Dr. Mengya Xia
​Assistant Professor

​
​Department of Psychology
​The University of Alabama
Office: 169 Gordon Palmer Hall
Phone: (205) 348-5083
Email: mxia3@ua.edu
Lab: DREAMS LAB

About Me

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at The University of Alabama in the Developmental Science area. I received my Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies from The Pennsylvania State University in 2019. During my graduate training, I completed 2-year pre-doctoral fellowship in the Prevention and Methodology Training Program, where I gained expertise in multiple advanced methods that can be applied in intensive, complex data structures and intervention work. I received my M.Ed in General Psychology from Wuhan University in 2012, and B.S. in Psychology and B.E. in Computer Science from Wuhan University in 2010.

Curriculum Vitae

Research Interests

My research interest is situated at the intersection of interplay between individual and context, methodology, and prevention/intervention. I am passionate about applying innovative methods to investigate how the transactional dynamic processes between individuals and their developmental contexts foster individual strength and competence, relationship health, ​social-emotional well-being, and positive development in general. In addition, I am enthusiastic about applying those knowledge and advanced methods to inform prevention/intervention design and implementation to promote individual well-being in real life.

Substantively, I am especially interested in adolescent development in the complex family system dynamics (i.e. interaction processes among more than two family members that are captured at multiple time scales). I am also interested in looking beyond the family system to get a more comprehensive understanding of how adolescents develop in multiple systems dynamics by accounting broader ecological contexts (e.g., school, culture) and other interpersonal settings (e.g., friends, romantic relationships) in research.
​
Methodologically, I am particularly interested in 1) mixture modeling (e.g. LCA, LPA, LTA) from person-centered approach that acknowledges individual differences, 2) multilevel modeling (MLM) that accounts for factors from different levels of contexts, 3) time-varying effect modeling (TVEM) that enables the estimation of dynamic associations across time, and 4) structural equation modeling (SEM) and dynamic system modeling that capture transactional process and system dynamics in complex data structure.
​
Google Scholar
ResearchGate

Courses

PY618 Statistical Consulting
PY461 Child Psychology 
PY615 Structural Equation Modeling 
​PY625 Developmental Science Contemporary Issue Seminar
PY693 Advance Statistical Method: LPA, TVEM, & ILDA