Publications

Journal Articles

Enhancing Positive Outcomes in Youth and the Community (EPYC)

Disruptive behaviors, antisocial attitudes, and aggression in young offenders: Comparison of Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) typologies
Child Abuse & Neglect, 141.
Oei, A., Li., D., Chu, C.M., Ng, I., Hoo, E., & Ruby, K. (2023)
Child maltreatment and protective assets in the development of internalising and eternalising problems: A study of youth offenders
Journal of Adolescence, 91, 35-47.
Li, D., Ng, N., Chu, C.M., Oei, A. Chng, G., & Ruby, K. (2021)
Relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences and substance use in youth offenders in Singapore
Child Abuse & Neglect, 117.
Oei., A., Chu, C.M., Li, D., Ng, N., Yeo, C., & Ruby, K. (2021)

In-Work Poverty and the Challenges of Getting by among the Young (IWP)

“Sticky, Yet Precarious”—An Ethnographic Insight of F&B Workers in Singapore
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography.
Pereira, S., Mathew, M., & Ng, I. Y. H. (2025).
Time poverty among the young working poor: A pathway from low wage to psychological well-being through work-to-family-conflict
Journal of Family and Economic Issues.
Ng, I. Y. H., Tan, Z. H., & Chung, G. (2024).
Separate lives, uncertain futures: Does Covid-19 align or differentiate the lives of low- and higher-wage young workers?
Applied Research in Quality of Life.
Ng, I. Y. H., Tan, Z. H., Chua, V., & Cheong, A. (2022)

Towards Universal Digital Access

Social safety net features in East Asia: A comparative analysis using the model family approach
Wang JSH, Abe A, Kang JY, Ku I, Irene Y.H. Ng, Peng C, Zhao X (2024)
Campaigning for digital equality: the role of digital access attitudes in neoliberal context
Irene Y.H. Ng, Arthur Soh, Natalie Pang, Santosh Kumar & Bee Leng Ng (2024)
Making universal access universal: lessons from COVID-19 in Singapore
Ng, I.Y.H., Lim, S.S. & Pang, N. (2022)

Study on Low-Income Households with Debt

Education Research

Examining primary school students’ perceptions of language used in science classrooms
Language & Education
Seah, L. H., Tay, P. L. L. & Chia, T. T. (in press)
Assessing science teachers’ adaptive expertise in teaching disciplinary literacy using the AEDLi Framework
Teaching and Teacher Education, 159, 104999
Tay, P. L. L., Seah, L. H., & Chia, T. T. (2025)
An exploratory study of teachers’ metalanguage use to support student writing in science: Foregrounding the science-language connections
Lay Hoon Seah. (2023)

Social Work

Hidden pandemic in the field of family violence during the COVID-19 pandemic: A mixed-method study of the practice experiences of family services’ social workers in Singapore
Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work and Development
Kuah, N., Chuah, X. J., Lee, J., Yum, S. T., Ong, P. N., Phua, C. Y., & Dhaliwal, S. S. (2025)
A scoping review of theatre of the oppressed as an empowering prevention strategy against LGBTQ-based aggression
Sexuality & Culture
Puvaneyshwaran, D., Lee, J., & Tan, R. K. J. (2025)
The impacts of forum theatre in social work practice: A scoping review
The British Journal of Social Work.
Puvaneyshwaran, D., Liang, P., & Lee, J. (2025). Advance online publication on 23 Mar 2025.

Mental Health, Childhood Adversity, Digital Technologies and Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying victimization and eating disorders in university sample in Singapore: A moderated mediation model of deviant peer association and self-esteem
BMC Public Health, 25, 3250.
Lee, J., Kim, J., & Lee, J. (2025)
‘When everything goes online, it’s never really gone’: Understanding technology-facilitated sexual violence (TFSV) in Singapore
Journal of Gender Studies.
2. Ho, M. H. S., Ng, W. E., Rosario, A. L. C., Lee, J., Wadhwa, B., Choy, O., & Tandoc Jr., E. C. (2025)
Typologies of childhood maltreatment and associations with internalizing symptoms among university students in Singapore: A latent class analysis
PLOS ONE.
Lee, J., Munisamy, Y., Tan, A., Yoon, S., Kim, J., & Pon, A. (2025)
The impacts of forum theatre in social work practice: A scoping review
The British Journal of Social Work.
Puvaneyshwaran, D., Liang, P., & Lee, J. (2025). Advance online publication on 23 Mar 2025
Relationship of smartphone addiction with cyberbullying, alcohol use, depression and anxiety among university students
Social Work in Public Health.
Lee, J., Kim, J., & Cheung, H. S. (2025). Advance online publication on 2 Apr 2025.
Cyberbullying victimization and mental health symptoms among children and adolescents: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies
Trauma, Violence, and Abuse.
Lee, J., Choo, H., Zhang, Y., Zhang, Q., Cheung, H. S., & Ang, R. P. (2025). Advance online publication on 19 January 2025.
Secure base script knowledge and friendship quality as protective factors for bullying and victimization in elementary school
Attachment and Human Development.
Cheung, H. S., Khong, J. Z. N., Lee, J., Liu, D., & Ang, R. P. (2024). Advance online publication on 17 Dec 2024.
Young adults, mental health and help-seeking: What difficulties do they face? A Singapore-based study.
Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work and Development.
Chua, Y. Z., & Lee, J. (2024)
Mixed evidence concerning the effects of the hopeful mindset among mother and child in low-income families in Singapore.
Applied Developmental Science.
Tong, E. M. W., Lee, J., Goh, E. C. L. (2024)
Umbrella review of meta-analyses on the risk factors, protective factors, consequences, and interventions of cyberbullying victimisation.
Nature Human Behavior.
TKasturiratna, S. K. T. A., Hartanto, A, Chen, C. H. Y., Tong, E. M. W., & Majeed, N. M. (2024)
Associations of childhood adversity with emotional well-being and educational achievement: A review and meta-analysis
GeckHong Yeo, Jennifer E. Lansford, Matthew J. Hirshberg, Eddie M.W. Tong. (2023)

Snippet

2025

Issue 4, December 2025

Issue 3, September 2025

Issue 2, June 2025

Issue 1, March 2025

Adult Dynamics and Stepchildren’s Adaptation in Step-family Life in Singapore

Rocking the Boat: How Client Characteristics Shape Therapeutic Alliances for Children with Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in Singapore

The Social and Spatial Practices of Street-Involved Adolescents in Singapore

Understanding the Work Expectations of Youths: What Insights Can We Glean from the Sparse Academic Literature?

2024

Issue 3, October 2024

Issue 2, June 2024

Issue 1, February 2024

Reflections on a Collaborative Inquiry Approach to Evaluating the Brotherhood Programme
Exploring Home Care Nurses' Perspectives on Psychosocial and Spiritual Needs in Palliative Care: A Qualitative Study at a Hospice in Singapore

Sharing from the Local Outreach to Suicide Survivors (LOSS) Programme
Growing Cultural Competence in Counselling and Social Work

Co-operatives in Singapore’s Social Service Sector
Unpacking Credentialism and its Impacts on the Young Working Poor in Singapore

2023

Issue 3, October 2023

Issue 2, June 2023

Issue 1, February 2023

Bittersweet Fostering: How Foster Parents in Singapore Experience and Cope with
Stress
An Exploratory Study into the Lived Experience of Families Living in Poverty and
Receiving Formal Assistance from the Family Service Centre

The Boons, The Banes and The Bridge of Community-Centric Practice (CCP): Bridging the Dichotomy of Community Participation and Casework Interventions
Towards a More Holistic Understanding on Bereavement

Community and Social Development in the Post-Pandemic Era: Response, Recovery and Rebuilding by Beyond Social Services
Associations between Trauma Symptomatology and Socioemotional-behavioural Difficulties Among Children from a Community-Based Student Care Population in Singapore

2022

Issue 3, October 2022

Issue 2, June 2022

Issue 1, March 2022

Time Poverty and its Impact on Rest among People Living in Poverty
Poor Sleep, Poor Me, Poor Children: Lived Experiences of Sleep among Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Families

The Design and Development of Interventions: An Application to an After-school Program by CampusImpact for Disadvantaged Families in Singapore
Research Skills & Implementation Research for Social Services Mentoring Programmes: Project Abstracts

Minority Stress, Community Connectedness and Mental Health: A Study of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Young Adults (LGB) in Singapore
News Media Representations of Social Service Agencies in Singapore during COVID-19 Pandemic – A Corpus Linguistics Approach

2021

Issue 4, November 2021

Issue 3, August 2021

Issue 2, May 2021

Issue 1, February 2021

• The Social Capital and Familial Well-being of Low-Income Single-Parent Families in Singapore: Preliminary Research Report

• The Call for Trauma-Informed Community Development: Becoming Human, Building Healthier Communities – Why a Trauma-Informed Community Development is What We Need Right Now

• Trauma-Informed Research Framework: A Research Guide

• “Hello, can you hear me?” Understanding Clients’ Experience with Phone/video Counselling in the COVID-19 Pandemic

• Is Ethnography Still Relevant Today?

• What Makes an Ethnographer? Reflections from a Participant Observer in Singapore

• A Summary of the 'Mind the Gap' Initiative

• MTG – An Imaginative and Progressive Opportunity to Support Families

• Collaboration, Co-creation and Collective Impact in a Crisis

• Responding to Scarcity as We ‘Mind the Gap’

• Summary of Event: ‘Powerty’, In Commemoration of the International Day of Eradication of Poverty

• Does Information Affect Singaporeans’ Views on Inequality and Policy Preferences? Evidence from a Randomised Survey Experiment

2020

• Definitions and Measurements of Poverty 2020
Note: The updated appendix can be viewed via this link.

• Will Poor Work Get Poorer after the Pandemic?

• Implementation Study for a Pilot Training-coaching Job Support Programme for Ex-offenders

• Mixed Methods Research: An Introduction

• Planning and Evaluating Youth Programmes in Singapore: Practitioner’s Experience Using the ACT!SG Framework and a Review of the Strategies Proposed

• Health Knowledge or Affordability: Can Low-income Households Adopt Healthy Diets?

• Why do We Need Realist Evaluation?

• What are Systematic Reviews and How are They Useful?

2019

• In-work Poverty and Challenges of the Young in Getting By

• Learning about Workers’ Learning: Insights from an Ethnographic Study of the Blue-Collar Working Class in Singapore

• The Trajectories of the Life-Course

• Framing the Dominant Discourses on Poverty and Inequalities

• Income Insecurity and Healthcare Affordability among the Elderly

• Between Community Development and Social Policy Reform in Singapore

• FSC Senior Social Workers’ Perceptions of Roles in Financial Assistance Decision-Making Process – A Qualitative Exploratory Study

• Youth Drug Situation in Singapore – Insights from the EPYC Longitudinal Study

• Five Minutes Can Change Your Understanding of Nudges

• Disability-led Norms: How We Can Help Build Inclusive Societies as Individuals

2018

• A Symposium on Low-income Families in Singapore

• What Did You Do on National Day and over the Golden Jubilee Weekend? A Comparison of Low and High Income Singaporeans

• Definitions and Measurements of Poverty

• Theory? Research? Science? But I am a Social Worker

• Contesting Meanings of the “Unemployed” in Singapore

• Local Social Service Research & Its Challenges: SSR Dialogue

Research Guide

2024

Conducting Semi-Structured Interviews in Social Service Research: A Practical Guide
Xu Jianbin
A Guide to Using Observation Rubrics for Evaluating Group Work Programmes
Seah Lay Hoon, Lui Hui Min Fionn and Ang Jingyou Ben

2022

Featured Commentaries / News Articles

2023

Reimagining Workfare to uplift low-wage families
Ong EeCheng, Irene Y.H. Ng, Michael Lien

2022

2021

Becoming Digitally Connected: What Holds People Back?
Lim Sun Sun, Natalie Pang, Irene Y.H. Ng
Drop middle-class judgement of low-income parenting
Irene Y.H. Ng, Nicole Ng, Joshua Khoo
Public donated over $1 million to Mind The Gap Fund for poor families hit by pandemic
SSR provided an independent documentation on the fund disbursement processes and the learning experiences among the member agencies

2020

Ask NUS economists - Inequality: How you view it depends on what you're told
Ong Ee Cheng, Evelyn Kok
Commentary: Singapore’s poorest earners will benefit from expansion of Progressive Wage Model but some conditions must be met
Linda Y.C. Lim and Irene Y.H. Ng
When a disease uncovers digital divides
Irene Y.H. Ng and Lim Sun Sun
Security and independence are basic needs
Teo You Yenn, Ng Kok Hoe, Neo Yu Wei, Ad Maulod and Stephanie Chok
Commentary: The case for universal digital access, as home-based computing becomes a post-pandemic norm
Irene Y.H. Ng and Lim Sun Sun
Committing to supporting low-income workers
Irene Y.H. Ng
Gaps in retirement income system cannot be fixed with small tweaks
Ng Kok Hoe
Low-wage workers at greater risk in times of public health crisis
Qiyan Ong and Walter Theseira

2019

2018

2017

Book Manuscripts / Chapters

2025

Proceedings of the 2025 ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Deconstructing depression stigma: Integrating AI-driven data collection and analysis with causal knowledge graphs
Meng, H., Zhang, R., Wang, G., Yang, Y., Qin, P., Lee, J., & Lee, Y-C. (2025)
Proceedings of the Extended Abstract of the 2025 ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Empowering social service with AI: Insights from a participatory design study with practitioners
Tan, Y., Soh, K. X., Zhang, R., Lee, J., Meng, H., Sen, B., & Lee, Y-C. (2025)

2024

2023

2021

2020

2019

2016

Reports

2025

- Work-Family Interface, Family Aspirations, and Cost of Living among Young Workers
  In-Work Poverty and the Challenges of Getting By Among the Young: Report
  Tan Zhi Han, Tao Yu Cheng (Benson), Nguyen Duc Thinh, Irene Y.H. Ng.
- Employment, Wages, Job Quality, and Well-Being among Young Workers
  In-Work Poverty and the Challenges of Getting By Among the Young: Report 2
  Irene Y.H. Ng, Tan Zhi Han, Asher Goh, Mathew Mathews, Gerard Chung, Vincent Chua, Xi Wen (Carys) Chan.