Edith Chen
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Chair | Professor of Psychology
IPR Fellow (on leave 2024–25) | Co-Director of the Foundations of Health Research Center
PhD, Clinical Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, 1998
Edith Chen’s research seeks to understand why poverty is associated with poor physical health outcomes in children, with a focus on the psychological and biological mechanisms that explain these relationships. She is also interested in questions of resilience—that is, why some children who come from adversity manage to thrive and maintain good profiles of health.
For her research, Chen has received honors including the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Health Psychology, the Young Investigator Award from the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and the Donald K. Routh Early Career Award from the Society of Pediatric Psychology. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Prior to coming to Northwestern, Chen was the Canada Research Chair in Health and Society at the University of British Columbia, and she has also been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.
Current Research
Resilience in Youth. Confronting adversity typically leads to worse health outcomes, so how is it that some youth who have to deal with adversities in life (such as growing up in low-SES circumstances) remain in good health? Chen and her colleagues are interested in understanding this subgroup of youth by characterizing the youths’ psychosocial environments and qualities that could contribute to the promotion of long-term resilience in their physical health. In this research, she focuses on factors such as coping strategies and social networks.
Mentoring and Health. At-risk youth benefit from having mentors, but these effects have largely been studied in the academic and behavioral domains. Chen and her team are conducting a randomized controlled trial to expand this focus to physical health by testing whether mentors can improve cardiovascular risk profiles among low-SES mentees (compared to those randomly assigned to receive pamphlets about stress and coping but no mentor). In addition, helping others has been found to have benefits for the physical health of the helper as well. Thus the researchers are also investigating whether being randomly assigned to serve as a mentor can have benefits for cardiovascular profiles among youth mentors (compared to those randomly assigned to receive pamphlets about stress and coping but without engaging in a mentoring relationship).
Skin-Deep Resilience. Chen and her colleagues find that there are some limits to resilience. For youth of color exposed to high levels of economic hardship but who show high levels of striving, positive academic and behavioral profiles are noted. However, at the same time these youth also show risky physiological profiles, a phenomenon these researchers have labeled “skin-deep resilience.” Chen and her colleagues are conducting studies to better understand the factors that contribute to skin-deep resilience and the developmental trajectory of skin-deep resilience.
Homelessness and Health. Chen and colleagues are engaging in community-based research with Connections for the Homeless, an Evanston organization that provides support services to individuals who are unhoused. They are conducting a longitudinal study to document the health trajectories of individuals who receive services at Connections for the Homeless. In addition, the study compares the health of those who receive stable housing through Connections with those who remain unhoused over the study period.
Selected Publications
Chen, E., T. Yu, K. B. Ehrlich, P. H. Lam, T. Jiang, T. W. McDade, G. E. Miller, and G. H. Brody. 2024. Family disadvantage, education, and health outcomes among Black youth over a 20 year period. JAMA Network Open 7, e242289.
Chen, E., P. Lam, T. Yu, and G. Brody. 2023. Racial disparities in school belonging and prospective associations with diabetes and metabolic syndrome. JAMA Pediatrics 177(2): 141–8.
Chen, E., T. Yu, G. Brody, P. Lam, B. Goosby, and G. Miller. 2023. Discrimination and inflammation in adolescents of color. Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science 3(2): 204–12.
Chen, E., G. Brody, and G. Miller. 2022. What are the health consequences of upward mobility? Annual Review of Psychology 73: 599–628.
Chiang, J., P. Lam, E. Chen, and G. Miller. 2022. Psychological stress during childhood and adolescence and its association with inflammation across the lifespan: A critical review and meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin 148(1-2): 27–66.
Chen, E., G. Brody, T. Yu, L. Hoffer, A. Russak-Pribble, and G. Miller. 2021. Disproportionate school punishment and significant life outcomes: A prospective analysis of Black youth. Psychological Science 32(9): 1375–90.
Chen, E., P. Lam, E. Finegood, N. Turiano, D. Mroczek, and G. Miller. 2021. The balance of giving versus receiving social support and all-cause mortality in a US national sample. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118(24): e2024770118.
Miller, G., E. Chen, T. Yu, and G. Brody. 2020. Youth who achieve upward socioeconomic mobility display lower psychological distress but higher metabolic syndrome rates as adults: Prospective evidence from Add Health and MIDUS. Journal of the American Heart Association 9(9): e015698.
Chen, E., M. Shalowitz, R. Story, R. Hayen, A. Leigh, L. Hoffer, M. Austin, P. Lam, G. Brody, and G. Miller. 2019. The costs of high self-control in Black and Latino youth with asthma: Divergence of mental health and inflammatory profiles. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity 80: 120–8.
Levine, C., H. Markus, M. Austin, E. Chen, and G. Miller. 2019. Students of color show health advantages when they attend schools that emphasize the value of diversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116(13): 6013–8.
Gaydosh, L., K. Schorpp, E. Chen, G. Miller, and K. Harris. 2018. College completion predicts lower depression but higher metabolic syndrome among disadvantaged minorities in young adulthood. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115(1): 109–14.
