Yi-fu Chen received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Iowa State University. After graduation, he joined Center for Family Research at University of Georgia and has worked as a research statistician until 2012. He has joined Department of Sociology at National Taipei University in Taiwan since 2012 and is currently an associate professor. His main research areas include sociology of crime and deviance (Criminology), sociology of family, sociology of adolescence and youth, life course research, and advanced quantitative methods. His research includes development of integrated criminological theories, the efficacy of parenting programs designed to reduce drug use, gene by environment interaction (GE) effect on young adults’ internalizing and externalizing problem behavior, and the impact of peer network on adolescent violent behavior. His recent interests include youth investment behavior and transition into adulthood, adolescent digital lives and daily activities, and online sexual violence and adolescent sexting behavior.

His recent publication mainly focuses on the early factors that impact the developmental outcomes during young adulthood. From the life course perspectives, he explored the long-term impacts of early delinquent trajectories on socioeconomic outcomes in adulthood. He also applied latent class analysis to longitudinal impacts of early adversities on emotional and behavioral problems, exploring risk and protective factors of the early adversities. Other publication can be found in Journal of Marriage and Family, Development and Psychopathology, Child Development, Criminology, and Prevention Science.

He currently involves in several research projects. The “Youth investment project” explores the investment behavior of young adults in Taiwan and Japan based on financial socialization theory. The “Taiwan i-Generation Panel Study” investigates the impacts of digital lives on adolescents’ organization of social lives. The “Sexting Project” explores the various forms of sexting behavior among adolescents and evaluates the service that local government provides for the victims of sexting behavior.