Jin Yao KWAN
(he/him/his) Ph.D. (Social Welfare), M.P.P.
Assistant Professor, University of Delaware
Research Fellow, The Majurity Trust
Researcher
I am an assistant professor in the College of Education and Human Development's Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Delaware. I am also Research Fellow with The Majurity Trust, a philanthropic organisation in Singapore.
My research focuses on the development of adolescents, youth, and young adults in underserved communities. For example, how do we advance the positive development and well-being of under-served adolescents, youth, and emerging adults, especially those who face disadvantages and marginalisation? And through implementation science and evaluation research, how do we improve our interventions? Across two inter-related research areas, I explore how families and communities use institutional supports and also examine structural factors and contextual processes perpetuating poverty and inequality.
Prior to joining the University of Delaware, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Graduate School of Social Work, University of Denver. I graduated with a Ph.D. in social welfare from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Luskin School of Public Affairs under the National University of Singapore (NUS)-Overseas Graduate Scholarship. In 2017, I graduated with my master's degree in public policy from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS.
Youth civic and community engagement
- “Why are we doing this in the first place?”: Youth motivations, school environments, and volunteer experiences in a system of compulsory school-based volunteerism (DOI: 10.1080/02188791.2023.2251708).
- ‘We didn’t want it to be a touch-and-go thing’: Exploring shifts across short-term youth voluntourism outputs and long-term outcomes and impact (DOI: 10.1080/02508281.2023.2243768).
COVID-19 and youth impact
- Youth civic engagement under Singapore’s COVID-19 lockdown: Motivations, online mobilization, action, and future civic and political orientation (DOI: 10.1080/10705422.2022.2108952)
- Adolescence during a pandemic: Examining US adolescents’ time use and family and peer relationships during COVID-19 (DOI: 10.3390/youth2010007)
- ‘Democracy and active citizenship are not just about the elections’: Youth civic and political participation during and beyond Singapore’s nine-day pandemic election (DOI: 10.1177/11033088211059595)
Family development
- Parent-worker relationships in home visiting: Intersections of parental gender, ethnicity, and immigration status (DOI: 10.1177/10443894231156212)
- Family structure, the quality of family ties, and the positive development of adolescents: The family social capital of grandparents in low-income Singaporean families (DOI: 10.1080/02185385.2020.1859409)
Practice research and research methodology
- “Beyond a practice-research bridge”: Project conceptualisation, implementation, and dissemination by an internal social work intermediary in Singapore (DOI: 10.1080/02185385.2023.2238686)
- ‘Everybody needs to be on board’: Individual and organisational youth worker experiences of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy training and implementation in a multi-cultural Singaporean context (DOI: 10.1177/00208728231156738)
Podcaster/Writer
I now run socialservice.sg, a website, podcast, and newsletter (socialservicesg.substack.com) dedicated to social service research, practice, and policies in Singapore.
I had a personal socio-political blog (July 2009 to July 2019) which is now archived (guanyinmiao.wordpress.com). I previously also wrote for three now-defunct sites: the “Breakfast Network” in 2013 and “The Middle Ground” from 2015 to 2016 as well as “SALT”, an online publication by the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre in 2014.These archived posts best represent who I am as a blogger (at my best and worst):
Earlier Posts
- Singapore's education system as an overheated pressure cooker (2010).
- Why the Community Involvement Progamme (CIP) is not working (2010).
- The poor and the elderly in Singapore: Roving task-force a viable band-aid? (2011).
- The biggest problem that frustrates Singapore's NSFs (2012).
- National Service in Singapore: How and why you should unsubscribe from Pioneer magazine (2012).
- Singapore Youth Festival: So, what exactly has changed? (2012).
- Stop posting pictures of you and kids you've "helped" on your trips (2013).
Later Posts
- The man of the protest moment (2014).
- Eugene Tan: Captain Not-Obvious (2014).
- "The elite school student's burden" (2018).
- 12 years a SAP student, and nothing (Chinese) to show for it (2018).
- Our problematic "SES" responses reveal more than the guidebook itself (2018).
- Please, stop throwing anecdotes at Singapore's inequality and class divide problems (2018).
Personal
- Why I have chosen to further my studies in Singapore (2012).
- From Hwa Chong graduate to young Chef on Wheels: Going beyond conventional academic focuses (2012).
- "I Am Talented": An undergraduate's triumph against the odds (2012).
- "You don't need to be awesome at Hwa Chong": When failure means a hell lot more (2012).
- That first field camp (2015).
Volunteer
Having previously volunteered with the Association of Women for Action and Research, Children-At-Risk Empowerment Association Singapore, as well as the social empowerment initiative “I Am Talented”, I now volunteer or work with Singaporean charities on research projects and data analysis.
In addition, I am founder of and was advisor to PREPMUN, Singapore's Model United Nations Preparatory Conference (organised by the United Nations Association of Singapore from 2011 to 2018).Social Media
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Contact Me
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Jin Yao Kwan © 2019-2023