Profile picture for Jia Yan

Contact Information

4070/4071 Lincoln Hall, MC-456
702 South Wright Street
Urbana IL 61801

Office Hours

Fall 2025: Wednesdays 2-4pm
PhD Candidate
Graduate Teaching Assistant

Biography

I study how communication in interpersonal relationships promotes mental and physical well-being. My research primarily focuses on support-seeking communication in health-related contexts, especially when individuals face identity threats associated with their health conditions. I also examine how health recommendations influence people’s cognitive appraisals and behavioral intentions.

Research Interests

Interpersonal Communication, Health Communication, Supportive Communication, Quantitative Methods

Education

B.A., Communication and Psychology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

M.A., Communication, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Awards and Honors

Marion Morse Wood Fellowship (2024-2025)

Courses Taught

CMN101: Public Speaking

CMN102: Introduction to Communication

CMN230: Introduction to Interpersonal Communication

CMN336: Family Communication

Recent Publications

Yan, J., Wilson, S. R., & Liao, D. (2025). Imagine your immune system is a sports team: Language expectancies in the use of physician analogies and jargon. Patient Education & Counseling. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2025.108810

Yan, J., & Bigsby, E. (2025). Explicating college students’ COVID-19 prevention behaviors: Integrating information seeking and response efficacy into the reasoned action approach. Journal of American College Healthhttps://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2025.2451978

Quick, B. L., Caban, S., Chung, M., & Yan, J. (2025). Introducing Health Communication Science to Mental Health Researchers: An Examination of Information Seeking, Processing, and Dissemination Frameworks. In Yzer, M. & Siegel, J. (Eds.), The Handbook of Mental Health Communication, Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781394179909

Thompson, C. M., Bishop, M. J., Dillard, T. C., Maurice, J. M., Rollins, D. D., Pulido, M. D., Salas, M. J., Mendelson, E. A., Yan, J., Gerlikovski, E. R., Benevento, S. V., Zeinstra, C., & Kesavadas, T. (2025). Healing health care disparities: A pilot test of a virtual reality implicit bias training module for physicians in the context of Black maternal health. Health Communicationhttps://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2024.2347000

Liao, D., Yan, J., & Wilson, S. R. (2023). How does physician (non)accommodation affect patient behavioral intention? Using a web-based experiment to examine indirect effects of language type on behavioral intention through goal inferences and source appraisals. Journal of Health Communication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2023.2237435