Research Scientist, PolicyLab
Christina Kang-Yi, Ph.D. is a research scientist at Policy Lab at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Kang-Yi’s research interests are the mental health needs of children in kinship foster care and their caregivers. She currently leads the analytics of the Child Wellbeing and Stability Study at Policy Lab. Collaborating with the Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research at the University of Pennsylvania, she also leads the analytics of the Comprehensive Evaluation of Philadelphia County's School-Based Mental Health Programs.
Dr. Kang-Yi’s current research interests stemmed from her dissertation that found the interaction effect of Medicaid enrollment with the racial and ethnic mix of nursing home residents and other contextual nursing home factors in predicting health outcomes. This work received the national doctoral research award from the Gerontological Society of America’s Research, Social Policy, and Practice Section in 2008. Through her doctoral research, she became interested in further studying mental health needs of individuals and racial disparities in health care settings. During her postdoctoral fellowship, Dr. Kang-Yi worked at the City of Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health evaluating the impact of school-based mental health programs on children’s behavioral symptoms and their mental health service utilization. The studies revealed the importance of meeting the mental health needs of children in foster care.
Dr. Kang-Yi is interested in studying kinship foster care based on her extensive research experiences that involve both children and older adult populations. Dr. Kang-Yi received her PhD in social work from the Columbia University and MSW from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2010, she completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research at the University of Pennsylvania.
Research Interests
Behavioral health
Child welfare
Contact Information
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