College of Education and Human Development

Family Social Science

Research: Zha Blong Xiong


Research Interests:

  • Child Adjustment in the Family Context in Immigrant and Refugee Families
  • Community Engagement and Education
  • Program Development and Evaluation
  • Southeast Asian American Families

Research Projects:

Teen Pregnancy Prevention and Intervention in the Hmong Community (the Hmong Teen Pregnancy Project) – The goal of this two year project is to test the effectiveness of the Making Proud Choices or Kev Xaiv Curriculum with Hmong American youth in middle school and the best practices identified by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy with Hmong second-generation young parents. We are using community-based participatory research to involve community leaders to collect data to determine the efficacy and effectiveness of the program in the community. The Hmong Teen Pregnancy Project is supported by grants from the Minnesota Department of Health. The project began in June, 2012.


Youth for Change (Y2C) – The goal of this three year project is to engage youth and young adults to be leaders focusing on policy work while empowering positive changes within the Southeast Asian communities through policy, empowerment, and advocacy. Using the Citizen Health Care Model as a framework, youth and young adults are recruited and trained to engage the Southeast Asian community in tobacco-free prevention activities that promote the adoption of comprehensive tobacco-free policies, including tobacco-free grounds, tobacco-free funding, and a process for cessation referrals. It is a project funded by the Minnesota Department of Health. The project began in February, 2011. 


Social Networks and Child Adjustment – Research on the achievement gap has been well documented in the literature, especially between White and African American, Asian American, Latino, and Native American students. However, research on the achievement gap between Hmong, Somali, and other racial/ethnic students is still in its infancy stage. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact social and family networks has on children’s adjustment, especially children’s educational achievement. This is an interdisciplinary research project and began in July 2013.

Outreach & Engagement

Hmong Early Childhood Education

STEEP: Statewide Tobacco Education and Engagement Project