Research Expertise:

• Foster care and kinship care 
• Child abuse and neglect
• Child mental/behavioral health
• Grandparents raising grandchildren 

Teaching Expertise:

• Research methods  
• Program evaluation
• Human behaviors and the social environment
• Child welfare policy and service 

Background

Assistant Professor Yanfeng Xu joined the faculty of the College of Social Work in 2019 after earning her Ph.D. in social work from the University of Maryland School of Social Work. Dr. Xu is also an affiliate faculty associate for the Research Consortium on Children and Families and the Walker Institute of International and Area Studies. Dr. Xu was inducted as a Society for Social Work and Research Fellow in 2024.

Dr. Xu research has been supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health; U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences; Duke Endowment Foundation; South Carolina Center for Rural and Primary Health Care; South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services; Southeastern Conference; USC Walker Institute; USC ASPIRE I, ASPIRE II, EXCEL, and Racial Justice and Equity grants; and USC COSW faculty grant.

To date, Dr. Xu has published 51 peer-reviewed journal articles with 28 as first author, five book chapters, three book reviews, six published conference abstracts, and 81 conference presentations. Her work has been featured in top-tier journals such as Child Abuse and Neglect, Child Maltreatment, and Children and Youth Services Review.

Dr. Xu’s primary research interest is to improve the well-being of children in kinship care and non-kin foster care by translating research into practice and policy. Dr. Xu has used nationally representative datasets, linked administrative data, primary surveys, and qualitative interviews, as well as interventions to enhance the well-being of kinship families, including grandparents raising grandchildren, locally, nationally, and globally. Currently, Dr. Xu is working with her collaborators to implement and evaluate a comprehensive kinship support program, “KinCarolina,” in South Carolina. Dr. Xu's work also aims to improve the well-being of children in foster care by increasing their access to resources, particularly physical health services, mental health services, and postsecondary education opportunities, and reducing racial/ethnic and rural–urban disparities. To pursue these research lines, Dr. Xu uses various methods, including analyzing primary and secondary data using both traditional statistics and machine learning methods, conducting interviews/surveys with stakeholders, and implementing and evaluating interventions.

Dr. Xu’s work also focuses on child welfare system building and workforce development, both locally and internationally. She has collaborated with multidisciplinary partners, including those in law, education, journalism, communications, psychology, sociology, and public health, to enhance various aspects of child welfare system issues and workforce development.