The Student View

Introducing Student Representative Jiyoung Sarah Kim and a Focus on Student Community

The Student View

Introducing Student Representative Jiyoung Sarah Kim and a Focus on Student Community

By Jiyoung Sarah Kim, MS
SCCAP Student Representative

It is an honor to join the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (SCCAP) leadership team and introduce myself as the new SCCAP Student Representative for the 2025-2027 term. I received my B.A. in Psychology, with a minor in Social and Economic Justice, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Currently, I am pursuing my Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Florida, under the mentorship of Dr. Joy Gabrielli.

Since the beginning of my academic journey, my research interests have centered on early life adversity, resilience, and their impact on child development. My desire to pursue these interests grew stronger after my time as a tutor for an organization supporting elementary school students from underserved communities in Chapel Hill, NC. While I cherish the relationships I built, hearing about my students’ hardships sparked my desire to explore certain questions: How do adverse childhood experiences and health risk behaviors impact a child’s development? Why do some children seem more resilient to stress than others? And how does the parent-child relationship affect a child’s ability to cope with stressful life events?

These questions led me to pursue research as a college student. As an undergraduate research assistant, I was part of a lab studying the relationship between threat, deprivation, and parent-child interactions on child development. I also had the opportunity to explore the associations between alcohol use, socioeconomic status, and happiness using a dataset from the NIDA’s Monitoring the Future (MTF) Survey. My undergraduate research experiences not only equipped me with valuable research skills but also strengthened my commitment to studying early life adversity, health risk behaviors, and factors of resilience. At the University of Florida, I have further explored my research interests in early life adversity and health risk behaviors while also developing clinical skills for working with youth and families. My current research focuses on child maltreatment and health risk behaviors – specifically substance use and risky online behavior – and their influence on developmental outcomes of adolescents.

I am honored and excited to join SCCAP, an organization dedicated to improving the mental health and resilient development of youth and families with full commitment to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. This year, I look forward to working with my fellow Student Representative, Hong Bui, to further establish SCCAP as the go-to professional home for students in clinical child and adolescent psychology. We hope to expand our outreach efforts in order to better understand and address students’ needs. We also aim to continue promoting student engagement and networking by organizing in-person events, like student social hours or student-led conference sessions, at future conferences such as the SCCAP Conference in June 2025!

Our work is not possible without the support and dedication of our amazing student committee members, whose efforts drive professional development, mentorship, and student achievement through our committee and award opportunities. As always, we encourage student members to contact their student representatives (students@sccap53.org) if they have any suggestions or ideas for improving existing initiatives or new programming. We are excited to see the continued growth and progress of SCCAP this year!