About Our Research

The Development and Psychometric Validation of the Partner Investment in Health and Physical Activity Scales. The goal of this research was to assess the psychometric properties of the Partner Investment in Health Scale (PI-H) and the Partner Investment in Physical Activity Scale (PI-A), which were developed to assess the degree to which partners in a couple are invested in one another’s health and wellbeing. Specifically, we examined the reliability and validity of the measure, as well as the measures' relationships with related constructs like social support, social control, and relationship satisfaction. Data was collected...Read more »

The goal of this research is to understand how pregnant women and their partners affect each others' physical activity throughout pregnancy and birth of their first child. The primary aims are to assess whether partners are concordant on changes in physical activity, 2) whether partners are concordant on measures of relationship quality, satisfaction, communication, investment, and support, 3) whether there are interaction effects between changes in physical activity and relationship indicators between partners, and 4) whether changes in physical activity and relationship indicators predict postpartum physical and mental healthRead more »

The transition to parenthood - marked by becoming parents for the first time - is a life transition during which couples' psychological and physical health are impacted and enduring behavioral patterns are established, in addition to changes in relationship functioning. Although the literature based on same-sex couples' mental health and related psychosocial factors during the transition to parenthood is growing, existing research has often neglected same-sex couples, particularly regarding health and health-related behaviors. It is important for research in this area to include same-sex couples, who face unique stressors and already experience disparities in health behaviors and outcomes. This retrospective...Read more »

Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Understanding how one’s social environment affects smoking behavior is key to designing successful smoking cessation interventions. Members of dual-smoker couples (i.e., couples in which both partners smoke) have a harder time quitting smoking than individuals who are not in a relationship with a smoker. The goal of this research is to better understand the relationship dynamics in dual-smoker couples during a quit attempt.Read more »

Through the use of online surveys, engaged couples reported on their own and their partners health behaviors. They also reported on their relationship, other health outcomes, and their goals and plans for health behaviors following marriage. We have presented findings from this study at several conferences and are currently preparing manuscripts for publication.Read more »

Physical activity is associated with improved health outcomes for cancer survivors, cancer caregivers, and romantic couples, yet few exercise interventions have aimed to simultaneously promote exercise within cancer-caregiver dyads. This research explored whether cancer survivors and their romantic partners are receptive to the idea of a couples-based exercise program, and it tested several predictors of survivors’ and partners’ reported interest in and importance and likelihood of couples-based exercise. Further, it examined if cancer-specific exercise education influenced survivors’ and partners’ exercise knowledge, outcomeRead more »

Our physical activity intervention with participants diagnosed with Type II diabetes and their partners has finished data collection. Jennalee Wooldridge, the study's primary investigator, successfully defended her dissertation based on the study, and manuscript preparation based on this work has recently been published. In this study we tested a collaborative planning manipulation with couples and found support for having couples discuss specific ways they could be more active. Thank you to all participants who completed multiple online surveys and wore accelerometers to provide really useful data around physical activityRead more »