Dr. Yue Qian (pronounced Yew-ay Chian) is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of British Columbia. Her research and teaching interests focus on social demography, family and work, gender, health and well-being, and research methods. She has conducted research in North American and East Asian contexts.

Dr. Yue Qian is interested in understanding how gender intersects with family, work, and population processes—such as assortative mating (i.e., who marries whom), occupational segregation, and migration—to shape individual well-being and societal inequality.

Her current research focuses on three related areas in North American and East Asian contexts:

1. Patterns and consequences of assortative mating;
2. Family, work, and gender inequality;
3. The role of family, work, and gender dynamics in shaping health and well-being.

Most recently, she has been collaborating with researchers around the world to examine the social and mental health impacts of COVID-19.

Dr. Qian has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles since 2014. Her work has appeared in top journals, such as Nature Human Behaviour, American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Journal of Marriage and Family, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, and Gender & Society.

Below is a list of Dr. Yue Qian’s featured peer-reviewed publications. For a full publication list, please see her Google Scholar profile.

1. Patterns and Consequences of Assortative Mating

Hu, Yang and Yue Qian. (2023). “Gender, Education Expansion and Intergenerational Educational Mobility Around the World.” Nature Human Behaviour.

• Read a research briefing published in Nature Human Behaviour
• Read UBC News coverage of this paper
• Read a brief report in Chinese
• See Transparent Peer Review for reviewer comments and author responses
• Access a full replication package for this paper

Qian, Yue. (2022). “Disruption or Reproduction? Nativity, Gender and Online Dating in Canada.” Internet Research, 32(4), 1264-1287.

Qian, Yue. (2018). “Educational Assortative Mating and Income Dynamics in Couples: A Longitudinal and Dyadic Perspective.” Journal of Marriage and Family, 80(3), 607-621.

Qian, Yue. (2017). “Gender Asymmetry in Educational and Income Assortative Marriage.” Journal of Marriage and Family, 79(2), 318-336.

• Read UBC News coverage of this paper
• Read a brief report (I, II) in Chinese
• The 2019 Wiley Prize in Family Science: The Alexis Walker Award

Qian, Yue and Zhenchao Qian. (2017). “Assortative Mating by Education and Hukou in Shanghai.” Chinese Sociological Review, 49(3), 239-262.

• Read The Globe & Mail and UBC News coverage of this paper
• Read a brief report in Chinese

2. Family, Work, and Gender Inequality

Fuller, Sylvia and Yue Qian. (2022). “Parenthood, Gender, and the Risks and Consequences of Job Loss.” Social Forces, 100(4), 1642-1670.

Qian, Yue and Liana C. Sayer. (2022). “Gender and Educational Variation in How Temporal Dimensions of Paid Work Affect Parental Child Care Time.” Socius, 8, 1-15.

• Access a full replication package for this paper

Qian, Yue and Jill E. Yavorsky. (2021). “The Under-Utilization of Women’s Talent: Academic Achievement and Future Leadership Positions.” Social Forces, 100(2), 564-598. (Two authors contributed equally to the work)

• Read NPR’s Marketplace and UBC News coverage of this paper
• Read a brief report in English
• Read a personal reflection on the research journey

Qian, Yue and Jiaxing Li*. (2020). “Separating Spheres: Cohort Differences in Gender Attitudes about Work and Family in China.” The China Review, 20(2), 19-51. (* student co-author)

• Read a brief report in Chinese

Yavorsky, Jill E., Lisa A. Keister, Yue Qian, and Michael Nau. (2019). “Women in the One Percent: Gender Dynamics in Top Income Positions.” American Sociological Review, 84(1), 54-81.

• Read a brief report in English
• Read The Washington Post coverage of this paper
• One of 15 nominees (out of 2,500 published articles reviewed) for the 2020 Rosabeth Moss Kanter International Award for Research Excellence in Work and Family

3. The Role of Family, Work, and Gender Dynamics in Shaping Health and Well-being

Qian, Yue and Wen Fan. (2021). “Student Loans, Mental Health, and Substance Use: A Gender Comparison among US Young Adults.” Journal of American College Health. Published Online First.

Fan, Wen and Yue Qian. (2019). “Rising Educational Gradients in Mortality Among U.S. Whites: What Are the Roles of Marital Status and Educational Homogamy?” Social Science & Medicine, 235, 112365.

Qian, Yue and Wen Fan. (2019). “Men and Women at Work: Occupational Gender Composition and Affective Well-Being in the United States.” Journal of Happiness Studies, 20(7), 2077–2099.

• Read CBC News coverage of this paper
• Read brief reports in English and Chinese

Fan, Wen and Yue Qian. (2017). “Native-Immigrant Occupational Segregation and Worker Health in the United States, 2004–2014.” Social Science & Medicine, 183, 130-141.

Qian, Yue and Liana C. Sayer. (2016). “Division of Labor, Gender Ideology, and Marital Satisfaction in East Asia.” Journal of Marriage and Family, 78(2), 383-400.

• Read a brief report in English

4. Social and Mental Health Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Qian, Yue and Wen Fan. (2022). “The Early 2020 COVID-19 Outbreak in China and Subsequent Flourishing: Medium-Term Effects and Intervening Mechanisms.” Society and Mental Health. Published Online First. (Two authors contributed equally to the work)

Fan, Wen, Yue Qian, and Yongai Jin. (2021). “Stigma, Perceived Discrimination, and Mental Health during China’s COVID-19 Outbreak: A Mixed-Methods Investigation.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 62(4), 562-581. (The first two authors contributed equally to the work)

Qian, Yue and Yang Hu. (2021). “Couples’ Changing Work Patterns in the United Kingdom and the United States during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Gender, Work & Organization, 28(S2), 535-553. (Two authors contributed equally to the work)

Fuller, Sylvia and Yue Qian. (2021). “Covid-19 and The Gender Gap in Employment Among Parents of Young Children in Canada.” Gender & Society, 35(2), 206-217.

Qian, Yue and Amy Hanser. (2021). “How did Wuhan residents cope with a 76-day lockdown?” Chinese Sociological Review, 53(1), 55-86.

• Read UBC Sociology News coverage of this paper
• Read a brief report in Chinese

Featured Grants

• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Canadian 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Rapid Research Funding Opportunity (2020-2023)
• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Insight Development Grant (2018-2021)
• The Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation Research Grant (2020-2023)

Featured Awards

• The 2022 Early Investigator Award, Canadian Sociological Association
• The 2019 Alexis Walker Award for the best research in the Family Science discipline, National Council on Family Relations
• The 2019 Dean of Arts Faculty Research Award, University of British Columbia

Dr. Yue Qian works closely with graduate students. In particular, she encourages students to write early and often, and motivates students to become knowledge producers. See below for a list of Dr. Qian’s peer-reviewed publications with student co-authors.

• Digital Ethnic Enclaves: Mate Preferences and Platform Choices Among Chinese Immigrant Online Daters in Vancouver
• Gendered age preferences for potential partners: a mixed-methods study among online daters in Shanghai
• Child Marriage in Mainland China
• Mate selection among online daters in Shanghai: Why does education matter?
• Separating Spheres: Cohort Differences in Gender Attitudes about Work and Family in China
• The gendered pandemic: The implications of COVID-19 for work and family
• Gender, Parenthood, and Employment During COVID-19: An Immigrant-Native Born Comparison in Canada

Public Sociology

This section contains a brief summary of Dr. Yue Qian’s engagement with public sociology. For a fuller record, please see her personal website page.

Dr. Yue Qian has a strong commitment to conveying academic research to a wider audience. The goal of her public engagement with research is to increase global awareness regarding issues of family, gender, and social justice among diverse audiences. As a gender scholar and feminist, Dr. Qian is particularly passionate about translating gender research into the empowerment of women and advocacy for gender equality around the world.

Dr. Qian actively shares social science research through many channels. For example, she gave a TED-style public talk on changing marriage patterns in the global context. This talk has been viewed over three million times since its online release. You may read its transcript in Chinese or in English.

Dr. Qian has been featured in numerous television, radio, and print interviews. Below is a select list of her media interviews.

• In need of a baby boom, China clamps down on vasectomies (The Washington Post)
• Mothers returning to work after COVID-19 lockdowns face lifelong earnings gap (The Globe and Mail)
• China must help moms, encourage dads to fix its plunging birth rate, demographers say (CBC News)
• Kids share experiences of anti-Asian racism in the pandemic: Expert explains spike in anti-Asian hate (CBC Kids News)
• #NoMarriage movement sees South Korean women reject Government pressures to marry and have kids (ABC News)

Dr. Qian has shared her experiences, reflections, and research knowledge through in-depth interviews and personal profiles.

• The Paper (澎湃) featured Dr. Qian for her research on gender, marriage, and family in China.
• The March 2018 Issue of the ELLE China featured Dr. Qian as an example of inspirational women in their early 30s.
• People (人物), a Chinese monthly magazine of celebrity and human-interest stories, featured Dr. Qian for her insights into gender inequality in China.

Dr. Qian has written many op-eds to share her research and expertise with a wide audience.

• Asian guys stereotyped and excluded in online dating
• Why young people in South Korea are staying single despite efforts to spark dating
• Does being smart and successful lower your chances of getting married?
• Women feel better when they work with other women
• China’s two-child policy needs to come with child-care help
• Rethinking the gender division of household labor during wuhan’s coronavirus lockdown
• Chinese immigrants look to digital Chinatowns to find love online (with student co-author Manlin Cai)
• Online dating: Humour matters more than ‘good looks’ but immigrants struggle with local jokes (with student co-author Siqi Xiao)
• What Wuhan’s frontline medical workers can teach the world about the Covid-19 mental health battle (with student co-author Siqi Xiao)
• What Is the Three-Child Policy Really Trying to Accomplish? (with Yongai Jin)
• Mothers who earned straight A’s in high school manage the same number of employees as fathers who got failing grades (with Jill Yavorsky)
• The pandemic is hurting Canada’s working mothers (with Sylvia Fuller)
• The one percent glass ceiling: gender dynamics in top income positions (with Jill Yavorsky and Lisa Keister)

Dr. Qian is the primary founder and editor of, and contributor to a public account “Ms-Muses (缪斯夫人)” on WeChat (China’s largest social media platform). She edits and writes research-based commentaries on gender and family issues. The number of account subscribers has exceeded 60,000 and is still growing. Here is a select list of her popular blog posts (written in Chinese).

• 陈建斌把蒋勤勤气哭了！真的是因为他懒吗？(cleaning as a window into power in couples)
• “婚姻包袱”：为什么日本人不结婚？(“marriage package:” Why Japanese people do not get married?)  
• 和谁结婚这件事，你知道是哪些因素决定的吗? (Searching for a mate: Social and demographic factors that influence who marries whom)
• 都别争了，选爱我的还是我爱的有科学解释了 (A scientific analysis of who you should choose, the one you love or the one who loves you)
• 从张靓颖公布恋情说说为什么求婚不是小事 (Jane Zhang proposed to her boyfriend—here is why women proposing symbolizes a culture shift)
• 感情里的亲密与距离：男人心才是海底针？(Emotion work in relationships)

Dr. Qian has written self-help articles in Chinese to share her academic experiences. These articles help uncover the “hidden curriculum” of academia.