Yoshikawa Named Visiting Scholar at Russell Sage Foundation

Professor Hiro Yoshikawa was recently appointed a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation. The foundation, based in New York City, is devoted to research in the social sciences and publishes books based on the work of its grantees and visiting scholars.

Yoshikawa said he is honored to receive this acknowledgement and looks forward to the upcoming year. As one of 20 leading social scientists appointed as a visiting scholar for the 2008-2009 academic year, Yoshikawa will have an opportunity to pursue research and writing projects that reflect the foundation's commitment to strengthening the social sciences and applying research more effectively to important social problems.

Yoshikawa will spend the year working on a book about the development and learning of infants and young children in low-income immigrant families in New York City. The book will examine findings from a longitudinal birth cohort study of Chinese, Mexican, and Dominican infants recruited from public hospitals in the city four years ago. The study included repeated waves of child assessment, parent surveys, semistructured interviews, participant observation, and structured video observation of parent-child interaction. The focus of the book will be on how legal and institutional factors play a role in family functioning, very early learning, and health among these families.

"I look forward to learning from an extraordinary group of interdisciplinary scholars across the social sciences over the course of the academic year, whose expertise covers not only immigration but economic, policy, and developmental issues from multiple scientific perspectives," Yoshikawa said.