2025 Research Prize – Hirokazu Yoshikawa 

Hirokazu Yoshikawa is a visionary researcher and community and developmental psychologist whose dedication and impact have earned him this year’s Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize.  

As the Courtney Sale Ross Professor of Globalization and Education at New York University’s Steinhardt School, Yoshikawa serves as a core faculty member in Applied Psychology and co-founded the Global TIES for Children Center. He played a key role in embedding Early Childhood Development (ECD) into the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

Benefits of early parenting and educational experiences 

The focus on the early years has been central to Yoshikawa’s work throughout his career. One of his key areas of research focuses on the mechanisms by which early childhood investments reduce delinquency and crime over the long term. In 1994¹, he published a seminal article on how early family and educational experiences shape later outcomes. He proposed that combined parenting support and early education contribute to cumulatively protect children from behavioral problems and delinquency. In later work, he evaluated preschool programs on a large scale and introduced innovative approaches that linked child development services with improvements in parents’ work conditions. More recently, through his role as co-chair of the ECD and Education Thematic Network of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, he contributed to crucial translations of research into policy recommendations, emphasizing ECD’s role in equity and long-term development, directly informing SDG 4.2, the early childhood development target in the Sustainable Development Goal for lifelong learning.² 

Yoshikawa has also led research for one of the largest and most ambitious early childhood interventions worldwide—a partnership between Sesame Workshop and the International Rescue Committee (IRC). The Ahlan Simim initiative delivers culturally grounded early childhood programs, including a Levant-region version of Sesame Street in Arabic, to young children in conflict-affected countries such as Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq. The project supports children’s development in language, literacy, numeracy, and social-emotional learning, offering scalable, evidence-based models for reaching displaced and vulnerable children in some of the world’s most challenging contexts.³  

In another humanitarian setting, his work in partnership with Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh—home to one of the world’s largest refugee populations—demonstrates a similarly deep commitment to early childhood development in crisis contexts. Aware of the challenges posed by displacement and trauma, he and his team used participatory methods, including interviews, ethnography, focus groups, as well as surveys and direct child assessments, to engage directly with Rohingya families. These methods helped uncover locally relevant insights to guide improvements in early childhood programs and the design of child-friendly spaces in refugee camps, ensuring interventions were responsive to the community’s needs.⁴ 

Voices of immigrant parents and young children in public and policy debates 

A defining thread in Yoshikawa’s work has been his longstanding commitment to advancing the well-being of children in immigrant families, particularly those impacted by the undocumented status of parents. Through his influential book, Immigrants Raising Citizens (2011)⁵, he demonstrated for the first time how parents’ undocumented status can shape children’s developmental potential from birth—an issue affecting a quarter of children of immigrants in the U.S. This research brought national attention to the developmental consequences of immigration policy, informing legal arguments in Supreme Court⁶ briefs and contributing to major policy efforts⁷ aimed at protecting undocumented parents and their children. Yoshikawa continues to play a leading role in this field as a trusted expert contributing to national policy briefs and legal cases. His work consistently centers the voices and lived realities of immigrant families, ensuring that developmental science informs public debate and policy during periods of heightened vulnerability. 

Commitment to the next generation as a lifelong mindset 

In his work, Yoshikawa uniquely combines a wide range of quantitative and qualitative research with hands-on, practical experience. Yoshikawa is committed to conducting research in close collaboration with communities, often working directly in the field to understand local realities. He partners with scholars and practitioners in the Global South, supporting locally grounded approaches and ensuring that diverse perspectives shape both the research process and its outcomes. 

Yoshikawa’s commitment to mentorship is rooted in long-term, reciprocal collaboration with scholars from Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East. He views mentorship not as a one-way transfer of knowledge, but as a shared process that strengthens the quality and relevance of research. This approach has resulted in work that is deeply informed by regional expertise and lived experience, thus helping to amplify voices that remain underrepresented in global academic and policy spaces. 

Future work on humanitarian and refugee contexts 

Building on this foundational research, Yoshikawa will use the award funds to continue and intensify his work supporting the development of young children in humanitarian and refugee contexts across low- and middle-income countries. These insights will guide the design of targeted interventions aimed at strengthening family caregiving, enhancing physical environments, and promoting healthy early childhood development in these vulnerable settings. 

Across his career, Hirokazu Yoshikawa has shown how rigorous science, when rooted in lived experience and community engagement, can drive meaningful, lasting change for children and families. His work continues to redefine what’s possible in child development research, policy, and practice on a global scale. 

Footnotes

1. Yoshikawa, H. (1994). Prevention as cumulative protection: Effects of early family support and education on adolescent problem behaviors. Psychological Bulletin, 115(1), 28–54. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.115.1.28  
2. Yoshikawa, H., Raikes, A., & Wuermli, A. (2017, June). Measurement options for development of Sustainable Development Goal Indicator 4.2.1 (Memo, Global Alliance to Monitor Learning, Taskforce on Target 4.2). UNESCO Institute for Statistics  
3. New York University Abu Dhabi. (2018, April 12). Global TIES for Children leads research for a $100 million grant to promote learning and development of young refugee children in the Middle East [Press release]. NYU Abu Dhabi. https://nyuad.nyu.edu/en/news/latest-news/world-and-societies/2018/april/100-million-research-grant-global-ties-for-children.html 
4. Iqbal, Y., Sunny, S., Alif, A., Yoshikawa, H., & Shorna, M. A. (2022). Family socialization and experiences of early childhood programs in the Rohingya camps: Study protocol. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 21(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069211062419  
5. Yoshikawa, H. (2011). Immigrants raising citizens: Undocumented parents and their young children. Russell Sage Foundation 
6. Empirical Scholars. (2019). Amicus brief of empirical scholars in support of respondents. U.S. Supreme Court. https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/18/18-587/118236/20191004172647483_18-587%20Amicus%20Brief%20of%20Empirical%20Scholars%20in%20Support%20of%20Respondents.pdf 
7. Harvard Graduate School of Education. (2011, November 3). Yoshikawa briefs Capitol Hill on challenges in Immigrants Raising Citizens. https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/news/11/03/yoshikawa-briefs-capitol-hill-challenges-immigrants-raising-citizens