*** Dr. Huynh will be accepting graduate students for 2025-2026*** 

Background: 

Dr. Tuyen Huynh is an inaugural member of the Bridge to Faculty Program in the Department of Psychology at the University of South Carolina. She received her Ph.D. in Human Sciences with a specialization in Child, Youth, and Family Studies from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She completed her T32 NICHD-funded postdoctoral training programs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, including the Health Disparities Research Scholars Program (2020-2022) and the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research in the Waisman Center (2022-2023).  

Importantly, Dr. Huynh is a first-generation scientist. Therefore, she is deeply committed to leveraging her efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion through research, mentoring, and teaching scholars from different academic levels and demographic backgrounds. She enjoys spending time with her husband and their two children, biking around Columbia in her free time. She also loves gardening and knitting. 

Research: Dr. Huynh has practiced mindfulness for 15 years, influencing her mindfulness scholarship. Specifically, Dr. Huynh’s research program integrates interdisciplinary approaches drawn from contemplative science (e.g., reflective practices such as self-compassion and mindfulness) and psychology (e.g., family systems perspective). Her work identifies ways to bolster intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships that implicitly and explicitly impact child and family well-being. She also considers different caregiver roles and family relationships that impact child development. Dr. Huynh’s overarching research agenda is to promote community resilience by strengthening family relationships, emphasizing a health equity approach to reaching historically and persistently underserved minoritized communities. 

Representative Publications: 

Duncan, L. G., Zhang, N., Santana, T., Cook, J.G., Castro-Smith, L., Hutchison., Huynh, T., Mallareddy, D., Jurkiewicz, L., & Bardacke, N., (Accepted in Mindfulness Special Issue). Enhancing prenatal group medical visits with mindfulness skills: A pragmatic trial with Latina and BIPOC pregnant women experiencing multiple forms of structural inequity. Mindfulness. 

Huynh, T., Boise, C., Kihntopf, M.E.*, Schaefer, A. A.*, & Schafer, M.* (2023). “Fear and anxiety is what I recall the best.": A phenomenological examination of mothers’ pregnancy experiences during COVID-19 in the United States. Midwifery. 

Greenlee, J., Hickey, E., Stelter, C., Huynh, T., Hartley, S., (2023). Profiles of the parenting experience in families of autistic children. Autism. 

Huynh, T., & Brock, R. L., Phillips, E., (2021). Self-compassion mediates the link between attachment and intimate relationship quality during pregnancy. Family Relations, 61(1), 294-311.  

Kerr, M. L., Fanning, K. A., Huynh, T., Kim, C., & Botto, I. (2021). Parents’ self-reported psychological impacts of COVID on parental burnout and child wellbeing. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 46(10), 1162-1171. 

Huynh, T., & Torquati, J., (2019). Examining connection to nature and mindfulness at promoting psychological well-being. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 66, 101370. 

Hatton-Bowers, H., Howell Smith, M., Huynh, T., Bash, K., Durden, T., Anthony, C., Foged, J., & Lodl, K., (2019). "I will be less judgmental, more kind, more aware, and resilient!”: Early childhood professionals’ learnings from an online mindfulness module. Early Childhood Education Journal, 3, 379-391. 

Huynh, T., Hatton-Bowers, H., & Howell Smith, M., (2018). A critical methodological review of mixed methods designs used in mindfulness research. Mindfulness, 10, 786-798. 

Huynh, T. & Torquati, J., (2018). Outdoor adventure instructors’ perceptions of nature and their work: A phenomenological study. Journal of Adventure Education & Outdoor Learning, 19, 269-282.