Research & Initiatives
AI Initiative
Through both national and longitudinal data, we study how young people use generative AI and what that use means for their mental health. Our analysis of youth, college students, and parent-teen pairs asks who turns to chatbots for companionship or emotional support, whether trusting AI for mental health advice predicts later help-seeking from a professional, how parents respond to their children’s AI use, and what role these tools play in adolescent identity development. For more information, go to AI Health and Human Development Initiative: www.aihhd.org
Representative publications
Liu, C. H., & Yip, T. (2026). Generative AI in adolescence: A developmental framework. JAMA Pediatrics. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2026.0032
Liu, C. H., Zhao, C., Lou, F., Zhang, W., Menor, A., Chow, A., & Yip, T. (2026). Loneliness and generative AI use for companionship among college students. Computers in Human Behavior: Artificial Humans, 9, 100348.
Liu, C. H., Zhang, W., Lou, F., Zhao, C., Chow, A., & Yip, T. (2026). Clinical and sociodemographic predictors of AI use for mental health among college students. Journal of Affective Disorders, 412, 122058.
BOBA follows more than 500 Chinese and Taiwanese American adolescents, ages 12 to 18, and their parents in Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey across three waves. To our knowledge it is the largest NIH-funded study of Asian American parents and adolescents. We ask how communication within the family shapes adolescent mental health, including how openly teens can bring concerns to their parents, how parents talk with their children about culture and identity, and how those conversations relate to depression, anxiety, and suicidal thinking. For more information, go to the BOBA Project website: www.thebobaproject.com
Work in progress
Zhao, J., & Liu, C. H. Parent-youth conversation style among Chinese American families. Under review, Journal of Family Psychology.
Liu, C. H., et al. Social media exposure and adolescents’ private and public regard. Under review, Journal of Children and Media.
Liu, C. H., et al. A machine learning approach to adolescent survey data. Under review, Behavior Research Methods.
College Mental Health
Many college students who screen positive for depression or anxiety receive no treatment. Using the Healthy Minds Study and other national campus datasets, we examine who seeks help, who recognizes a need for it, what stigma keeps students from trying self-guided options, and how rates of severe symptoms and suicidal thinking have changed over the past decade. We also work on groups that campus research tends to overlook, including Asian American and Hispanic students. Our aim is to give counseling centers and university administrators better information for deciding where to put limited resources.
Representative publications
Liu, C. H., Stevens, C., Wong, S., Yasui, M., & Chen, J. (2019). The prevalence and predictors of mental health disorders and suicide among US college students. Depression and Anxiety, 36, 8-17.
Rastogi, R., Woolverton, G. A., Stevens, C., Chen, J. A., & Liu, C. H. (2024). Suicidality associated with decreased help-seeking attitudes in college students: Implications for identifying and treating at-risk students. Psychiatry Research, 335, 115825.
Chang, A. R., Rastogi, R., Woolverton, G. A., Chen, J., Stevens, C., Reisner, S., & Liu, C. H. (2024). Mental health help-seeking willingness among US college students: A resilience factor associated with many sexual minority identities. Psychiatry Research, 342, 116173.
The Perinatal Experience And COVID-19 Effects Study (PEACE)
We started PEACE in May 2020 to document what pregnancy, birth, and new parenthood looked like during the pandemic. About 2,000 pregnant and postpartum participants from across the country completed up to three waves of surveys, and a subset reported on their infants during the first year. We measured depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms along with the specific conditions of that period, including changed birth plans, limited hospital and NICU visitation, health worries, and grief. Published findings show that a prior psychiatric history and pandemic-related grief each raised the likelihood of clinically significant symptoms, and that mothers who felt more confident in their caregiving had infants with better developmental scores. The dataset continues to support work on maternal mental health and early child development.
Representative publications
Liu, C. H., Erdei, C., & Mittal, L. (2021). Risk factors for depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms in perinatal women during the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychiatry Research, 295, 113552.
Liu, C. H., Koire, A., Erdei, C., & Mittal, L. (2022). Unexpected changes in birth experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic: Implications for maternal mental health. Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics, 306(3), 687-697.
Jiang, Q., Feldman, N., Koire, A., Ma, C., Mittal, L., Lin, H.-C., Erdei, C., Roffman, J., & Liu, C. H. (2024). Infant neurodevelopment during the COVID-19 pandemic: Associations with maternal pandemic-related experiences, parenting stress, and self-efficacy. Early Human Development, 193, 106018.
The COVID-19 Adult Resilience Experiences Study (CARES)
CARES follows U.S. young adults ages 18 to 30, beginning with about 1,300 participants who enrolled in April 2020 and growing to roughly 2,000 by the fourth wave through a replenishment of the cohort. It is a collaboration with the Boston University School of Social Work, and it combines surveys with video interviews. We collect data on mental health, discrimination, the messages participants received about race growing up, social status, and sociopolitical stress, including anxiety surrounding national elections. Our two-wave study of the 2024 presidential election showed how election-related stress tracked with depression and anxiety in this age group. The fourth wave also introduced our measure of sense of assurance, safety, and security (SASS), which asks whether people feel protected from harm, and that measure now supports a separate line of work on safety and health.
Representative publications
Liu, C. H., Zhang, E., Wong, G., Hyun, S., & Hahm, H. C. (2020). Factors associated with depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptomatology during the COVID-19 pandemic: Clinical implications for U.S. young adult mental health. Psychiatry Research, 290, 113172.
Hahm, H. C., Ha, Y., Scott, J. C., Wongchai, V., Chen, J. A., & Liu, C. H. (2021). Perceived COVID-19-related anti-Asian discrimination predicts posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms among Asian and Asian American young adults. Psychiatry Research, 303, 114084.
Zhao, C., Woolverton, G. A., Rastogi, R., Menor, A., Hahm, H. C., & Liu, C. H. (2025). 2024 presidential election stress and its association with depression and anxiety among U.S. young adults: A two-wave survey study. Psychiatry Research, 116574.