The Anxiety, Stress, & Relationships Lab is headed by Keith Renshaw, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology. The lab focuses on the interpersonal context of anxiety and response to stress and trauma. The primary emphasis is on understanding how PTSD affects and is affected by romantic relationships, with a particular emphasis on military couples. However, we have multiple ongoing research projects, such as understanding individual predictors of trauma response, couples' communication and perceptions of criticism, effects of anxiety on relationship processes, and risk factors for specific OC spectrum disorders.
The primary aims of this project are to: (1) identify the primary needs of relatives of high-risk service members (those with PTSD and/or severe depression), (2) identify potential mechanisms of distress and resilience in these relatives, and (3) examine transactional associations over time among service members' symptoms, relatives' distress, relationship processes, and potential mechanisms. Click here for more information.
The primary aim of this project was to better understand factors that contribute to perceptions of communication from a romantic partner as either hostile or non-hostile (constructive) in nature. The specific objectives were to: (1) characterize differences in the behaviors and cognitions that are associated with hostile and nonhostile communication, as defined by both objective ratings and subjective perceptions, and (2) identify individual and couple-level variables that can predict discrepancies between objective ratings and subjective perceptions of both hostile and nonhostile communication. Data collection for this project was completed last spring, and analyses are underway.
The primary aim of this project is to better understand specific elements of relationships that are impacted by reactions to trauma, and how relationship processes interact with symptoms of PTSD, depression, substance use, and suicide risk factors over time. Data collection for this project is underway.