Congratulations to Dr. Williamson and former graduate student Megan (Schouweiler) Fischer on receiving the 2024 NCFR Reuben Hill Award for their article “Household Income Differentiates Quantity and Quality of Shared Spousal Time,” which was published in the Journal of Family Psychology. This award is presented in recognition of the outstanding article, book, or monograph published in the prior year that combines theory and methodology in the analysis and interpretation of a significant family issue.
Lab News
ABCT Conference presentations
Last week at the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies annual conference, graduate student Nick Chen presented part of his dissertation research, entitled “Characterizing Heterogeneous Treatment Effects of Couple Relationship Education: A Machine Learning Approach.” Additionally, Dr. Williamson participated in a panel discussion on “Extending Our Reach: Utilizing Clinical and Research Approaches to Bolster Community Engagement and Social Advocacy Among Underrepresented and Harder-to-reach Couples.”
We are recruiting undergrad students to participate in a new study
Welcoming new lab members
As the Fall 2024 semester kicks off, the Williamson Lab is excited to welcome two new lab members.
Jayda Branch is our new PhD student. She comes to us from the University of Houston where she earned a B.A. degree in Psychology.
Clare Thomas is our new postdoctoral scholar. She comes to us from the University of Georgia where she earned a PhD in Human Development and Family Science.
We are also saying good-bye to Eva Lopez, who has been a project manager in the lab for the past two years. Eva will be entering the Masters of Social Work program here at UT.
New paper in press in Journal of Family Psychology
Alongside collaborators at the University of Georgia and the University of Minnesota, the Williamson Lab has published the second in a series of articles examining the relationships of first-time Black mothers during the first 4 months postpartum. In this article, published in the Journal of Family Psychology, we explored patterns and predictors of relationship dissolution and relationship formation during the early postpartum period. We find that among mothers who were in a relationship at 1 week postpartum (N = 126), 20% of these relationships ended by Week 8 or 16. Mothers whose relationships ended reported lower relationship functioning at Week 1 than mothers whose relationships remained intact. Among mothers who were single at 1 week postpartum (N = 86), over 50% subsequently reported being in a relationship at Week 8 or 16. Mothers who started relationships reported lower overall social support at Week 1 relative to mothers who remained single. Together, these findings indicate that changes in relationship status during the early postpartum period were common and provide initial insights into factors characterizing mothers who experienced relationship transitions. Future work would benefit from considering changes in relationship status as well as other relational changes during the transition to parenthood to reflect a wider range of experiences among new parents.
Presentations at IARR
The Williamson lab will be well represented during the upcoming International Association for Relationship Research conference in Boston from July 5-8.
First, former Williamson lab post doctoral fellow Dr. Betul Urganci will be giving a talk on a collaborative project titled “Household Income Moderates Effects of Financial Strain on Relationship Quality Among African American Couples” on Sunday at 10:30am.
On Sunday afternoon at 2pm Dr. Williamson will be giving a talk about cultural biases in the study of couple communication during the Methodological Challenges in Relationship Science Symposium.
Dr. Inmaculada Valor-Segura will give a talk on collaborative research conducted during Dr. Williamson’s time as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Granada. This talk is titled “Can positive couple relationship functioning buffer against the effects of socioeconomic status on health and well-being?” and will be on Sunday at 3:30pm.
Finally, graduate student Nick Chen will be presenting his project, titled “Examining the Role of Supportive Equity in Marital Relationships in Later Life” on Monday at 9am.
In addition, incoming PhD student Jayda Branch will be presenting her undergraduate research from the University of Houston, entitled “Examining Anxious Attachment as a Moderator between Emotional Jealousy and Psychological Abuse” during the Sunday morning poster session at 8am.
New paper in press at Journal of Social and Personal Relationships
Graduate student Nick Chen has a new first-authored publication in press at the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. In this article we, along with collaborator Dr. Phakkanun Chittham of the Faculty of Psychology at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, examined whether there are cross-cultural differences in the process of transformation of motivation in close relationships. Transformation of motivation occurs when one must suppress their instinct to behave in a self-focused manner in order to engage in behavior that is beneficial for their relationship. Across two studies, we found no overall differences in the extent to which U.S. and Thai individuals engage in the process of transformation of motivation, but there were cross-cultural differences in the types of pro-relationship behaviors that people from these two countries chose to engage in.
Grant awarded to support international research
The Williamson Lab was recently awarded a $10,000 grant from Texas Global to support an international research project in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Granada. We will use the funds to conduct a cross-national study in the United States and Spain which examines how social relationships and socioeconomic status interact to contribute to health and well-being outcomes.
New article in press in Family Process
Alongside collaborators at the University of Georgia and the University of Minnesota, the Williamson Lab has a new paper in press in the journal Family Process which examines the relationships of first-time Black mothers during the first 4 months postpartum. Although a robust literature has identified characteristics that predict changes in relationship satisfaction during the transition to parenthood, the relationships of Black mothers postpartum remain understudied. We found that mothers who reported more commitment and partner support were higher in initial satisfaction, as were mothers who were married or cohabiting with a partner (relative to mothers who were not cohabiting with their partner). Mothers with clinically significant depressive symptoms at 1 week postpartum had lower initial relationship satisfaction than mothers without clinically significant depressive symptoms. Finally, mothers experiencing more sleep difficulties and racial discrimination experienced larger declines in satisfaction.
Congratulations to Dr. Williamson
November 21, 2023
Dr. Williamson was recently awarded the Early Career Contributions to Couple Relationships Award by the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Couples Special Interest Group, which was presented (in absentia) at the ABCT annual conference in Seattle last week. Congratulations!