* denotes corresponding author. Papers are listed in reverse chronological order.

Published (Peer Review)#

  1. Lu, Zékai (Zachary). 2026. ‘Bayesian Ising Model Network Analysis of Adversity Exposure, Health-Risk Behaviors, and Psychological Distress among US Transgender and Gender Diverse Adolescents.’ International Journal of Transgender Health 1–23. doi:10.1080/26895269.2026.2682505

  2. Lu, Zékai (Zachary). 2026. ‘The Topology of Adversities: Mapping the Space of Adverse Childhood Experiences, Social Positions, and Risk Behaviors/Health Outcomes among US Adolescents.’ Social Science & Medicine 119429. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2026.119429

  3. Lu, Zékai (Zachary), Zelin Liu, Nan Jiang, and Danhua Lin. 2026. ‘The Social Stratification of Slumber: Disentangling the Intersectional Effects of Heterogeneous Adverse Childhood Experiences on Sleep Deprivation in US Children and Adolescents.’ Social Science & Medicine 403:119400. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2026.119400

  4. Lu, Zékai (Zachary), Yanshu Niu, and Yuan Yao. 2026. ‘The Multilevel Meta-Analysis of the Association Between Child Maltreatment and Problematic Technology Use: Heterogeneity Across Different Subtypes and Moderating Factors.’ Developmental Review 80:101264. doi:10.1016/j.dr.2026.101264

  5. Lu, Zékai (Zachary). 2026. ‘Multiple Discrimination Experiences Patterns in the Asexual Adolescent and Youth Community: The Intersectionality of Outness and Gender Identity.’ Journal of Sex Research 1–17. doi:10.1080/00224499.2026.2656487

  6. Lu, Zékai (Zachary). 2026. ‘Disentangling the Developmental Cascades between Adolescent Maltreatment and Internalizing and Externalizing Problems: From Between-person Differences to Within-person Changes.’ Journal of Research on Adolescence 36(1):e70157. doi:10.1111/jora.70157

  7. Lu, Zékai (Zachary). 2025. ‘Mapping Adolescent Problematic Social Media Use Patterns across 41 Countries/Regions: A Multilevel Latent Class Analysis with Social Determinants.’ Addictive Behaviors 172:108523. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2025.108523

  8. Lu, Zékai (Zachary), Zelin Liu, and Danhua Lin*. 2025. ‘The Association of Relative Deprivation, Interpersonal Relationships, and Problematic Social Media Use in 39 Countries/Regions: Does School Contextual Inequality Matter?’ Journal of Behavioral Addictions. doi:10.1556/2006.2025.00091

  9. Lu, Zékai (Zachary), and Samuelle Fortin. 2025. ‘Sociocultural Determinants of Injury Risk among Indigenous Peoples in Canada: A Population-Based Study of Heterogeneous Effects.’ Injury Prevention. doi:10.1136/ip-2025-045849

  10. Lu, Zékai (Zachary). 2025. ‘Adverse Childhood Experiences and Disordered Eating Behaviors Among US Children: Untangling the Developmental Sex Differences.’ International Journal of Eating Disorders. doi:10.1002/eat.24555

  11. Lu, Zékai (Zachary). 2025. “Book Review of Disclosing Sexual Violence in a Digital Society: Storytelling, Activism, and Justice by Tully O’Neill.” Sexualities.

  12. Lu, Zékai (Zachary). 2025. “Excessive Digital Devices Use as an Intermediate Variable between Heterogeneous Adverse Childhood Experiences and Psychopathology in US Adolescents: A Latent Class Cross-Sectional Analysis.” European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. doi:10.1007/s00787-025-02777-8

  13. Bi, Kaiwen, Gabriel J. Merrin, Tianyu Li, Xianlin Sun, Yi Chai, Zekai Lu*, and Mark Shuquan Chen*. 2025. “Navigating Unmeasured Confounding in Nonexperimental Psychological Research: A Practical Guide to Computing and Interpreting E-Value.” Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science 8(2):25152459251326571. doi:10.1177/25152459251326571

  14. Lu, Zekai. 2025. “Public Concern of Child Maltreatment in China from 2011 to 2024 and Its Socioeconomic Determinants: An Infodemiology Analysis Using Baidu Index.” Child Abuse & Neglect 163:107352. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2025.107352

  15. Lu, Zekai*, Eran Shor, and Samuelle Fortin. 2025. “Ethnic Belonging and Chronic Disease in Indigenous Populations in Canada.” Preventive Medicine 192:108236. doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2025.108236

  16. Lu, Zekai*, Ge Tang, and Samuelle Fortin. 2024. ‘Explaining Child Maltreatment and Aggression among Chinese Drug User: The Mediating and Moderating Roles of Drug Craving and Impulsivity.’ Child Abuse & Neglect 154:106954. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2024.106954

  17. Lu, Zekai, Rongqin Yuan, Zelin Liu, and Hong Lu. 2024. ‘Exploring the Symptom Patterns of Depression and Anxiety among Teachers during COVID-19: A Latent Profile Analysis.’ Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. doi:10.1037/tra0001686

  18. Lu, Zekai, Chuyin Xie, Nian Liu, Ying Xie*, and Hong Lu*. 2022. “‘Can We Predict Aggression?’—Determining the Predictors of Aggression among Individuals with Substance Use Disorder in China Undergoing Enforced Detoxification through Machine Learning.” Journal of Affective Disorders. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2022.10.005

  19. Lu, Zekai, Lingxi Peng, Xuan Liu, Lizhi Zhan, Haohuai Liu, and Rong Hu*. 2022. “The Systematic Traceability and Analysis of COVID-19.” Journal of Nonlinear and Convex Analysis 23(10): 2383–93. Link

  20. Liu, Nian, Zekai Lu*, and Ying Xie. 2023. “Application of the R Package ProcessR to Implement Various Types of Intermediary Models.” China Health Statistics (Chinese, CSCD).

  21. Liu, Nian, Zekai Lu, and Ying Xie*. 2022. “Tracking Study on the Relapse and Aftercare Effect of Drug Patients Released From a Compulsory Isolated Detoxification Center.” Frontiers in Psychiatry 12:699074. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2021.699074

  22. Xu, Junhui, Zekai Lu, and Ying Xie*. 2021. “Loan Default Prediction of Chinese P2P Market: A Machine Learning Methodology.” Scientific Reports 11:18759. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-98361-6

  23. Liu, Nian, Zekai Lu, and Ying Xie*. 2021. “Factors Affecting the Public Acceptance of Extramarital Sex in China.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18(11):5767. doi:10.3390/ijerph18115767

  24. Lu, Zekai, and Ying Xie*. 2021. “A Study of Public Opinion Texts on the ‘Sino-US Diplomatic Storm’ in Microblogs: A Word Vector Sentiment Analysis Based on R Language.” Media Watch, no. 02: 54–61. doi:10.19480/j.cnki.cmgc.2021.02.007 (Chinese, CSSCI)

  25. Lu, Zekai, Yaya Wang, and Ying Xie*. 2021. “A Random Forest-Based Approach to Poverty Alleviation Identification.” China Market 2021:22–23+36. doi:10.13939/j.cnki.zgsc.2021.25.022

Under Review#

  1. Visible but Protected: Gender Nonconformity, Healthcare Stereotype Threat, and Psychological Distress Among LGB Adults. Submitted to Archives of Sexual Behavior

  2. The Hidden Second Patient: Partner Depressive Symptoms After Spousal Functional Loss in Chinese Older Couples. Submitted to Ageing and Society

  3. Generational Imprinting and the Persistence of Low Fertility Ideals: An Age-Period-Cohort Analysis of Ideal Number of Children in China. Under external review in Studies in Family Planning

  4. Co-Residence Reduces Depression but Not Physical Health Decline: Disentangling Causation from Selection on Health Trends in the Health and Retirement Study. Major R&R in Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences

  5. Mapping the Longitudinal Dynamics of Depressive Symptoms and Cognitive Function in Aging: Insights from Temporal Network Analysis. Under second round of external review in Aging & Mental Health (Sole Author)

  6. When Convergence Produces Divergence: Internet Use, Gendered Returns, and the Widening Gender Ideology Gap in China, 2012–2023. Under external review in Journal of Chinese Sociology (Sole Author)

  7. The Irreversibility of Harm: Asymmetric Effects of Child Maltreatment on Behavioral Problems. Major R&R in Child Abuse & Neglect (First Author)

  8. Racialized Transitions in Discrimination Experiences Across the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Latent Transition Analysis of Health Implications in Canada. Invited to submit to Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie

  9. From Social Problem to Clinical Risk: Computational Textual Evidence of How Adverse Childhood Experiences Discourse Reshapes the Child Welfare Knowledge Field. Major R&R in Trauma, Violence, & Abuse (First Author)

  10. Religious Freedom and Population Health: Cross-National Panel Evidence on Political Liberalization as the Mediating Pathway. Under external review in Journal of Religion and Health (First & Corresponding Author)

In Preparation#

  1. Faith Beyond the Congregation: Religion, Generalized Trust, and Subjective Wellbeing in Contemporary China

  2. How Well Does Combining Inverse Probability Weighting with the BCH Method Work for Causal Inference with Latent Class Exposures? A Monte Carlo Evaluation

  3. The Discordant Self: A Longitudinal Response Surface Analysis of Objective-Subjective Health Congruence and Well-being in Older Americans

  4. Religious Attendance and Multidimensional Health Among Older Americans: Bidirectional Within-Person Dynamics from a General Cross-Lagged Panel Analysis of the Health and Retirement Study, 2006–2020

  5. Do Living Arrangements Really Impact Health? Evidence From Fixed-Effects-With-Individual-Slopes Analysis of U.S. Older Adults

  6. Does Body Image Distortion Mediate the Link Between Adolescent Bullying and Depression in Early Adulthood? Evidence From a National Irish Cohort

  7. The Burden of Dual Belonging in a Settler-Colonial State: The Case of Indigenous Peoples in Canada. With my supervisor Eran Shor

  8. The Great Divergence: The Dynamic Evolution and Intersectional Formation of Sex Attitudes in Contemporary China. With my supervisor Eran Shor