabat-Zinn and Saki Santorelli.

Editorial Service:

Associate Editor, Mindfulness
Editorial board member, Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology
Consulting editor, Journal of Family Psychology

Selected publications:

1. Zhang, N., Smith, I. C., & Ginsburg, G. (2024). Do self-processes and parenting mediate the effects of anxious parents’ psychopathology on youth depression and suicidality? Child Psychiatry & Human Development. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-023-01657-z
2. Fritzson, E. **, Bellizzi, K. M., Zhang, N., & Park, C. L. (in press). Effects of trait resilience and emotion regulation on perceived positive and negative life changes in cancer survivors: A longitudinal study. Annals of Behavioral Medicine.
3. Fritzson, E.**, Zhang, N., Wolchik, S. A., Sandler, I. N., Tein, J. Y., &Bellizzi, K. M. (2024). Developmental pathways of the Family Bereavement Program to promote growth 15 years after parental death. Journal of Family Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0001189
4. Duncan, L. G., Zhang, N., Santana, T., Cook, J. G., Gastro-Smyth, L., Hutchison, M., Mallareddy, D., Jurkiewicz, L., Huynh, T., & Bardacke, N. (2023). Enhancing prenatal group medical visits with mindfulness skills: A pragmatic trial with Latina and BIPOC pregnant women experiencing multiple forms of structural inequity. Mindfulness. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-023-02227-z
5. Zhang, N., Zhang, J., Gewirtz, A., & Deater-Deckard, K. (2023). Linking observing and nonreactivity mindfulness to parenting: Moderated direct and indirect effect via inhibitory control. Journal of Family Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0001152
6. Liu, G., Santana-Gonzalez, C., Zeffiro, T., Zhang, N., Enstrom, M., & Quevedo, K. (2023). Self-compassion neurobiology during self-appraisals in depressed and healthy adolescents. Journal of Affective Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2023.07.012
7. Zhang, N., Sandler, I., Thieleman, K., O’Hara, K., & Wolchik, S. (2023). Self-compassion for caregivers of children in bereaved families: A theoretical model and intervention example. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 26, 430-444. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-023-00431-w
8. Sandler, I., Tein, J., Zhang, N., & Wolchik, S. (2023). Developmental pathways of the Family Bereavement Program to prevent major depression 15 years later. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2023.02.012
9. Ahrweiler, N.^***, Santana-Gonzales, C., Zhang, N., Quandt, G., Ashtiani, N., Liu, G., Engstrom, M., Schultz, E., Liengswangwong, R., Teoh, J. Y., Kozachok, K., Quevedo, K. (2022). Neural Activity Associated with Symptoms Change in Depressed Adolescents Following Self-Processing Neurofeedback. Brain Science, 12(9), 1128. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12091128
10. Sandler, I., Wolchik, S., Sandler, J., Tein, J., Gaffney, D., Zhang, N., & Porter, M. (2022). Feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of adding an evidence-based parent/caregiver program for bereaved families to usual community-based services. OMEGA – Journal of Death and Dying. https://doi.org/10.1177/00302228221132910
11. Causadias, J. M., Alcalá, L., Morris, K. S., Yaylaci, F. T., & Zhang, N. (2022). Future directions on BIPOC youth mental health: The importance of cultural rituals in the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 51(4), 577-592. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2022.2084744
12. Zhang, N., Russell, B., Park, C. & Fendrich, M. (2022). Effects of mindful emotion regulation on parents’ loneliness and social support: A longitudinal study during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the United States. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 39(11), 3415-3435. https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075221098419
13. Alvis, L., Zhang, N., Sandler, I., & Kaplow, J. (2022). Developmental manifestations of grief in children and adolescents: caregivers as key grief facilitators. Journal of Child and Adolescent Trauma, 16, 447-457. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-021-00435-0
14. Zhang, N., Sandler, I., Tein, J., Wolchik, S. & Donohue, E. (2022). Caregivers’ self-compassion and bereaved children’s adjustment: Testing caregivers’ mental health and parenting as mediators. Mindfulness, 13, 462-473. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-021-01807-1
15. Zhang, N., Sandler, I., Tein, J., & Wolchik, S. (2021). Reducing suicide risk in parentally bereaved youth through promoting effective parenting: Testing a developmental cascade model. Development and Psychopathology, 35(1), 433-446. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579421001474
16. Sandler, I., Tein, J., Zhang, N., Wolchik, S., & Thieleman, K. (2021). Grief as a predictor of long-term suicidality above and beyond PTSD symptoms and other risk factors in parentally bereaved children and adolescents. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 34(6), 1159-1170. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.22759
17. Zhang, J., Zhang, N., Piehler, T. F., Gewirtz, A. H. (2021). Emotion regulation difficulties in military fathers magnify their benefit from a parenting program. Prevention Science, 24, 237-248. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-021-01287-8
18. Zhang, N., Hoch, J., Gewirtz, A. H., Barnes, A. & Snyder, J. (2021). Vagal suppression buffers against the negative effects of psychological inflexibility on parenting in combat deployed fathers. Parenting Science and Practice, 21, 55-78. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295192.2020.1804250