Choo, Hyekyung
Associate Professor, Director of Mrs Lee Choon Guan Endowed Research Fund
PhD Univ. of Pennsylvania, MSW Temple Univ., MA, BA Ewha Women's Univ.
(65) 6516 4421 | Email: swkch@nus.edu.sg
Personal Web Page: https://discovery.nus.edu.sg/1210
Teaching
Since I joined the department in 2005, I have taught various modules on both undergraduate and graduate levels. From the accumulation of teaching at NUS, I have developed my teaching expertise mainly in social work research methods, particularly social program evaluation.
Like most good modules on social work research method or program evaluation offered in other higher educational institutions, my class on this subject is largely project-based. That is, I design my modules on research and evaluation to engage my students in hands-on training to apply their knowledge of research methods and scientific reasoning skills to real situations through collaboration with social service agencies.
Also, what my students appear to appreciate the most in my research and evaluation modules is that I share with them a variety of relevant local examples drawn from my own research work in Singapore, covering needs assessment, formative and process evaluation and outcome evaluation, most of which used mixed methods.
My specific examples from my actual local research experience make my students’ learning more applicable and relatable to the local social service landscape. Moreover, I initiated the introduction of practice research to students in a graduate research module.
Although the module on practice-research is still in the early stage of course development, I am enthusiastic about contributing to maturing the concept of practice-research for and equipping students who are practitioners with new skills in order for them to initiate their own practice-research through my teaching. This way I, as a social work educator, hope to be able to empower my students and practitioners in their research capacity.
Another specialized area of my teaching is social networks and support. My module on this topic specifically focuses on systematic assessment of clients and their families’ social networks and support as well as support interventions. In general, I make intentional efforts to bring my research experiences and findings to class so that they can be critically examined and utilized by my students to advance their learning.
In addition to teaching those modules, I have supervised two doctoral students and am currently supervising one. Also, I am a co-chair of the steering committee of the NUS Inter-Professional Education (IPE) program for NUS undergraduate students in medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry and social work. As a co-chair, I oversee student-led inter-professional enrichment activities and provide academic support and guidance for them to be collaborative practice-ready in multidisciplinary health-care settings.
SW3206 Gender Issues in Social Work Practice
SW3217 Mental Health and Illness
SW4103 Advanced Research and Evaluation
SW4213 Social Networks and Social Support
SWD5103 Contemporary Social Work Practice
SWD5120 Social Work Practicum Seminar
Research
I believe that my research strength stems from close collaboration with social service providers. Collaboration and partnership I have forged with them have been lending me rich opportunities to observe and interact with clients in their immediate social environment for and during my research data collection, which in turn helps me to capture newly emerging issues that face youth in rapidly changing society and social service systems’ responses to them. Such learning from the field has been a main motive for me to develop my research agendas and designs to have strong potentials to enhance the practical relevance and significance of empirical knowledge that my research will generate for improvement of social services for children and adolescents faced by psychosocial challenges in Singapore and Asia.
My research focuses on two areas.
One concerns children and adolescents’ health risk behaviors and risky online behaviors, particularly internet gaming disorder. As Co-PI of my multidisciplinary research team, I have conducted two large scale longitudinal research projects on internet gaming and cyber-wellness for eight years (2006-2013), each of which is a four-year longitudinal survey with over 3000 children and adolescents in Singapore. My colleagues and I published papers from the data in various academic journals with high impact such as Pediatrics, Developmental Psychology, and Journal of Child and Family Studies. I have been invited by a wide range of journals to peer review articles on youth gaming and internet usage particularly in the Asian context. Using the longitudinal data and my intervention study data, currently I am working on manuscripts on a school-based multilevel group work intervention for youth with excessive gaming as well as a longitudinal trajectory of pathological internet use and the impact of peer support on it. My future research plan in this arena is to investigate interrelationships between different types of risky online behaviors including pathological use of internet and identify effective strategies for assessment and community-based interventions for addressing pathological gaming behaviors among youth.
The other area of my research is centered-around children from socially vulnerable families, such as families with low income, those with immigrant parents, and those with parents with mental disorder. Key constructs that I examine to understand children from socially vulnerable families are the children and their families’ informal and formal social support, particularly support intervention services for them and how such support systems outside the family contribute to the healthy development and resilience of the children. For the past four years, I have been actively leading and co-leading three local studies on an early intervention initiative for young children and their parents with low income, informal social support and service utilization among parents with low income who are the users of family service centers, and low-income binational families and their children’s social capital and social integration. Through these projects, I have collected comprehensive, quantitative and qualitative data, not only from the socially vulnerable families but also from service providers working with them. This is leading to several papers from the data to explain the status of informal social support and social service utilization of socially vulnerable families and the adjustment outcomes of their children in Singapore. Also, I am planning to carry out full-fledged evaluation studies on support intervention programs for children from families with social vulnerabilities.
Mohanty, J., & Choo, H. The Acculturation experiences of immigrants in Singapore (under review by Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies)
Choo, H., Gentile, D. A., Chng, S. E. G., & Khoo, A. Effect of peer support on pathological symptoms of Internet use among children and adolescents.
Choo, H., Chng, S. E. G., Fung, D., & Khoo, A. Moderating effect of peer support on depression among cyber victims.
Sim, T., Choo, H., Khoo, A., Yeong, A., & Lam, W. M. What to do? Engaging adolescents who play games excessively.
Yow, T. T. S., & Choo, H. How do the appraisal and coping of marital infidelity affect the mental health among clients of social service agencies in Singapore?
Green C. S., Eichenbaum, A., Kattner, F., Bradford, D., Gentile, D. A., Choo, H., Chen, V., Khoo, A. (2015). The role of game genres and the development of internet gaming disorder in school-aged children. Journal of Addictive Behaviors, Therapy and Rehabilitation, 4 (3), doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2324-9005.1000141.
Liau, A. K. F., Choo, H., Li, D., Gentile, D. A., Sim, T., & Khoo (in press), A. Pathological video-game use among youth: A prospective study examining dual growth trajectory models. Addiction Research & Theory, 23, 301-308.
Choo, H., Sim, T., Liau, A. K. F., Gentile, D. A., & Khoo, A. (2014). Parental influences on pathological symptoms of video-gaming among children and adolescents: A prospective study. Journal of Child and Family Studies, Available Online (doi: 10.1007/s10826-014-9949-9)
Lee, C. H., Choo, H., Tai, B. C.., Chan, M. Y., Phua, Q. H., Low, T. T., Richards, A. M., Tan, H. C., Ow, R., & Yeo, T. C. (2013). "Immigrant status and disparities in health care delivery in myocardial infarction". International Journal of Cardiology, 166 (3), 696-701.
Choo, H. and D. Shek (2013). Quality of Parent-Child Relationship, Family Conflict, Peer Pressure, and Drinking Behaviors of Adolescents in an Asian Context: The Case of Singapore. Social Indicators Research. 110, 1141-1157.
Li, D., Choo, H., Khoo, A., & Liau, A. (2012). Effects of digital game play among young Singaporean gamers: A two-wave longitudinal study. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.
Choo, H. (2012). "Stress Process of Illicit Drug Use among U. S. Immigrants' Adolescent Children: A Longitudinal Study". Journal of Community Psychology, 40(3), 358-371.
Liau, A., Neo, E. C., Gentile, D. A., Choo, H., Sim, T., Li, D. & Khoo, A. (2011). "Impulsivity, self-regulation, and pathological video-gaming: Testing a moderated mediation model". Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health, Available online (doi:10.1177/1010539511429369).
Gentile, A. D., Choo, H., Liau, A., Sim, T., Li, D., Fung, D., & Khoo, A. (2011) "Pathological video-gaming among Singaporean youth: A two year longitudinal study". Pediatrics, 127(2), 319-329.
Ang, R., Choo, H., & Ow, R. (2011). "Poor hemodialysis outcome: Identifying social risk factors in elderly and non-elderly patients in Singapore" Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work and Development, 21 (1), 71-88.
Choo, H., & Sim, T (2010)."Health risk behaviors of foreign-born adolescents in Singapore: Exploration of risk factors in an Asian context". British Journal Of Social Work, 40 (7), 2203-2222.
Choo, H., Gentile, D.A., Sim, T., Li, D., Khoo, A., & Liu, A. (2010). "Pathological video-gaming among Singaporean youth". Annals Academy Of Medicine, Singapore, 39 (11), 822-829. [Received Silver Award for Best Publications of the Journal in 2010, April 2011].
Choo, H. (2008). "Parent-child relationships and drug use among foreign-born adolescents in Singapore immigrant families: Implications for parenting strategies" Journal of Youth Studies - the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, 11 (2), 85-96.
Choo, H., & Chong, E. J. (in press) Intervention: Treatment models for Internet and Gaming addiction. Chapter 8, Internet Addiction, Marshal Cavendish.
Khoo, A. C., Chen, V., & Choo, H. (in press). Effects of digital gaming among children and adolescents in Singapore: A summary of research findings. In New Media and Learning in the 21st Century: A socio-cultural perspective, Springer.
Khoo, C. E. A., Sim, T., Chen, V., Choo, H. et al. (2008) "Effect of digital gaming on children and teenagers in Singapore: First year report". Singapore Ministry of Education.
Choo, H., Ong, T. H., & Sim, T. (2007). "Needs assessment of aftercare services for ex-offenders and their families" Singapore Prison Service, Singapore.
Choo, H. (2014). Mixed method approach in Asian migration research. Journal of Population Research, Available Online (doi:10.1007/s12546-014-9131-7).
Khoo, C. E. A., Sim, T., Chen, V., Choo, H. et al. (2008) "Effect of digital gaming on children and teenagers in Singapore: First year report". Singapore Ministry of Education.
Choo, H., Ong, T. H., & Sim, T. (2007). "Needs assessment of aftercare services for ex-offenders and their families" Singapore Prison Service, Singapore.