People
Xiaoran Sun
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Pronouns: she/her/hers
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Assistant Professor
As a developmental and family psychologist, I conduct research on the interplay between family systems processes and well-being across adolescence and young adulthood.

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I am accepting new graduate advisees for fall 2026 in the PhD and MA/PhD programs.
I am accepting undergraduate research advisees for the Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 semesters. Please fill out this application form to get started.
- sunx0521@umn.edu
Honors and Awards
2022 – 2024 Grant-in-Aid of Research, Artistry and Scholarship, University of Minnsota
2021 – 2022 Microsoft Azure Computing Award, Stanford Data Science
2020 – 2021 Scholarship, Stanford Data Science Scholars Program
2017 – 2018 Traineeship, Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training – Big Data Social Science (BDSS-IGERT) Training Program, National Science Foundation (Grant DGE-1144860) 2015 – 2016 University Graduate Fellowship, The Pennsylvania State University
2014 Li & Fung Scholarship, University of Hong Kong
2013 Outstanding Undergraduate Scholarship (First-class), Zhejiang University
2012 National Academic Scholarship, Ministry of Education of P. R. China
Recent News
"FSOS assistant professor awarded $2.7+ million National Institutes of Health grant," Family Social Science News
"UMN professor employs big data and machine learning to develop new knowledge about tech, youth, and families," Family Social Science News
"FSOS faculty member awarded University research grant," Family Social Science News
"New Stanford Research: Stop stressing about when to get your kid a phone because it doesn't matter," Inc. magazine
"There's no 'golden rule' for when kids should get their first phone," Futurity
"There's no 'Golden Rule' for when kids should get their first phone," The Good Men Project
"Makin Dini Dapat Hp Bocah Makin Stres Dan Susah Tidur?" CNN Indonesia
"Age That Kids Acquire Mobile Phones Not Linked To Well-Being, Says Stanford Medicine Study," India Education Diary
"It is clear that there is no relationship between when a child had a mobile phone and sleep or depression," Gigazine (Japan)
"5 new studies that challenge conventional wisdom about kids and tech," Before It's News
"Age that kids acquire mobile phone not linked to well-being says Stanford study," Stanford Medicine
"No evidence early childhood phone ownership hurts kids: Stanford study," CTV News (Canada)
5 new studies that challenge conventional wisdom about kids and tech, reason