Current Projects
Below are some of the research projects currently underway this year.
Withdrawing from Connection: An Intensive Longitudinal Analysis of Social Anxiety, Isolation, and Moments of Prosocial Communication
Drawing on the evolutionary theory of loneliness, this project explores how hypervigilance during communication contributes to social isolation for those with elevated social anxiety. The primary objective is to determine how prosocial communication affects social withdrawal behavior over time and to examine the mechanisms by which social anxiety exacerbates loneliness during moment-to-moment interactions. Findings revealed that social anxiety is characterized by a dual desire to withdraw from others and a desire for meaningful connection. This duality was evidenced at the trait, day, and moment-level. Social interactions throughout the day characterized by responsive communication were negatively associated with end-of-day loneliness and next-day social withdrawal (funded by The Institute for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research).
Health Message Exposure & LGBTQIA+ Community Connectedness during the 2022 Global Outbreak of Mpox
This study explored social determinants of health message exposure during the August 2022 global outbreak of Mpox among young sexual minority men. Results from this study suggest that LGBTQIA+ community connectedness was an important form of social capital that facilitated higher health message exposure, especially on social media (funded by the Department of Communication at UC Santa Barabra). This paper is published in Health Communication and can be found here.
Social Ostracism Among Sexual Minority and Gender Diverse Youth
This study explores how LGBTQIA+ young adults make sense of childhood social ostracism. The primary goal of this study is to understand how the lingering effects of social exclusion influence sexual minority and gender-diverse individuals’ current-day relationships, self-perceptions, and overall well-being. You can find the first paper published from this project in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.