Carnegie Mellon University

Studies

I have studied how people adjust to stress, most notably chronic illness for 30 years. The key feature of chronic illness is that it lasts, it is susceptible to recurrences, relapses, disease progression, and complications. My research focuses on how (1) social environmental variables, including communal coping, as well as relationships with family and friends for disease adjustment and (2) personality characteristics, specifically gender-related traits, influence psychological, behavioral, and physical health. More recently, we have extended our work on communal coping to the context of discrimination-based stressors. We ask how discrimination affects relationships and examine the potential consequences of communally coping with discrimination.

Current Studies

Diabetes Coping Study (DCS)

Friendship and Diabetes Study (TBH)