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

Associate Professor Yanfeng Xu joined the University of South Carolina College of Social Work faculty in 2019 after earning her Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of Maryland School of Social Work. She is currently an affiliate faculty associate with the USC Center for School Behavioral Health and the Walker Institute of International and Area Studies.

Dr. Xu’s research focuses on improving the well-being of children and families involved in the child welfare system through equitable, evidence-informed family supports and behavioral health services. Her scholarship centers on three signature areas: (1) improving access to behavioral and mental health services for children involved in child-serving systems; (2) examining family caregiving and resilience and their effects on the physical and mental health of caregivers and children; and (3) advancing implementation science through the implementation and evaluation of interventions designed to strengthen child welfare and other child-serving systems, including workforce.

Dr. Xu’s research integrates quantitative and qualitative methods and leverages emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, to promote equitable, data-informed decision-making and examine the long-term effects of child welfare involvement across the life course. Through interdisciplinary, cross-institutional collaboration and community-engaged research, her work seeks to generate actionable evidence that strengthens child welfare and related service systems and improves outcomes for children, families, and communities.

Dr. Xu’s research has received support from the National Institutes of Health; the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences; The Duke Endowment; the South Carolina Center for Rural and Primary Healthcare; the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services; the Southeastern Conference; and multiple University of South Carolina funding programs, including ASPIRE I, ASPIRE II, EXCEL, Racial Justice and Equity, the Walker Institute, and College of Social Work faculty grants.

In 2024, Dr. Xu was inducted as a Fellow of the Society for Social Work and Research. In 2025, Dr. Xu was recognized by Clarivate as a Highly Cited Researcher, placing her among the top 1% of researchers worldwide based on citation impact in the Web of Science. She has published more than 60 peer-reviewed journal articles, including more than 30 as first author. Her scholarship has appeared in leading journals such as Child Abuse & Neglect, Child Maltreatment, and Children and Youth Services Review.

Dr. Xu currently serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research and Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and as a member of the editorial boards of Research on Social Work Practice and Youth & Society. She also serves as co-chair of the Adolescent and Youth Development Cluster for the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference.