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Xiaoran Sun (孙潇然)
Welcome to my website! I am an assistant professor in the Department of Family Social Science, College of Education and Human Development, at University of Minnesota. Check this news story for more information.
I am accepting graduate students for Fall 2022. I also welcome undergraduate and master’s students to collaborate on research. Please check the Prospective Students page for more information.
I obtained my PhD degree in Human Development and Family Studies from the Pennsylvania State University in August 2019, with a graduate minor in Social Data Analytics. I completed my postdoctoral training at Stanford University, with the Department of Pediatrics, Department of Communication, and the Stanford Data Science Scholars Program.
Research areas, Substantive: Technology & smartphone use; Adolescent & young adult; Family systems; Achievements & well-being; Cultural contexts
Research areas, Methodology: Computational social science; Big data & machine learning; Longitudinal dyadic data modeling
See details about my research.
contact
Email: sunx0521@umn.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Google Scholar Profile
GitHub
Twitter (@xiaoransunpsu)
News
May 10, 2022: Xiaoran Sun has been awarded University of Minnesota Grants-in-Aid of Research, Artistry and Scholarship.
Project title: “Examining Teenagers’ Overnight Smartphone Use and Its Implications for Well-Being with High-Intensity Smartphone Data” Read more.
Recent Publications
Sun, X., Haydel, F., Matheson, D., Desai, M., & Robinson, T. N. (2022). Are mobile phone ownership and age of acquisition associated with child adjustment? A 5-year prospective study among low-income Latinx children. Child Development. [online first] https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13851
Sun, X., Ram, N., Reeves, B., Cho, M. J., Fitzgerald, A., & Robinson, T. N. (2022). Connectedness and independence of young adults and parents in the digital world: Observing smartphone interactions at multiple timescales using Screenomics. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, [online first] https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075221104268
Padilla, J., Sun, X., McHale, S. M., & Updegraff, K. A. (2022). Longitudinal links between adolescent siblings’ gender-typed characteristics and sibling relationship quality: A dyadic approach. Current Psychology, [online first] https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-02919-0
Sun, X., Updegraff, K. A., McHale, S. M., Hochgraf, A. K., Gallagher, A. M., & Umaña-Taylor, A. J. (2021) Implications of COVID-19 school closures for sibling dynamics among Latinx children in the U.S.: A prospective, daily diary study. Developmental Psychology, 57, 1708-1718. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001196. (Sun and Updegraff had equal contributions.) Media mentions: Penn State News
Sun, X., McHale, S. M., Updegraff, K. A., & Umaña-Taylor, A. J. (2021). Implications of Mexican-origin youth’s work experiences for relationships with fathers. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 27, 796-807. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000468
Sun, X., Ram, N., & McHale, S. M. (2020). Adolescent family experiences predict young adult educational attainment: A data-based cross-study synthesis with machine learning. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 29, 2770-2785. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-020-01775-5
Recent Talks
Sun, X., (2022, February). Introduction to Machine Learning for Human Development and Family Research. Talk delivered at NICHD SBSBeat (Social and Behavioral Sciences Branch Education and Training) Seminar.
Sun, X. & Wang, Y. (2021, November). Typology of Research on Families and Technology: A Systematic Review. Workshop to be chaired at the TCRM conference at the National Council on Family Relations, virtual conference.
Love, B. & Sun, X. (2021, July). Big Data & Data Mining Approaches for Psychology Research. Invited talk for the UCL (University College London)-PKU (Peking University) Summer School in Experimental Design in Psychology. (Love and Sun had equal contributions)
Sun, X., Haydel, K. F., Matheson, D., Desai, M., & Robinson, T. N. (2021, April). Prospective study of mobile phone acquisition and ownership and well-being among low-income Latinx children. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), virtual conference. Download poster here
Sun, X., (2020, November). Family Dynamics in the Digital World: Qualitative and Quantitative Analyses of Data From Interviews, Social Media, and Smartphones. Symposium chaired at the National Council on Family Relations, virtual conference.
Sun, X., (2020, November). Introduction to Machine Learning for Family Research: Basic Concepts, Common Algorithms, and Application Examples. Workshop chaired at the National Council on Family Relations, virtual conference.
Download handout here
See the full list of publications & presentations