Depression in later life often unfolds within the context of close relationships, shaping daily routines, communication patterns, and shared emotional life. In the MRI-funded project Depression and Relationship Quality Among Older Adult Couples: A Longitudinal, Multimethod Investigation, Dr. Danielle Weber (University of North Carolina at Greensboro), in collaboration with Dr. Justin Lavner and Dr. Steven Beach (University of Georgia), examines how depressive symptoms and relationship quality influence one another over time among older adult couples. Using longitudinal survey data from 398 adults aged 60 and older, along with observational Zoom conversations from a subset of couples, the study found that higher depressive symptoms predicted lower relationship quality two months later. The project also highlights constructive communication and shared enjoyable activities as important relational processes that may help explain how depression and relationship satisfaction are linked in later life.

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Digital communication can keep couples connected, but it often removes a key pathway to bonding: physical touch. In the MRI-funded project Exploring Touch in Virtual Reality in Young Adult Romantic Relationships, Dr. Thao Ha (Department of Psychology) and Dr. Liesel Sharabi (Hugh Downs School of Human Communication) at Arizona State University investigate whether touch within immersive VR carries meaningful relational and psychological significance. Sixty-one couples (ages 18–29) participated in a randomized protocol using ASU’s Dreamscape Learn VR pods, completing baseline surveys, a 15-minute shared VR interaction (touch vs. no-touch), immediate post-session assessments, and a one-month follow-up. The study integrates self-reported relationship functioning, loneliness, and perceived support with physiological data from wrist-worn devices and recorded behavioral interaction data. A key innovation is a validated VR-specific observational coding system that captures nuanced touch behaviors (initiation, response patterns, duration, and location). Preliminary results indicate that touch frequency and satisfaction during VR may be associated with higher satisfaction, trust, intimacy, and passion over time, highlighting the potential for human-centered VR design to support connection in contexts of isolation or separation.

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Chronic poverty doesn’t just strain finances—it can steadily wear down mental health, especially in later life. In the MRI-funded project Chronic Socioeconomic Stress, Psychological Distress, and Informal Support among Aging Kenyans, Dr. James R. Muruthi (University of Oregon) examined how chronic socioeconomic stress and informal support relate to psychological distress among older adults in low-income Kenyan communities. Using a computer-assisted, interviewer-administered survey, the team collected data from 376 adults age 55+ across Mai Mahiu, Machakos, and Kikuyu. Findings highlight substantial socioeconomic strain alongside meaningful variation in the support older adults draw from family, friends, and religious communities. The project lays important groundwork for future community-informed interventions that aim to reduce distress and promote healthy aging in resource-limited settings.

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Pregnancy and the postpartum period can intensify relationship strain as roles, health demands, finances, and family expectations shift—pressures that may be amplified in low-resource settings where perinatal mental health services are limited. In the MRI-funded project MotherWise in Nicaragua: Evaluation of a Culturally Adapted Relationship and Perinatal Mental Health Intervention, Dr. Galena Rhoades (Thriving Families) evaluates MotherWise, a culturally adapted relationship education program for pregnant and postpartum women. The intervention emphasizes practical skills in communication, conflict management, decision-making, and identifying healthy versus unhealthy relationship dynamics. The study uses a mixed-methods approach, combining pre–post outcome assessment with Spanish-language interviews, focus groups, and observations to understand both impact and contextual fit. Emerging findings point to increased awareness of mistreatment, enhanced self-reflection, and growing confidence, while also highlighting barriers such as time constraints, partner resistance, and entrenched gender norms. Results will support refinement and scalable, culturally responsive implementation strategies for communities seeking relationship-centered supports during the perinatal period.

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The transition to adolescence is marked by profound neurobiological and social change, increasing vulnerability to internalizing symptoms—particularly for youth exposed to early adversity. In an MRI-funded project, Dr. Bridget Callaghan (University of California, Los Angeles) and Dr. Jennifer Somers (Auburn University) investigated whether positive parenting behaviors promote resilience during this sensitive developmental period. Drawing on longitudinal data and direct observation of parent–child conflict and positive interaction tasks, the study identified reciprocal “positive spirals” in which caregivers and adolescents reinforced one another’s constructive emotional behaviors. These bidirectional patterns were associated with lower anxiety symptoms and improvements in youths’ emotion regulation capacities. By developing a novel microcoding system to capture second-by-second interaction dynamics, the team advanced a systemic model of adolescent mental health, underscoring that resilience emerges within relational exchanges.

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When teens need support, they often reach for their phones first—and the way a friend responds can matter. In the MRI-funded project Teenagers and texting: A multi-method examination of social support in adolescent friends’ text messages and associations with adjustment, Allie Spiekerman (University of Missouri) is studying how social support unfolds in adolescents’ everyday texting with close friends. The project pairs survey measures of friendship quality and depressive symptoms with two weeks of actual text-message exchanges from friend dyads ages 14–18, allowing researchers to move beyond broad “screen time” questions and focus on what friends do in real conversations. Texts are coded for positive/engaged responses (e.g., explicit support, questions, advice) and negative/disengaged responses (e.g., minimizing, changing the subject), as well as digital-specific features like positive emojis and how long it takes to reply. By modeling how each friend’s behaviors relate to both their own and their partner’s outcomes, this work aims to pinpoint the micro-moments of texting that promote healthier, more supportive friendships in adolescence.

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Children’s emotional challenges unfold in everyday moments—during homework struggles, sibling conflicts, and daily disappointments—often before young children have the cognitive flexibility to manage frustration on their own. In the MRI-funded project Regulating Together: Cueing Parents to Reframe Negative Emotions for Their Children, Principal Investigator Dr. Cora Mukerji and Co-Investigator Ariana Orvell (Bryn Mawr College) examine whether prompting caregivers to use specific regulatory strategies during children’s distress leads to measurable changes in children’s emotional responses. The study focuses on cognitive reappraisal, a reframing strategy linked to adaptive outcomes but still cognitively demanding in early childhood, highlighting parents’ potential role in scaffolding regulation. Using a randomized experimental design with children ages 5–7, dyads are assigned to parent cueing conditions involving reappraisal prompts, emotional validation, or non-intervention while children complete a frustrating task. By integrating parent and child reports, behavioral coding, and performance indicators, the project advances a mechanistic understanding of co-regulation with direct translational relevance for parenting programs and school-based supports.

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Much of relationship science has focused on major relational events—conflict episodes, disclosures, transitions, and stressors—but everyday coordination may be just as consequential for long-term satisfaction. Couples constantly manage prospective memory demands: remembering future tasks, delegating responsibilities, and following through on shared plans, and when these intentions fail, partners often assign relational meaning to the lapse. In the MRI-funded project Shared Remembering in Romantic Relationships: A Mixed-Methods Diary Study of Intention Communication, Dr. Gabriel Cook (Claremont McKenna College) investigates how married partners coordinate prospective memory in naturalistic contexts. Using a four-day online diary design, participants record intentions for themselves, intentions delegated to a partner, and intentions communicated by a partner, tracking whether each was completed, reprioritized, canceled, or forgotten—and how it was remembered (e.g., alarms, spontaneous recall, partner prompting). The study also assesses relationship satisfaction, communication quality, perceived memory functioning, and transactive memory systems to test whether stronger “shared remembering” structures are linked to fewer breakdowns and greater relational well-being. By combining human coding with natural language processing to examine how intention wording signals support-seeking versus responsibility transfer, the project reframes remembering as a dyadic process—revealing how small coordination moments can shape trust, fairness, and the feeling of being on the same team.

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The perinatal period is a developmentally sensitive time, and when severe depression, anxiety, or related conditions arise, the consequences can extend beyond individual distress to the earliest patterns of parent–infant connection. In the MRI-funded project Clinical Outcomes of an Intensive Mother–Baby Program for Perinatal Mental Illness, Dr. Gretchen Buchanan (Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute) evaluates outcomes associated with the Redleaf Center for Family Healing in Minnesota, a model that intentionally integrates psychiatric care with relational support. The study uses a retrospective cohort design spanning approximately 2,000 patients who received services between 2013 and 2025, allowing examination of service utilization and outcomes across pre- and post-COVID healthcare shifts. Outcomes include validated patient-reported measures of depression (EPDS), anxiety (GAD-7), maternal functioning (BIMF), and bonding (PBQ), paired with demographic and diagnostic information from electronic health records. Analyses will map changes in patient characteristics over time, identify predictors of retention and dropout, and test whether improvements observed in earlier program evaluations are sustained across the broader cohort and multiple levels of care. Ultimately, this work aims to strengthen implementation-informed perinatal mental health services by clarifying where engagement barriers emerge and how intensive mother–baby programming can better support both psychiatric recovery and relational well-being.

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We often assume we understand our partner’s emotional world—but everyday emotional life moves quickly, and perception isn’t always precise. In the MRI-funded project Seeing Clearly or Seeing Through Tinted Glasses: How Accurate and Biased Perceptions of Emotions Influence Romantic Relationships, Jenny D. V. Le (University of Rochester) examines how romantic partners perceive each other’s emotions in daily life, and how both accuracy (tracking emotional changes) and bias (systematically over- or underestimating emotions and influence) relate to relationship satisfaction.

Using a two-phase design, the project followed 197 cohabiting couples through a 14-day daily diary and then conducted a five-year follow-up with a substantial subset. Results show that partners generally track daily emotional shifts well, but tend to underestimate both their partner’s emotional intensity and their own emotional influence. These patterns matter: underestimating a partner’s negative emotions predicts lower next-day partner satisfaction, while accurately tracking negative emotions predicts higher next-day partner satisfaction. Over time, a modest view of one’s emotional influence is linked with greater partner satisfaction, suggesting that humility about impact may support sustained engagement and connection.

This work helps refine our understanding of emotional attunement in close relationships and offers practical insight for interventions focused on emotional calibration and responsive support.

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Neighborhood stress doesn’t stay on the street—it can show up at home, shaping mood, sleep, and the way couples support one another.

Neighborhood Stress and Mental Health: The Protective Role of Couple Relationship Functioning in Rural African American Communities is an MRI-funded research project led by Principal Investigator Dr. Man-Kit Lei (University of Georgia). The study examines whether strong couple functioning—such as relationship confidence, communication quality, satisfaction, and perceived partner support—can help buffer depressive symptoms in the face of chronic neighborhood stress.

Using data from 346 middle-aged African American couples who participated in the Protecting Strong African American Families (ProSAAF) randomized trial, the research team links geocoded residential addresses to neighborhood indicators like economic disadvantage, housing strain, healthcare access, environmental pollutants, and residential segregation. This multilevel approach helps clarify how structural conditions “get under the skin,” and—importantly—how resilience may emerge through supportive romantic partnerships.

By integrating geospatial data with relationship processes, this MRI-funded work aims to inform more context-sensitive, culturally responsive strategies to reduce mental health disparities in rural communities where structural stressors are persistent and difficult to change quickly.

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What happens to recovery when trauma shows up in everyday moments—classrooms, friendships, and family conversations? In the MRI-funded project Developing an Intervention to Improve Social Interactions and Relationships Among Afghan Refugee Adolescents, Dr. Sayed Jafar Ahmadi (Bard College) and collaborators piloted METRA+, a school-based group intervention for Afghan refugee youth ages 10–19 in Quetta, Pakistan. METRA+ integrates relational skill-building with evidence-informed trauma approaches to strengthen communication, emotional regulation, and social functioning in low-resource, post-conflict contexts. The program includes three modules—Compassionate Communication, Written Exposure Therapy, and Memory Specificity Training—delivered by trained facilitators within the school day. Preliminary findings suggest reductions in PTSD, depression, and anxiety symptoms, alongside reported improvements in emotion regulation and interpersonal communication.

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Mental health care does not unfold outside of social context, particularly for Two-Spirit, transgender, and nonbinary Black and Brown people of color navigating racialized transphobia and systemic oppression. In the MRI-funded project Incorporating Radical Healing and Addressing Internalized Transnegativity in Psychotherapy for Two-Spirit, Transgender, and Nonbinary People of Color: An Open Clinical Trial, Dr. Stephanie Budge of the University of Wisconsin–Madison evaluated a psychotherapy model intentionally designed to address oppression-based stress. The intervention, Healing through Ongoing Psychological Empowerment (HOPE), integrates radical healing principles with strategies to reduce internalized stigma and foster critical consciousness. Findings from the mixed-methods clinical trial identified therapist validation grounded in shared identity and sociopolitical awareness, along with participants’ development of critical consciousness, as central mechanisms of change. By examining not only whether therapy works but how and why it works, this MRI-funded research advances culturally responsive psychotherapy science and strengthens pathways to affirming, intersectionally attuned mental health care.

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Mental health disparities among sexual and gender diverse (SGD) youth are well documented, but less is known about how family and school contexts work together to shape different profiles of risk and resilience. In the MRI-funded project Sexual and Gender Diverse Mental Health: The Role of Family Relationships and School Experiences, Dr. Ryan Watson (University of Connecticut) investigates how combinations of family acceptance/rejection and school climate—such as teacher support and safety—relate to stress, anxiety, and depression among LGBTQ+ adolescents. The study harmonizes two large national datasets to increase analytic precision and uses decision-tree methods to identify meaningful subgroup patterns. Findings are intended to inform actionable guidance for families, educators, clinicians, and policymakers to better support SGD youth well-being.

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Cancer doesn’t just change bodies—it changes the emotional rules of the relationship. In the MRI-funded project Emotion Regulation and Psychological Well-Being among Cancer Caregiver–Patient Dyads, Dr. William Tsai (New York University) investigates how caregivers and patients regulate emotions together, and how those strategies relate to mental health and relationship quality over time. Following approximately 175 caregiver–patient pairs across baseline, three months, and six months, the study models how one partner’s efforts to support emotions can affect both their own adjustment and their partner’s. By treating coping as a dyadic process, this work points toward early, relationship-centered interventions that strengthen communication and sustain mutual resilience during treatment and adaptation.

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In many families, childhood anxiety becomes an invisible “third parent,” shaping routines, decisions, and connection. In the MRI-funded project Impact of a Systemic Child Anxiety Intervention on Family Functioning and Relationship Quality, Dr. Rebecca Etkin (Yale Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine) is evaluating whether reducing family accommodation—the reassurance and routine changes parents use to ease distress—can improve both children’s anxiety and families’ relational functioning. Delivered in schools through a partnership with the Howard County Public School System, the project tests a brief, seven-session SPACE-based parent group led by trained school social workers. By tracking parent–child relationship quality, co-parent functioning, and overall family functioning alongside anxiety symptoms, the study advances a more systemic, relationship-centered approach to intervention.

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Parenting research has too often treated white, middle-class norms as the default—leaving culturally grounded parenting styles vulnerable to being misunderstood. In the MRI-funded project Capturing Cultural Socialization Practices of Black American Mothers: Active Direction and Socioeconomic Variability, Dr. Katharine Suma (University of Georgia) investigates whether “Active Direction” reflects socioeconomic strain or a meaningful cultural socialization strategy. By examining mother–toddler interactions across a socioeconomically diverse sample, the work offers a more accurate lens for interpreting how guidance, warmth, and autonomy can coexist in real time. The takeaway is bigger than measurement: when research tools fit cultural realities, educators and clinicians are better positioned to support families with respect—and precision.

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In an MRI-funded project, Dr. Ilana Haliwa of Salve Regina University examined whether a brief, 10-minute interconnectedness meditation could enhance perceived social support and improve emotional functioning among undergraduates. Using a randomized experimental design, the study compared interconnectedness meditation, mindful breathing, and an educational control condition. While students found the meditation practices acceptable and easy to implement, a single brief session did not significantly change perceived social support, emotional reactivity, or attentional bias. These findings provide important guidance for future intervention development, suggesting that greater dosage or sustained practice may be necessary to meaningfully shift socio-emotional processes. This work advances a systems-informed understanding of how perceived connection shapes student mental health.

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Adolescence is marked by rapid developmental change, heightened emotional reactivity, and increased vulnerability to both internalizing and externalizing difficulties. In the MRI-funded project Improving Human Relationships through Youth Mentors’ Use of Emotion Coaching, Dr. Lindsey Weiler at the University of Minnesota examined whether integrating emotion coaching into youth mentoring is feasible and beneficial. Implemented within Campus Connections, a 12-week mentoring program serving youth ages 11–18, the study trained 88 adult mentors in emotion coaching and provided ongoing support during program delivery. Using a sequential mixed-method design, the project assessed feasibility and perceived effectiveness alongside mentor self-efficacy and shifts in emotion coaching versus dismissing responses. Results indicated strong feasibility and meaningful improvements in mentors’ coaching practices and self-efficacy, with decreases in dismissing tendencies. Notably, mentors’ emotion coaching was positively associated with mentoring relationship quality, underscoring emotional responsiveness as a key relational mechanism.

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War disrupts more than physical safety—it can destabilize the relationships that help young people cope and recover. In the MRI-funded project Understanding How Interpersonal Relationships and Social Support During War Promote Resilience and Recovery, Dr. Ann Skinner (Center for Child and Family Policy, Duke University) examines how peer, family, and school-based support shapes mental health among Ukrainian adolescents and young adults living through ongoing conflict. Using a multimethod design that pairs self-report data with biological indicators of chronic stress and location-linked records of war-related events, the study aims to clarify how interpersonal resilience operates under sustained threat. Findings are expected to inform trauma-informed, relationship-centered supports for youth during war and in the aftermath.

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