Sumie Okazaki
Professor Emerita of Applied Psychology
About
Professor Okazaki has retired from NYU and is no longer taking on any new doctoral students.
Sumie Okazaki conducts research on the impact of immigration, social and culture change, and race on Asian and Asian American adolescents, emerging adults, and parents within local and transnational contexts. With colleagues in anthropology, education, and developmental psychology as well as community partners, she has ongoing research projects with urban Asian American adolescents and immigrant young adults in New York City; Asian American and Black American adults in the U.S. in the post-COVID world; Chinese parents and adolescents in Nanjing, China; and Korean American and Filipino American adolescents and parents in Chicago.
Her most recent book, co-authored with Nancy Abelmann, is titled Korean American Families in Immigrant America: How Teens and Parents Navigate Race (2018, NYU Press). She has also co-edited three books: South Korea’s education exodus: The life and challenges of early study abroad (2015; with Adrienne Lo, Soo-Ah Kwon, & Nancy Abelmann), Asian American Psychology: The Science of Lives in Context (2002; with Gordon C. N. Hall) and Asian American Mental Health: Assessment Theories and Methods (2002; with Karen Kurasaki and Stanley Sue). She was the President of Asian American Psychological Association (2013-2015) and has served as an Associate Editor of the journal Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology (2004-2011). She is the recipient of Early Career Award and Distinguished Contribution Award from Asian American Psychological Association, Emerging Professional Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues, and Early Career Award and Dalmas Taylor Distinguished Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association Minority Fellowship Program. Okazaki received her doctorate in psychology from UCLA in 1994 and has taught in the psychology departments and Asian American Studies programs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign prior to her position at Steinhardt.
Publications
AUTHORED BOOK
Okazaki, S. & Abelmann, N. (2018). Korean American families in immigrant America: How teens and parents navigate race. NYU Press. https://nyupress.org/9781479836680/
RECENT JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS
Yoo, N., Mane, H., Zhao, A., Chen, J., Gandhi, A., Kwong, K., Nguyen, T., Okazaki, S., & Chang, D. F. (in press). Anti-Asian bias detection on social media: Working with annotator disagreement and diversity of Asian Americans in community-informed labeling. Translational Data Science for Social Impact.
Maglalang, D. D., Yoo, N., Park, M., Nicholson, Jr., H. L., de Leon, C., Okazaki, S., & Chang, D. F. (2026). COVID-19 racial discrimination and substance use among Asian Americans by gender. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.
Yang, R., Zhu, V., Gu, Y., Way, N., Li, X., Cui, L., Yoshikawa, H., Chen, X., Okazaki, S., Zhang, G., Liang, Z., & Waters, E.A.T. (2026). Sensitive mothers, divergent paths: Differential outcomes for early sensitive caregiving amongst Chinese adolescent boys and girls. Child Development. https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag053
Cui, L., Zhang, M.-R., Way, N., Waters, T. E. A., Zhang, G., Chen, X., Okazaki, S., & Yoshikawa, H. (2025). Maternal and paternal emotion socialization practices and psychosocial adjustment from early- to mid-adolescence among urban Chinese families. Developmental Psychology. Advance online publication. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev0002115
Waters, T.E., Yang, R., Gu, Y., Zhu, V., Cui, L., Li, X., Way, N., Yoshikawa, H., Chen, X., Okazaki, S., Bernard, K., Zhang, G., & Liang, Z. (2025). Maternal sensitivity predicts child attachment in a non-Western context: A 9-year longitudinal study of Chinese families. Child Development, doi.org/10.1111/cdev.14256.
Nicholson, H. L., Jr., Yoo, N., Okazaki, S., Chang, D. F., & Craig, M. L. (2025). Inter-minority relations: Factors shaping cognitive and affective intergroup attitudes between Asian and Black Americans. Social Problems, doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spae075.
Cherng, H.-Y. S., Moreno, M., Carroll, T., Okazaki, S., Lee, O., Hsin, A., & Flores, S. (2024). A flawed policy metaphor: An empirical test of earlier academic promise and later STEM. American Journal of Education, 131(1),000-000.
Prasai, A., Mogami, M., Jung, S., Lee, C. S., Okazaki, S., Cherng, H.-Y. S., Flores, S., Lee, O., & Hsin, A. (2024). Facilitators and barriers in the college pathways of working-class immigrant youth of color in New York City. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000596
Yang, R., Gu, Y., Cui, L, Li, X., Way, N., Yoshikawa, H., Chen, X., Okazaki, S., Zhang, G., Liang, Z., & Waters, T. (2024). A cognitive script perspective on how early caregiving experiences Inform adolescent peer relationships and loneliness: A 14-year longitudinal study of Chinese families. Developmental Science. DOI: 10.1111/desc.13522
Yoo, N., Nicholson, Jr., H. L., Chang, D. F., & Okazaki, S. (2023). Mapping anti-Asian xenophobia: State-level variation in implicit and explicit bias against Asian Americans across the United States. Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World. DOI: 10.1177/23780231231196517
Kim, H. J., Okazaki, S., & Kim, J. H. (2023). An exploratory study on the adjustment experiences of refugees living in South Korea: Focusing on a positive perspective. [in Korean] Korean Comparative Education Society, 5, 31-62. DOI: 10.20306/kces.2023.33.2.31
Lee, C. S., Sin, E. J., Park, M., Okazaki, S., & Choi, Y. (2023). Cultural family processes, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation: A longitudinal study of Asian American youths. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior. DOI: 10.1111/sltb.12984
Chang, D. F., Yoo, N., Lee, C. S., Prasai, A., & Okazaki, S. (2023). From racial awakening to collective action: Asian Americans’ pathways to activism and benevolent support during COVID-19. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. Advance online publication. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000617