Dr Julie ZHU

Academic Staff

PolyU Scholars Hub

Assistant Professor

GH419
+852 2766 5741
xiaoqin.zhu@polyu.edu.hk

PolyU Scholars Hub

ORCID ID

SCOPUS ID

Research ID

Biography

Dr Xiaoqin Zhu is currently working as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Applied Social Sciences of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research interests lie in the areas of child and adolescent wellbeing (e.g., life satisfaction and life purpose) and their emotional and behavioural problems (e.g., delinquency, depression, and Internet addiction), contextual influence (e.g., parental control, parent–child relationship, and schooling) and protective effects of individual assets (e.g., psychosocial competence and character development), positive youth development (PYD) program implementation and effectiveness evaluation, university students’ leadership and service-learning education and their learning effectiveness. She has carried out several research projects in these areas through PYD approaches and actively published her research findings in different top-tier journals, such as Journal of Affective Disorders (ranked top 10% in Scopus) and Journal of Happiness Studies (ranked top 10% in Scopus).

Dr Zhu has a strong belief that cultivating internal and external assets among young people can help them to live meaningfully and happily while mitigating the risk of having developmental problems. In addition to academic research, Dr Zhu has also devoted herself to putting PYD notions into practice in terms of developing PYD and leadership development curriculums, teaching youths, and training teachers and social workers to implement PYD programmes.

Dr Zhu has obtained several international and local research and teaching awards, including the Young Scholar Award awarded by the International Society of Quality-of-Life Studies, Gold Award in Wharton-QS Reimagine Education Awards (as a team member), and Faculty Award for Outstanding Achievement in Knowledge Transfer (KT)-Society (as a team member). She also serves as a review editor of Frontiers in Psychology and reviewers of several other prestigious international journals, such as Journal of Happiness Studies, Children and Youth Services Review, Applied Research in Quality of Life, Journal of Adolescence, Frontiers in Psychiatry.

Education and Academic Qualifications

Bachelor of Medicine in Nursing, Peking University
Master of Science in Applied Psychology, Peking University
Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Teaching Area

Service Leadership

Service Leadership through Serving Children and Families with Special Needs

Promotion of Children and Adolescent Development

Research Interests

Grants (selected)

Co-I. A Longitudinal Investigation of Quality of Life and Resilience of Rural-to-Urban Migrant Children in the Greater Bay Area Cities in Mainland China: A Holistic Positive Youth Developmental Approach (PI: Dr. Lu Yu). Departmental Large Project Funding Scheme, 30 June 2022–29 June 2025, HK$2,000,000.

Co-PI. Holistic Development and well-being of young people in Hong Kong (PI: Prof. Daniel Shek). Wofoo Foundation Limited (Donation), 1 Aug 2021–31 Aug 2025, HK$2,000,000.

PI. Individual and family well-being among university students in Hong Kong under COVID-19. Undergraduate Research and Innovation Scheme at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 1 Jul 2021–30 Sep 2022, HK$30,000.

Co-PI. Promotion of psychological well-being in university students under COVID-19 (PI: Prof. Daniel Shek). UGC special grant for student support services in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, 1 Dec 2020–30 Jun 2022, HK$ 2,000,000.

Co-I. Service leadership theory: Theoretical development and empirical inquiry (PI: Prof. Daniel Shek). Creative Initiatives Foundation Limited (Donation), 1 Sep 2019–31 Aug 2023, HK$ 500,000.