Lee has interests in child maltreatment, discipline, school bullying behaviors, and child and adolescent psychosocial and risk behaviors. She has written extensively about child development and bullying and has been published in multiple academic journals, including the Journal of Interpersonal Violence and Children and Youth Services Review. Lee is currently conducting a seven-year longitudinal study sponsored by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development that investigates the child and adolescent development in European, African, and Hispanic American mother-child dyads. Lee has a PhD from Brandeis University.