The National Science Foundation's Division of Social and Economic Sciences has awarded Qiaobing Wu, a Ph.D. candidate in the USC School of Social Work, a $7,500 doctoral dissertation research improvement grant, making her the school's first doctoral student to receive funding from this source.

The foundation awards grants to doctoral students to improve the quality of dissertation research and provide funds for items not normally available through the student's university. Additionally, these grants allow students to conduct significant data-gathering projects and field research in settings away from their campuses, an important factor for Wu who plans to carry out her research in Shanghai, China.

"I was really thrilled. My first response was to call my mentor to share this exciting news," said Wu, who is supervised by Professor Lawrence Palinkas. "This is truly a great honor for me and a great acknowledgement for the value of my work. I am tremendously encouraged and extremely enthusiastic about a research and academic career in social work."

Her dissertation research focuses on the psychosocial adjustment of Chinese migrant children. As a consequence of the internal migration of rural residents flooding into urban cities in search of employment and opportunities, migrant children have become a fast-growing population in mainland China, she said. However, government policies designed to control the flow of migration make these children ineligible for basic social services, placing them at higher risk of developing psychosocial problems such as depression, aggression, low self-esteem and poor life satisfaction, which may undermine their future development and cause other social problems.

"Unfortunately, there has been little research to date to understand their psychosocial adjustment and its social determinants," Wu said. "My research attempts to apply the social capital theoretical framework to the psychosocial adjustment of migrant children in mainland China."

Specifically, she plans to identify the mechanism by which social capital – embedded in the family, peer, school and community – affects the children's psychosocial adjustment. She also will investigate how the personal agency of migrant children – their initiative and actual efforts in generating and mobilizing social capital – influences the development and use of social capital, as well as its effects on their psychosocial adjustment.

Wu is also a recipient of the 2007-2008 Oakley Fellowship administered through the USC Graduate School and was selected to receive the Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad in 2006, which is sponsored by the China Scholarship Council to honor the academic accomplishments of Chinese scholars studying overseas.