About

Julie Cederbaum is a professor at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. Her work focuses on the impact of childhood adversity, positive and compensatory experiences, and family processes on the well-being of youth. Using a dyad and family systems lens, her research explores the strengths and challenges experienced by families, and ways in which parenting processes and behaviors—such as parent–child communication, parental monitoring, parent–child relationships, and parental role modeling—positively influence behavioral health in children, adolescents, and young adults. She collaborates with organizations like Children’s Institute, Inc., to evaluate interventions aimed at strengthening father-child and father-partner relationships, funded by the Administration of Children and Families. Cederbaum has also completed projects examining the experiences of transitional age youth in foster care, with funding from various agencies including the National Institute of Mental Health, the Department of Defense, and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. Her broader research interests include pregnancy and parenting, behavioral outcomes for teen mothers and their children, and the role of social support in facilitating positive outcomes among youth involved in child welfare and HIV-affected families. She serves on committees of the Society of Social Work and Research and Grand Challenges of Social Work, and is the discipline director for the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Medicine
• Sociology
• Clinical psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Pedagogy
• Nursing
• Business
• Social psychology
• Medical education
• Psychiatry

Selected publications

• What are you most proud of? Using ripple effects mapping (REM) to capture workforce impact in child welfare

  Journal of Public Child Welfare · 2026-02-14

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• The Influence of Belongingness on Job Satisfaction and Retention Among Child Welfare Workers

  Human Services Organizations Management Leadership & Governance · 2025-11-20

  article

  High turnover among child welfare workers remains a persistent challenge, with organizational climate and job satisfaction playing pivotal roles in retention. This study explored the influence of belongingness on job satisfaction and intent to stay among child welfare workers. Using exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, we found that organizational climate significantly affected job satisfaction and intent to stay through both positive and negative belongingness. Positive belongingness, characterized by feelings of inclusion and connection, was associated with higher job satisfaction, whereas negative belongingness, marked by rejection and disconnection, was linked to lower job satisfaction. Notably, the study found that negative belongingness fully mediated the relationship between organizational climate and intent to stay, highlighting the importance of addressing feelings of exclusion. This suggests that child welfare agencies should prioritize fostering a sense of belonging and enhancing organizational climate to improve job satisfaction and reduce turnover. A supportive and inclusive organizational climate in child welfare agencies increases job satisfaction and employees’ intent to stay.Addressing negative belongingness – feelings of rejection or exclusion – mediates organizational climate and intent to stay, highlighting the importance of reducing workplace isolation and discrimination.Improving job satisfaction supports workforce stability: Efforts to enhance worker satisfaction can effectively reduce turnover in child welfare settings. A supportive and inclusive organizational climate in child welfare agencies increases job satisfaction and employees’ intent to stay. Addressing negative belongingness – feelings of rejection or exclusion – mediates organizational climate and intent to stay, highlighting the importance of reducing workplace isolation and discrimination. Improving job satisfaction supports workforce stability: Efforts to enhance worker satisfaction can effectively reduce turnover in child welfare settings.

  PublisherDOI

• “We are on the frontlines too”: A qualitative content analysis of US social workers' experiences during the COVID‐19 pandemic

  UNC Libraries · 2025-02-15

  articleOpen access

  Social work has been a part of the essential workforce historically and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, yet lack recognition. This work explores the experiences and invisibility of social workers within the pandemic response. Data are drawn from a large cross-sectional survey of US-based social worker from June to August of 2020. A summative content analysis of responses to the question 'What do you wish people knew about social work during the COVID-19 pandemic' was undertaken. Participants (n = 515) were majority white (72.1%) and female (90.8%). Seven coding categories were subsequently collapsed into three domains: (1) meeting basic needs, (2) well-being (emotional distress and dual role) and (3) professional invisibility (workplace equals, physical safety, professional invisibility and organisational invisibility). Meeting social needs requires broad-based policies that strengthen the health and social safety net. Social workers have and will continue to play a critical role in the response, and recovery from COVID-19. Organisational and governmental policies must expand to increase the visibility and responsiveness to the needs of social care providers.

  PublisherDOI

• Prevention

  Encyclopedia of Social Work · 2025-01-21

  reference-entry1st authorCorresponding

  Disparities in the health and mental health of people are attributable, in part, to the limited attention placed on the systems and structures that contribute to these inequities. This is, in part, due to the ways in which the service professions are set up; more of the work of social workers occurs after a problem has occurred, making it more responsive than preventative. Prevention in social work is critical to meeting the physical and mental health needs of individuals and communities. By moving away from a tertiary approach (one that targets reducing the impact of disease and helps an individual manage complex problems) toward one of primary prevention (preventing the problem before it occurs), social work has the potential to disrupt the influences of health disparities. The Social Work Health Impact Model takes a wide-lens approach to preventing and responding to such vexing problems as closing the health gap, ending homelessness, and reducing extreme economic inequality. Thus, social work can lead prevention efforts that reduce disparities.

  PublisherDOI

• Suicide-Related Disclosure Intention Among Active-Duty Servicemembers: A Generalized Linear Mixed-Model Tree Analysis

  Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research · 2025-11-18

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Supporting Youth Transitioning Out of Foster Care

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Does the timing matter? The association between childhood adversity and internalizing and externalizing problems from childhood to adolescence and its sex differences

  Child Abuse & Neglect · 2025-04-01 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Latina Teen Mothers’ Perceived Discrimination and Children’s Externalizing Problems: Mediating Family Processes

  Journal of Child and Family Studies · 2025-11-11

  articleOpen access

  Racial discrimination has been linked to externalizing problems among people targeted by such discrimination, but less is known about whether caregivers’ experiences of discrimination affect their children and the mechanisms involved. This study examined the effects of maternal discrimination on children’s externalizing problems, its underlying mechanisms, and whether the effects differ by children’s sex. Data from 2019 included 202 low-income Latina teen mothers and their children. Children’s externalizing behaviors were assessed using Achenbach’s Brief Problem Monitor-Parent Form and maternal discrimination was measured with a short version of the Everyday Discrimination Scale. Family stress process was evaluated using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale and Multidimensional Assessment of Parenting Scale. Path analysis showed that greater maternal experiences of discrimination were linked to increased behavioral problems among children. Mediation analysis indicated that maternal discrimination was associated with parenting behaviors—particularly supportive parenting—which were associated with parent-reported Latinx children’s externalizing behaviors. Multiple-group analyses showed no evidence of sex differences. These findings indicate the need to shift from solely focusing on people targeted for discrimination to including their family members to estimate the impacts of racial discrimination more accurately. Adopting structural strategies that can address racial discrimination, along with individual interventions that can mitigate compromised mental health and parenting subsequent to caregivers’ discrimination, will be vital to stop racial discrimination from perpetuating disparities in behavioral health among Latinx families. Maternal discrimination is linked to increased behavioral problems in Latinx children born to teen mothers. Parenting mediated the link between maternal discrimination and children’s externalizing behaviors. No evidence of sex differences was found. Findings emphasize the need to assess discrimination’s impacts on families, not only individuals.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Experiences of Caretaking and Financial Stress among Social Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic

  UNC Libraries · 2025-02-15

  articleOpen access

  Social workers have engaged in promotive, preventive, and intervention work throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that social workers are disproportionately women, and the essential nature of practice during the pandemic, how social workers experience caretaking and financial stressors warrants examination. Data are drawn from a larger cross-sectional survey of U.S.-based social workers (N = 3,118) conducted from June to August 2020. A convergent mixed-methods design included thematic content analysis and univariate, ordinal, and linear regression models. The sample was 90 percent female; average age was 46.4 years. Although 44 percent indicated moderate or significant caretaking stress, results varied by race/ethnicity, workplace setting, and age. Social workers of color were more likely to report caretaking (p < .001) and financial stress (p < .001) compared with White counterparts. Social workers in children/family services were more likely to report increased financial stress (p < .004). Older age was protective for both caretaking (p < .001) and financial stress (p < .001). Three distinct subthemes were found in caretaking stress (work/life balance, safety concerns, and positionality) and two in financial stress (uncertainty and absence of workplace recognition). Understanding workforce stressors may help organizations and policymakers better support an essential workforce integral to the United States' COVID-19 response and recovery.

  PublisherDOI

• Contact Tracing: An Opportunity for Social Work to Lead

  UNC Libraries · 2025-07-11

  articleOpen access

  Since the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) first emerged in December 2019, there have been unprecedented efforts worldwide to contain and mitigate the rapid spread of the virus through evidence-based public health measures. As a component of pandemic response in the United States, efforts to develop, launch, and scale-up contact tracing initiatives are rapidly expanding, yet the presence of social work is noticeably absent. In this paper, we identify the specialized skill set necessary for high quality contact tracing in the COVID-19 era and explore its alignment with social work competencies and skills. Described are current examples of contact tracing efforts, and an argument for greater social work leadership, based on the profession's ethics, competencies and person-in-environment orientation is offered. In light of the dire need for widespread high-quality contact tracing, social work is well-positioned to participate in interprofessional efforts to design, oversee and manage highly effective front-line contact tracing efforts.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant F31MH076697

  NIH · $140k · 2009

• Maternal Influences of Substance Use Among Urban Black Male Adolescents

  NIH · $176k · 2011–2014

Frequent coauthors

• Loretta Sweet Jemmott

  Center for Health and Gender Equity

  48 shared

• Jillian Baker

  38 shared

• Bridgette M. Brawner

  37 shared

• Zupenda M. Davis

  La Salle University

  37 shared

• Jennifer M. Stewart

  New York University

  36 shared

• Jungeun Olivia Lee

  University of Southern California

  18 shared

• Ndidiamaka Amutah‐Onukagha

  Tufts University

  17 shared

• M. Katherine Hutchinson

  University of Rhode Island

  14 shared

Education

• PhD, School of Social Policy & Practice

  University of Pennsylvania

  2009

• MPH, School of Medicine

  University of Pennsylvania

  2007

• MSW, Luskin School of Public Affairs

  University of California Los Angeles

  2001