Assistant Professor, Psychology
Faculty Affiliate, Center for Aging and Policy Studies
CAPS Biography:
My research program aims to identify sources of risk and resilience for dementia family caregivers’ health and well–being. In my doctoral dissertation, I measured the emotional quality of dementia caregiving relationships through behavioral coding and text analysis and tested concurrent and longitudinal associations between these measures and dementia caregivers’ health and well–being. I found that the caregivers’ positive emotional language emerged as a resilience factor and buffered against longitudinal increases in depression. This work was supported by an F31 predoctoral fellowship from the National Institute on Aging. As an affiliate of the NIA-funded Center for Aging and Policy Studies (CAPS), I was awarded a CAPS pilot grant to build upon this line of inquiry into the socioemotional mechanisms that influence caregivers’ health trajectories. That project, which is supporting my growth as an Early–Stage Investigator (ESI), will generate rich narratives from current and former caregivers regarding their subjective impressions of the care relationship. This work fits into both of CAPS signature themes, health and well-being and family and intergenerational supports, as well as the cross-cutting theme of specific populations. The long-term goal of this foundational research is to translate the knowledge gained to a broader population-level audience by engaging people with lived experience, and ultimately, developing treatments and policy recommendation to support family caregivers of people with dementia.
