Category: Faculty Partner Research

Ximena Arriaga – Our closest relationships may influence not only how we feel, but who we become. This study examines whether romantic partners can support personal growth by affirming each other’s ideal selves. The findings link partner affirmation with relationship quality, life satisfaction and lower depression, with attachment security strengthening this pathway.

Susan South – What makes some relationships easier to return to than others? Purdue faculty expertise on attachment and relationships helps illuminate how trust and security can shape our closest connections. The conversation offers insight into why supportive relationships can provide a sense of acceptance, connection and freedom to show up as ourselves.

Sooyeon Jeong – Understanding a relationship requires more than recognizing individual behaviors. Researchers examine whether AI systems can make sense of what happens between interaction partners, testing their ability to recognize social cues, errors and patterns in human-robot conversations. The work highlights challenges in teaching AI to interpret the complex dynamics of social interaction.

Kim Updegraff – What happens when a younger child faces a conflict with a peer and an older sibling gets involved? Interviews with Black sibling pairs show that older siblings are often consulted and their advice can strongly influence younger siblings’ choices. The findings suggest sibling relationships could offer a new pathway for violence prevention.

Ellen Ernst Kossek – Sending reminders, coordinating schedules, managing devices and helping relatives navigate technology can all become part of family life. This research examines these often-unrecognized responsibilities as family digital labor, showing how technology can both empower and add pressure to families while taking different forms across social, cultural and economic contexts.

Sharon Christ – Why do some preschoolers pick up new words more easily than others? Researchers examined individual differences in word learning among children with and without developmental language disorder. The findings point to age and nonword repetition ability as important factors and suggest retrieval practice may help reduce learning disadvantages for some children.

Kimberly Updegraff – Sibling relationships are often a child’s first lessons in closeness and conflict, shaped deeply by family life. A new study followed Latino/a sibling pairs and their caregivers over time to explore how these bonds shift across middle childhood and into early adolescence. The findings show how parents’ warmth and conflict ripple into sibling relationships, with notable differences by gender and family immigration background. This research supports culturally responsive approaches to strengthening family life in Latino communities.

Annabelle Atkin – Identity is rarely just one thing, and for Multiracial teens, that complexity shapes how they feel about themselves and the world. A new study looks at how belonging, to a minoritized identity, a White identity, or a Multiracial identity, connects to mental health for Latina/o-White and Black-White adolescents. Teens who felt strongly connected to their minoritized identity tended to report less depression and fewer suicidal thoughts. Feeling multiracial offered some protection against depression too, though the picture varied by race and gender. The findings remind us that supporting Multiracial youth means paying attention to the many threads that make up who they are.

Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth – When a parent deploys, the whole family feels it. A new systematic review of 40 studies looks at what happens to children when their military parents, deployed or at home, struggle with their own mental health. The pattern is clear: when parents face PTSD, depression, or anxiety during deployment, kids are more likely to struggle too, socially, emotionally, and at school. The findings make a case for supporting military families at every stage of deployment, not just the service member, but the caregiver at home and the children navigating it all. Helping parents heal helps kids thrive.

Zoe Taylor – For Latino/a migrant farmworker families, home isn’t always a fixed place. Frequent moves for seasonal work can challenge young people’s sense of belonging, yet many find ways to hold onto hope along the way. A new study interviewed 24 migrant farmworker youth ages 10 to 18 about how they define home and cope with constant relocation. While the toll of moving was clear, many also described an optimistic outlook that kept them future-focused. The findings point to the power of strengths-based approaches in supporting these youths’ well-being.