As a family gerontologist my research program has a translation focus aimed at enhancing the lives of older adults and their families. There are two intersecting themes in my work—caregiving families and coupling in later life.
As a founding member of the Lab for Caregiving Innovation and co-investigator with the Hospice Caregiving Research Network, I collaborate with an interdisciplinary team of researchers to rigorously test interventions aimed at improving the wellbeing of caregiving families within the context of palliative and hospice care. This work is conducted using multiple methods; combining repeated survey measures, interviewing, and focus groups.
Current projects include an NCI-funded clinical trial to evaluate the effect of shared decision-making and online social support groups for hospice family caregivers caring for patients living with cancer; an NIA-funded clinical trial to evaluate the effect of an online, narrative intervention for hospice family caregivers of persons living with Alzheimer's Disease and other dementias; and a pilot study investigating the role of peers in online social support groups for hospice family caregivers of cancer patients.
In my Love after 60 Lab, I am specifically interested in conducting relationship research that explicates the process of coupling in later life and transforms our understanding of the role that intimacy plays in healthy aging for individuals and families. I pursue this work primarily through the lens of the life course framework and my modal approach to data collection and analysis involves interviewing and inductive qualitative analysis, and more recently, intensive longitudinal methods (daily diary studies).
Current projects include a qualitative study broadly investigating the experience of divorce in later life, a daily diary study about the health and relationship quality of older living-apart-together (LAT) and cohabiting couples, and a qualitative study investigating the caregiving experiences of older adults in LAT relationships.
As a founding member of the Lab for Caregiving Innovation and co-investigator with the Hospice Caregiving Research Network, I collaborate with an interdisciplinary team of researchers to rigorously test interventions aimed at improving the wellbeing of caregiving families within the context of palliative and hospice care. This work is conducted using multiple methods; combining repeated survey measures, interviewing, and focus groups.
Current projects include an NCI-funded clinical trial to evaluate the effect of shared decision-making and online social support groups for hospice family caregivers caring for patients living with cancer; an NIA-funded clinical trial to evaluate the effect of an online, narrative intervention for hospice family caregivers of persons living with Alzheimer's Disease and other dementias; and a pilot study investigating the role of peers in online social support groups for hospice family caregivers of cancer patients.
In my Love after 60 Lab, I am specifically interested in conducting relationship research that explicates the process of coupling in later life and transforms our understanding of the role that intimacy plays in healthy aging for individuals and families. I pursue this work primarily through the lens of the life course framework and my modal approach to data collection and analysis involves interviewing and inductive qualitative analysis, and more recently, intensive longitudinal methods (daily diary studies).
Current projects include a qualitative study broadly investigating the experience of divorce in later life, a daily diary study about the health and relationship quality of older living-apart-together (LAT) and cohabiting couples, and a qualitative study investigating the caregiving experiences of older adults in LAT relationships.
RESEARCH LABS
