Xutong Zhang

2021.8     Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University

2018.8     M.S. in Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University

2016.7     B.S. in Psychology, Beijing Normal University

2023.6 - Present   Investigator, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University

2021.9 - 2023.5    Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University

Dr. Zhang's work takes a psychophysiological approach to examining the interplay between stress and parental self-regulation in shaping parenting behaviors and the micro-dynamics of parent-child coregulation, with the goal of contributing to the development and evaluation of parenting-focused prevention of child maltreatment risks. Her research also examines how children’s regulatory difficulties develop in the context of early adversity and at-risk parenting. 

Dr. Zhang's work has appeared in journals including Child Development, Developmental Psychology, Journal of Family Psychology, and Psychophysiology. She serves on the editorial boards of Child Development, Psychophysiology, and Child Maltreatment. 

Dr. Zhang is the PI of the PHEW Lab (Promoting Parental Health & Emotional Well-being). Please feel free to contact us if you have any question about our research and/or are interested in joining the lab!

Editorial board member

2023 - Present  Child Development (Consulting Editor)

2022 - Present  Psychophysiology (Consulting Editor)

2022-2024     Child Maltreatment (Trainee board member)

Ad hoc reviewer:

Child Development, Developmental Psychology, Journal of Family Psychology, Journal of Research on Adolescence, Psychophysiology, Child Maltreatment, Social Development, Autism Research, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Journal of Family Issues, Journal of Child and Family Studies, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, Frontiers in Psychology 

-  Complex emotions among parents and related regulatory strategies

-  The dynamic processes of parental self-regulation and parent-child co-regulation during parenting

-  The development of emotion regulation difficulties and behavioral problems among children exposed to early adversity and at-risk parenting

-  Social perceptions of mental health difficulties among parents and at-risk parenting, and the development and evaluation of supportive prevention & intervention strategies

Undergrad courses:

Early development and family processes

Developmental Psychology (minor)

- "Capturing parental self-regulation in the context of parenting: A systematic review and an empirical examination of psychosocial predictors", Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada, Insight Development Grant (430-2022-00548)，Principal Investigator, 2022.5-2023.5

- "Testing effects of two parenting programs on dynamic parental emotion regulation processes", Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Postdoctoral Research Allowance (MFE 181824), Principal Investigator，2022.4-2023.5

ResearchGate Profile

Selected publications:

*corresponding author

Zhang, X.*, Beatty, A., Abela, K., Melo, M. F., Kenny, M., Atkinson, L., & Gonzalez, A. (2023). Assessing parental emotion regulation in the context of parenting: A systematic review. Developmental Review. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2023.101092

Zhang, X.*, Gatzke-Kopp, L. M., & Skowron, E. A. (2023). Dynamic regulatory processes among child welfare parents: Temporal associations between physiology and parenting behavior. Development and Psychopathology. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579423000949

Zhang, X.*, Gatzke-Kopp, L. M., Cole, P. M., & Ram, N. (2022). A dynamic systems account of parental self-regulation processes in the context of challenging child behavior. Child Development, 93(5), 501-514.https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13808

Zhang, X.*, Gatzke-Kopp, L. M., Cole, P. M., & Ram, N. (2023). The role of strategy-use and parasympathetic functioning in maternal emotion regulation. Journal of Family Psychology, 37(1), 110-120.https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0001017

Gatzke-Kopp, L. M.*, Zhang, X., Creavey, K. L., Skowron, E. A. (2022). An event-based analysis of maternal physiological reactivity following aversive child behaviors. Psychophysiology, 59(11), e14093.https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.14093

Zhang, X., Jambon, M., Afifi, T. O., Atkinson, L., Bennett, T., …, Gonzalez, A.* (2022). Mental health help-seeking in parents and trajectories of depressive and anxiety symptoms: Lessons learned from the Ontario Parents Survey during the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontiers in Psychology: Health Psychology, 13: 884591.https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.884591

Ravindran, N.*, Zhang, X., Green, L. M., Cole, P. M., Gatzke-Kopp, L. M., & Ram, N. (2021). Concordance of mother-child respiratory sinus arrythmia is continually moderated by dynamic changes in emotional content of film stimuli. Biological Psychology, 161, 108053. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2021.108053

Murphy, Y. E.*, Zhang, X., & Gatzke-Kopp, L. M. (2022). Early executive and school functioning: Protective roles of home environment vary socioeconomically. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 78 (Jan-Feb), 101369. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2021.101369

Murphy, Y. E.*, Zhang, X., & Gatzke-Kopp, L. M. (2021). The developmental cascade of early parenting, emergence of executive functioning, and emotional symptoms across childhood. Infant Mental Health, 42(3), 331-345. https://doi.org/10.1002/imhj.21913

Zhang, X.*, Gatzke-Kopp, L. M., Fosco, G. M., & Bierman, K. L. (2020). Parental support of self-regulation among children at risk for externalizing symptoms: Developmental trajectories of physiological regulation and behavioral adjustment. Developmental Psychology, 56(3), 528-540. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000794

Zhang, X., Cui, L., Han, Z. R.* & Yan, J. (2017). The heart of parenting: Parent HR dynamics and negative parenting while resolving conflict with child. Journal of Family Psychology, 31(2), 129-138. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000285

Book chapters:

Zhang, X., Wekerle, C., Mathews, B., & Gonzalez, A. (2022). Child maltreatment. In M. Gillen (Ed.), Encyclopedia of mental health (3rd ed., Vol. 1). Waltham, MA: Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-91497-0.00084-9

Conference/Seminar talks：

Zhang, X., Gatzke-Kopp, L. M., Skowron, E. A. (2023, March). Dynamic self-regulation processes in child-welfare parents and responses to parent-child interaction therapy. Symposium talk at the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) 2023 Biennial Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah. 

Zhang, X. (2023, January). Understanding parental emotion regulation in challenging parenting contexts: A multi-method approach. Invited talk at the Department of Pediatrics, McMaster Children’s Hospital.

Zhang, X., Han, Z. R., & Cui, L. (2016, July). The heart of parenting: Links between heart rate dynamics and parenting practices during parent-child conflict resolution. Symposium talk at the 24th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development (ISSBD), Vilnius, Lithuania.

Translation work：

C. L. Miller-Perrin & R. D. Perrin（著）；张旭彤, 王琦, 韩卓 (译). 儿童伤害: 从理论到干预 (第三版；Child Maltreatment: An Introduction, 3rd Edition, London, UK: SAGE Publications Ltd.）, 北京师范大学出版集团 ，in press.  

S. Gallagher（著）；张旭彤（译）. 和宝宝玩神奇的心理游戏：50个让你了解0-2岁孩子的趣味科学实验（Experimenting with Babies: 50 Amazing Science Projects You Can Perform on Your kid, New York, NY: TarcherPerigee）,中国轻工业出版社，2017.

-  Basmajian Award for Excellence in Post-Doctoral Research Work, McMaster University, 2022

-  Postdoctoral Fellowship Award, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, 2022-2023

-  Summer Research Institute Scholarship, Kempe Center for the Prevention & Treatment of Child Abuse & Neglect, 2018

-  Knoll Distinguished Fellowship, The Pennsylvania State University, 2016