Sun, Shufang

Shufang Sun

Assistant Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Associate Director of the Mindfulness Center

Overview

How do stress and various forms of adversity, including structural oppression and stigma, shape mental health and health behavior outcomes? Can mindfulness and digital interventions promote resilience and facilitate a more fulfilling life, especially for those most in need? What is the role of digital technology in mental health, especially for those who are young and vulnerable?

Dr. Sun's scholarship seeks to answer these pressing questions by interdisciplinary research at the intersection of mindfulness, mobile health (mHealth), and youth mental health. Her scholarship focuses on understanding how stress, trauma, and systemic inequities contribute to health disparities, and developing and evaluating mindfulness-based, community-centered, and technology-mediated interventions for health promotion in domestic and global settings.

Examples of her work include the development of Mindfulness-based Queer Resilience (MBQR) for young sexual and gender minorities, mindfulness to address healthy eating among sexual minority women with a history of early life adversity, and mindfulness for youth affected by war and conflict. These interventions share the principles of addressing stigma and oppression via an awareness- and empowerment-based approach, attending to the interplay of mental health and health behaviors, mixed methods research and community-engaged research to inform intervention development, and employing internet-and mobile-based delivery to reduce barriers and increase accessibility and scalability. Her intervention research has engaged communities in the U.S. and Low-and-Middle-Income Countries (LMIC).

In addition to clinical trials, an important line of Dr. Sun's research work aims to advance intervention science, particularly in areas of mHealth and mindfulness interventions, through rigorous review methodology (e.g., systematic reviews and meta-analyses). With the rapid growth of clinical trials and data availability in these areas, there is an increasing need for the field to rigorously evaluate the existing evidence across populations, conditions, comparison types, and outcomes to guide implementation and dissemination. Her publications in this area have highlighted methodological weaknesses of the existing mindfulness RCT literature and disparities in outcomes when serving racial and ethnic minorities.

Dr. Sun's work has appeared in many high-impact journals, such as The Lancet Digital Health, JAMA Network Open, npj Digital Medicine, The Lancet HIV, etc. Currently, she serves as the Associate Editor on JMIR-Mental Health. Her work has been supported by numerous NIH grants and other funding sources, enabling her to address the needs of diverse communities in the U.S. and around the world. She has been a recipient of numerous teaching and research awards, including from Brown University, the American Psychological Association, and the Society for Prevention Research.

Brown Affiliations

Research Areas

On the Web

Dr. Sun' lab: Mindfulness for Health Equity Lab

Publications Visualize it

Sun S, Goldberg SB, Loucks EB, Brewer JA. "Mindfulness-based interventions among people of color: A systematic review and meta-analysis." Psychotherapy Research, vol. 32, no. 3, 2022, pp. 1-14.

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Sun S, Lin D, Goldberg S, Shen Z, Chen P, Qiao S, Brewer J, Loucks E, Operario D. "A mindfulness-based mobile health (mHealth) intervention among psychologically distressed university students in quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic: A randomized controlled trial." Journal of Counseling Psychology, vol. 69, no. 2, 2021, pp. 157-171.

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Pan, Si, Sun, Shufang, Li, Xianhong, Chen, Jia, Xiong, Yang, He, Ying, Pachankis, John E. "A pilot cultural adaptation of LGB-affirmative CBT for young Chinese sexual minority men’s mental and sexual health." Psychotherapy, vol. 58, no. 1, 2021, pp. 12-24.

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Taylor, V. A., Moseley, I., Sun, S., Smith, R., Roy, A., Ludwig, V.U., Brewer, J.A. "Awareness drives changes in reward value which predict eating behavior change: Probing reinforcement learning using experience sampling from mobile mindfulness training for maladaptive eating." Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 2021.

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Sun, Shufang, Hoyt, William T., Tarantino, Nicholas, Pachankis, John E., Whiteley, Laura, Operario, Don, Brown, Larry K. "Cultural context matters: Testing the minority stress model among Chinese sexual minority men." Journal of Counseling Psychology, vol. 68, no. 5, 2021, pp. 526-537.

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Sun, Shufang, Lin, Danhua, Operario, Don. "Interest in COVID-19 vaccine trials participation among young adults in China: Willingness, reasons for hesitancy, and demographic and psychosocial determinants." Preventive Medicine Reports, vol. 22, 2021, pp. 101350.

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Sun, Shufang, Nardi, William, Loucks, Eric B., Operario, Don. "Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Sexual and Gender Minorities: a Systematic Review and Evidence Evaluation." Mindfulness, vol. 12, no. 10, 2021, pp. 2439-2459.

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Sun, Shufang, Yang, Cui, Zaller, Nickolas, Zhang, Zhihua, Zhang, Hongbo, Operario, Don. "PrEP Willingness and Adherence Self-Efficacy Among Men Who have Sex with Men with Recent Condomless Anal Sex in Urban China." AIDS and Behavior, 2021.

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Sun, Shufang, Goldberg, Simon B., Lin, Danhua, Qiao, Shan, Operario, Don. "Psychiatric symptoms, risk, and protective factors among university students in quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic in China." Globalization and Health, vol. 17, no. 1, 2021.

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Goldberg, Simon B., Riordan, Kevin M., Sun, Shufang, Davidson, Richard J. "The Empirical Status of Mindfulness-Based Interventions: A Systematic Review of 44 Meta-Analyses of Randomized Controlled Trials." Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2021, pp. 174569162096877.

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Arnold, Trisha, G. Rogers, Brooke, L. Norris, Alyssa, Schierberl Scherr, Anna, Haubrick, Kayla, E. Renna, Megan, Sun, Shufang, M. Danforth, Margaret, T. Chu, Christina, S. Silva, Elizabeth, Whiteley, Laura B., Pinkston, Megan. "A brief transdiagnostic pandemic mental health maintenance intervention." Counselling Psychology Quarterly, vol. 34, no. 3-4, 2020, pp. 331-351.

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Sun, Shufang, Pachankis, John E., Li, Xiaoming, Operario, Don. "Addressing Minority Stress and Mental Health among Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) in China." Current HIV/AIDS Reports, vol. 17, no. 1, 2020, pp. 35-62.

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Sun, Shufang, Farber, Eugene W. "An intersectionality-informed psychotherapy approach to reduce HIV stigma." Psychotherapy, vol. 57, no. 1, 2020, pp. 23-28.

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Sun S, Hou J, Chen Y, Lu Y, Brown L, Operario D. "Challenges to HIV Care and Psychological Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among People Living with HIV in China." AIDS and Behavior, vol. 24, no. 10, 2020, pp. 2764-2765.

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Qiao, Shan, Yang, Xueying, Sun, Shufang, Li, Xiaoming, Mi, Tianyue, Zhou, Yuejiao, Shen, Zhiyong. "Challenges to HIV service delivery and the impacts on patient care during COVID-19: perspective of HIV care providers in Guangxi, China." AIDS Care, vol. 33, no. 5, 2020, pp. 559-565.

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Pickover, Alison M., Allbaugh, Lucy J., Sun, Shufang, Casimir, Michelle T., Graves, Chanda C., Wood, Keith A., Ammirati, Rachel, Cattie, Jordan E., Lamis, Dorian A., Kaslow, Nadine J. "Ecological framework for social justice advocacy by behavioral health professionals in public healthcare." Psychological Services, vol. 17, no. S1, 2020, pp. 5-11.

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Goldberg, Simon B., Riordan, Kevin M., Sun, Shufang, Kearney, David J., Simpson, Tracy L. "Efficacy and acceptability of mindfulness-based interventions for military veterans: A systematic review and meta-analysis." Journal of Psychosomatic Research, vol. 138, 2020, pp. 110232.

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Mi, Tianyue, Yang, Xueying, Sun, Shufang, Li, Xiaoming, Tam, Cheuk Chi, Zhou, Yuejiao, Shen, Zhiyong. "Mental Health Problems of HIV Healthcare Providers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Interactive Effects of Stressors and Coping." AIDS and Behavior, vol. 25, no. 1, 2020, pp. 18-27.

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Sun, Shufang, Budge, Stephanie, Shen, Wenxuan, Xu, Ge, Liu, Muqing, Feng, Siqi. "Minority stress and health: A grounded theory exploration among men who have sex with men in China and implications for health research and interventions." Social Science & Medicine, vol. 252, 2020, pp. 112917.

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Sun, Shufang, Lin, Danhua, Operario, Don. "Need for a population health approach to understand and address psychosocial consequences of COVID-19." Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, vol. 12, no. S1, 2020, pp. S25-S27.

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Sun, Shufang, Crooks, Natasha, DiClemente, Ralph J., Sales, Jessica M. "Perceived neighborhood violence and crime, emotion regulation, and PTSD symptoms among justice-involved, urban African-American adolescent girls." Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, vol. 12, no. 6, 2020, pp. 593-598.

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Tam, Cheuk Chi, Sun, Shufang, Yang, Xueying, Li, Xiaoming, Zhou, Yuejiao, Shen, Zhiyong. "Psychological Distress Among HIV Healthcare Providers During the COVID-19 Pandemic in China: Mediating Roles of Institutional Support and Resilience." AIDS and Behavior, vol. 25, no. 1, 2020, pp. 9-17.

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Roane, Sarah J., Kapoor, Shweta, Sun, Shufang, Cramer, Robert J., Lamis, Dorian A. "The interactive effect of the serotonin transporter genotype and drug use on suicidal behaviors in patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder." Journal of Affective Disorders, vol. 262, 2020, pp. 49-54.

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Sun, Shufang, Pickover, Alison M., Goldberg, Simon B., Bhimji, Jabeene, Nguyen, Julie K., Evans, Anna E., Patterson, Bobbi, Kaslow, Nadine J. "For Whom Does Cognitively Based Compassion Training (CBCT) Work? An Analysis of Predictors and Moderators among African American Suicide Attempters." Mindfulness, vol. 10, no. 11, 2019, pp. 2327-2340.

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Sun, Shufang, Whiteley, Laura, Brown, Larry K. "HIV Testing Among Chinese Men Who Have Sex with Men: The Roles of HIV Knowledge, Online Social Life, and Sexual Identity Concerns." AIDS and Behavior, vol. 24, no. 2, 2019, pp. 437-449.

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Sun, Shufang, Hoyt, William T., Pachankis, John E. "Sexual risk behaviors in the internet age: the case of Chinese men who have sex with men." AIDS Care, vol. 32, no. 3, 2019, pp. 302-309.

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Pickover, Alison M., Bhimji, Jabeene, Sun, Shufang, Evans, Anna, Allbaugh, Lucy J., Dunn, Sarah E., Kaslow, Nadine J. "Neighborhood Disorder, Social Support, and Outcomes Among Violence-Exposed African American Women." Journal of Interpersonal Violence, vol. 36, no. 7-8, 2018, pp. NP3716-NP3737.

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Sun, Shufang, Crooks, Natasha, Kemnitz, Rebecca, Westergaard, Ryan P. "Re-entry experiences of Black men living with HIV/AIDS after release from prison: Intersectionality and implications for care." Social Science & Medicine, vol. 211, 2018, pp. 78-86.

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Sun, Shufang, Hoyt, William T., Brockberg, Dustin, Lam, Jaime, Tiwari, Dhriti. "Acculturation and enculturation as predictors of psychological help-seeking attitudes (HSAs) among racial and ethnic minorities: A meta-analytic investigation." Journal of Counseling Psychology, vol. 63, no. 6, 2016, pp. 617-632.

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Sun, Shufang, Hoyt, William T., Zhao, Jingbo. "Do received stereotypes about Asian clients apply to Chinese young adults? A survey of counselors in Chinese universities." Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, vol. 47, no. 1, 2016, pp. 38-45.

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Research

Research Overview

Dr. Sun's research focuses on:

(1) understanding stigma and mental health among marginalized populations including LGBTQ individuals

(2) minority health promotion, disease prevention and management through innovative, evidence-based methods including mHealth and mindfulness-based interventions.

Dr. Sun's work concerns marginalized communities both in the United States and globally. Her research with sexual minority men in China has focused on achieving a culturally responsive understanding of minority stress and addressing mental and sexual health risks through culturally-adapted mHealth methods. Her NIH-funded K23 career development award aims to develop an internet-delivered, mindfulness-based intervention as an HIV prevention strategy to engage young sexual minority men and promote sexual and mental health. She is also a co-investigator on several NIH-funded R awards focusing on (1) stigma reduction, mental health promotion and HIV prevention in various global regions (China, Philippines) among key populations (gay and bisexual men, transgender women) and (2) understanding biological mechanisms (epigenetics, inflammatory biomarkers) through which mindfulness training may be capable of remediating stress.

Dr. Sun's research primarily employs (a) mixed methods research to develop behavioral health interventions, (b) clinical trials methdology to examine feasibility and efficacy and (c) systematic review and meta-analysis methodology for evidence synthesis.

Funded Research

Current Research Funding:

1. Advancing resources for systematic reviews and meta-analyses of complementary and integrative health interventions

Role: Principal Investigator (Contact MPI)

Type: R24 (AT012845)

Sponsor: NCCIH/NIH

Grant aims to create an open-access data repository of mindfulness and integrative health randomized controlled trials for evidence synthesis with input from key stakeholders, along with pilot awards and educational resources for scientists in the field.

Period: 04/2024 –03/2029

Total amount: $3,036,691

2. Addressing the public mental health crisis among displaced Ukrainians

Role: Principal Investigator

Type: Brown-Ukraine Public Health Exchange Endowment Fund

Sponsor: Brown University School of Public Health

Grant aims to foster collaborative relationships with local investigators and organizations at Ukraine to understand and address the mental health needs of displaced Ukrainians affected by the Russian invasion, with an emphasis of developing mindfulness interventions responsive to experiences of war, violence, grief, and displacement. Two pilot projects are ongoing, including (a) developing mindfulness program for displaced adolescents in Germany; and (b) addressing the needs of internally displaced adult patients on MOUD treatment in methadone clinics within Ukraine.

Total amount: $50,000

3. Engaging youth, caregivers, and teachers for suicide prevention: Developing and implementing a multi-level intervention in rural China

Role: Principal Investigator (Contact MPI)

Type: R34 (MH136243)

Sponsor: NIMH/NIH

Grant aims to develop and pilot test a stigma-reduction focused, school-to-family based suicide prevention program including mindfulness and other socioemotional learning through community-engaged research and engaging adolescents, caregivers, and teachers in rural China, where suicide has been the #1 leading cause of death among young people.

Period: 07/2024 – 06/2027

Total amount: $621,655

4. Engaging Chinese transgender women in HIV prevention and health promotion through a stigma-reduction intervention: A pilot study

Role: Principal Investigator (Contact MPI)

Type: R01 (TW012677)

Sponsor: Fogarty International Center/NIH

Grant aims to develop and test a mobile-health based, stigma reduction and acceptance focused, peer-delivered gender affirmation intervention for Chinese transgender/transfeminine women and engage them in HIV prevention via promoting mental and sexual health. This research will evaluate gender affirmative care as an HIV prevention strategy for transgender women in the region.

Period: 08/2024 – 07/2027

Total amount: $597,938

5. Developing internet-delivered, mindfulness-based intervention to reduce HIV risk and promote mental and sexual health among young adult MSM

Role: Principal Investigator

Type: K23 (AT011173)

Sponsor: NIH/National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)

PI on a research project for five years to systematically adapt Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) both in content (targeting minority stress) and delivery (e-health) as a novel HIV strategy targeting bio-psychosocial outcomes among young adult sexual minority men, followed by a feasibility RCT trial.

Period: 09/2020 – 09/2025

Total amount: $841,850

6. Developing internet-delivered, mindfulness-based intervention to reduce HIV risk and promote mental and sexual health among young adult MSM

Role: Principal Investigator

Type: Administrative Supplement Award (3K23AT011173-03S1)

Sponsor: The NIH Office of Disease Prevention (ODP)

This administrative supplement has the goal of advancing HIV prevention intervention with populations that experience health disparities, specifically by incorporating STI self-testing into existing protocol and recruiting additional participants who are Black/Latino young adult sexual minority men to the randomized controlled trial.

Period: 01/01/2023 – 12/31/2025

Total amount: $168,370

7. HIV risk reduction intervention for trans women with intimate partner victimization

Role: Principal Investigator (Contact MPI)

Type: R34 (MH119968)

Sponsor: NIH/National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

This project aims to develop and pilot test a primary HIV prevention intervention to address the interconnected risks of HIV and intimate partner victimization among transgender women.

Period: 06/2022 – 05/2024

Total amount: $488,804

8. Developing and testing an internet-based mindfulness intervention for women diagnosed with gestational diabetes mellitus

Role: Principal Investigator

Type: Varela Research Grant

Sponsor: Mind & Life Institute

This project aims to develop and test a tailored, mindfulness-based intervention to improve emotional well-being, glycemic regulation, and maternal and fetal health outcomes among women with gestational diabetes.

Period: 01/2022 – 09/2025

Total amount: $20,000

9. Mindfulness-based stress reduction: An implementation science-informed systematic review and meta-analysis

Role: co-Investigator (PI: Loucks)

Type: R01 (R01AT011745)

Sponsor: NIH/National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)

This project aims to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effectiveness of MBSR on a range of health-related outcomes in order to fill gaps in evidence syntheses that are essential for policy decision making related to MBSR in various medical and non-medical settings across populations.

Period: 06/2022 – 05/2027

Total amount: $2,876,905

10. Stigma reduction and gender affirmation to promote HIV prevention/testing in trans women

Role: co-Investigator (PI: Operario)

Type: R21 (TW012010)

Sponsor: NIH/National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

This project aims to develop and test a gender-affirmative HIV prevention intervention to promote HIV self-testing, linkage to HIV prevention and care services, behavioral risk reduction, and service engagement among transgender women in the Philippines.

Period: 08/2021 – 07/2024

Total amount: $372,584

11. Promoting HIV testing among Chinese MSM via app-based mobile health

Role: co-Investigator (PI: Operario)

Type: R01 (MH123352)

Sponsor: NIH/National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

The major goal of this project is to improve the science and implementation of app-based mobile health approaches to optimize HIV testing and linkage to care as part of a single intervention continuum with MSM in China.

Period: 04/15/2020 – 04/15/2025

Total amount: $2,851,955

Background

Education and Training

Year	Degree	Institution
2018	PhD	University of Wisconsin at Madison

Honors and Awards

The Barbara Smith & Jewell E. Horvat Early Career Award for Research on LGBTQ Individuals of Color, American Psychological Association, Div 45 (Society for the Study of Race, Culture, and Ethnicity), in recognition of significant contributions to student mentoring and research, 2024

Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research Collaboration, Brown School of Public Health, 2023

Affiliations Visualize it

Collaborators

Name	Title
Brewer, Judson	Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior
Brown, Larry	Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior
Loucks, Eric	Professor of Epidemiology, Associate Professor of Medicine, Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences
Operario, Don	Adjunct Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences
Zelaya, David	Assistant Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Interim Director of the Doctoral Program in Behavioral and Social Health Sciences

Affiliations

Mindfulness Center at Brown University School of Public Health

International Health Institute, Brown University School of Public Health

Credentials/Licenses

Psychologist

Researchers@Brown

Researchers@Brown

Shufang Sun

Assistant Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Associate Director of the Mindfulness Center

Overview

Brown Affiliations

Research Areas

On the Web

Publications Visualize it

Research

Research Overview

Funded Research

Background

Education and Training

Honors and Awards

Affiliations Visualize it

Collaborators

Affiliations

Credentials/Licenses

Teaching