Associate Professor
Undergraduate Coordinator
Phone: (619) 594-4854
Office: HH 103
Email: yli@sdsu.edu
Download CV (pdf)
Education
- Ph.D., University of Southern California, 2009
- M.S.W., The University of Hong Kong, 2002
- B.A., Yunnan University, 1999
Scholarly Areas
Sociocultual and Environmental Determinants of Health, Health Disparities and Health Access, Race, Culture, Socioeconomic Status and Health, Social Support and Social Networks, Stress and Coping
Biography
Dr. Li is a tenured associate professor at San Diego State University and has training and a research background in social work and behavioral sciences with research interests primarily focused on sociocultural and environmental determinants of health and health behaviors including drinking, smoking, diet, physical exercise over the life course. She has conducted research to understand individuals’ health in the context of their social environment and probes into person-environment interactions, which is important in promoting healthy behavior and sustaining good physical and mental health. Over the past years, she has analyzed large datasets such as the California Health and Insurance Survey, the China Health and Nutrition Survey, and the Sample Survey of the Chinese Older Adults in Urban and Rural China as well as collected data among first generation Asian Americans to investigate how factors within the family environment (e.g., family socioeconomic status, family structure, family support, and filial piety, etc) and community context (e.g. social cohesion, access to facilities and services, neighborhood safety, etc) affected individual health and health behaviors. She also researched how changes of social environment and social network may affect individuals’ well-being and their drinking behaviors among Chinese immigrants in the greater Los Angeles area, and factors which prevented Chinese American patients with Type 2 diabetics from better managing their disease. She has extensive experience of working on projects involving Chinese and Chinese American participants and gained nuanced in-depth understanding of the cultural and contextual background of conducting behavioral research with Chinese participants.
Publications
- For an up to date publications list see Google Scholar.
