News

Nicole Perry, an assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin, has been named the winner of the 2022 Victoria S. Levin Award. 

The Gerontological Society of America (GSA), the nation's leading interdisciplinary organization devoted to the field of aging, has named Bill Chopik among the outstanding award winners for the year, in recognition of his research on gratitude, aging and whether cultural experiences come into play.

The Richard Kalish Innovative Publication Award was awarded to Chopik for the article, "Grateful expectations: Cultural differences in the curvilinear association between age and gratitude." The award recognized insightful and innovative publications on aging and life course development in the behavioral and social sciences.

A new study by The University of Texas at Austin and the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law finds younger LGBQ adults are physically healthier but have worse psychological health than older LGBQ people.

Researchers examined a representative sample of LGBQ people in the United States from three age groups—young (18-25), middle (34-41), and older (52-59)—to assess how physical and mental health differed among the three generations. Researchers compared several indicators, including alcohol and drug abuse, general and physical health, mental health and psychological distress and positive well-being.

Results showed no difference among the groups in substance abuse or positive well-being. However, several differences were noted when data were analyzed by sexual minority subgroups and gender. Bisexual people were more likely to report drug abuse and have less happiness, social well-being, and life satisfaction compared with gay and lesbian people. Nonbinary people reported worse general health, more psychological distress, and less positive well-being compared to women.

Pride Month is a time of celebration every June. This year's commemoration also comes at a time of heightened attention to the mental health concerns of young LGBTQ people. Recent research has shown these youth may be experiencing more concerns than older LGBTQ people. 

We spoke with Stephen Russell, who leads the SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identity) Health and Rights Laboratory at UT Austin. A professor and chair of the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, Director of the School of Human Ecology and its Amy Johnson McLaughlin Chair, Russell is one of the foremost experts on the development of LGBTQ young people. In conversation, he shared what everyone needs to know about supporting younger members of the LGBTQ community.

The University of Texas at Austin has joined the Age-Friendly University (AFU) Global Network, which consists of institutions of higher education around the world who have committed themselves to including adults of all ages in their programs and policies.

"Being recognized as an Age-Friendly University means that UT Austin is an inclusive environment providing education to midlife- and older adults as well as to young adults," says Karen Fingerman, professor of human development and family sciences, research director of the Center on Aging & Population Sciences and director of the Texas Aging & Longevity Center (TALC). "As an institution of higher education, we have sought to respond to the educational interests of adults in midlife, and the growing older population. UT is also at the cutting edge of research on adult development and aging, with strong community involvement with older populations."

Two early-career faculty members in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences have been named Rising Stars by the Association for Psychological Science, one of the top honors in the field.

The recognition was awarded to Hannah Williamson and Elizabeth Muñoz, both assistant professors of human development and family sciences at UT Austin. Each year, only a handful of scholars worldwide — people making extensive impact in psychology early in their careers — get chosen to be APS Rising Stars.

Although natural disasters can cause horrific damage to homes and infrastructure, they can bring married couples closer together, at least temporarily. That's according to a first-of-its-kind study from researchers at The University of Texas at Austin that looked at couples in the Houston area before and after Hurricane Harvey.

The study, published this week in the journal Psychological Science, has implications for how best to help families as they navigate different types of stressors.

Black parents in the U.S. who see others experience racial discrimination, such as news coverage involving violence against Black people, are more likely to talk with their children about race and discrimination, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have found. Such conversations between parents and their children have been shown to improve young people's behavior and school outcomes.

Vicarious racial discrimination that leads to these conversations can be experienced in many different ways. Examples include watching news coverage of high-profile killings by police, such as those of George Floyd or Breonna Taylor; watching a video posted on social media of a Black person being mistreated; or seeing a friend, family member or stranger being called slurs in public.

The old saying, "Home is where the heart is," has some new science to back it up. A study has found photos of a person's living space can accurately point at personality traits and the mood of the people who live there, especially as a person gets older.

For the study, scientists at The University of Texas at Austin studied 286 people over the age of 65. They took photographs of the rooms where the subjects spent the most time (typically the living room) and found that certain characteristics of a person's personality were reflected in core elements of room décor. Applying the findings could help lead to happier lives, including for older adults with frailty or cognitive impairment that has led them to be transferred from their homes to long-term care facilities.

A conclusive narrative review has found physical punishment of children is not effective in preventing child behavior problems or promoting positive outcomes and instead predicts increases in behavior problems and other poor outcomes over time. The study by an international group of scientists including a researcher from The University of Texas at Austin was published today in The Lancet.

Caregivers in many parts of the world use physical punishment as a response to children's perceived misbehavior: 63% of children between the ages of 2 and 4 worldwide – approximately 250 million children – are regularly subjected to physical punishment by caregivers.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit during the winter of 2020, locking down entire countries and leaving people isolated in their homes without outside contact for weeks at a time, many relationship experts wondered what that kind of stress would do to romantic couples. What they found was that when couples blamed the pandemic for their stress, they were happier in their relationships.

The findings are outlined in a paper out today in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. 

Previous research has shown that romantic partners tend to be more critical toward each other when experiencing common stress — what researchers call stress spillover — but major events such as natural disasters are not always associated with poor relationship functioning. Because these significant stressors are more noticeable than routine situations, people may be more aware that stress is affecting them and spilling over into the relationship.

​Harsh parenting practices, not genetics, are linked to higher levels of behavior problems in children, according to a new study in the March 2021 volume of Psychological Science, which studied pairs of twins whose parents disciplined them differently.

Among identical twins whose genes match perfectly but whose parents punished each twin differently, the children who were spanked or yelled at more were more likely to show antisocial behavior.

For older adults living alone during the pandemic, in-person visits bring benefits to emotional wellbeing distinct from what they experience from phone calls or electronic communication, University of Texas at Austin researchers have found.

In a study out this month in the Journals of Gerontology Series B: Social Science, researchers surveyed 226 people age 69 and up in May and June 2020 to determine the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives of older adults. Of those surveyed, 81 lived alone and 145 lived with spouses, family or other people. Nearly all the older adults were taking safety precautions, sheltering in place and avoiding contact with people outside their home.

Aprile Benner, associate professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, has received the Mid-Career Award for Research Excellence from the Society for Research on Adolescence.

Benner's research focuses on low-income youth and young people from racial and ethnic minority groups, investigating how social contexts influence experiences of marginalization and discrimination, school transitions, and developmental outcomes during adolescence.

Elizabeth Gershoff, professor of human development and family sciences in the School of Human Ecology at the University of Texas at Austin, has been named the winner of a national award recognizing the outstanding work of psychologists in the field of child advocacy and policy.

A long-time researcher of the impact of spanking and corporal punishment on children, Gershoff received the 2019 Nicholas Hobbs Award from the American Psychological Association's Society for Child and Family Policy and Practice. The award, given at the APA's conference in Chicago this month, recognizes psychologists who are dedicated to advocacy and policy that affect the lives of children.

Scientists have uncovered new evidence that heated political discourse over proposed laws involving marginalized groups, such as debates about the rights of LGBT people, can contribute to an increase in bullying linked to students' identity in schools. It is the largest study to date to examine the link.

In a new study in the journal Pediatrics, scientists at The University of Texas at Austin, Columbia University and Texas State University found that in the run-up to a statewide voter referendum to ban gay marriage in California, young people reported significantly more homophobic bullying. In fact, homophobic bullying peaked that school year and declined after the public debate about the initiative in question, Proposition 8, subsided.

Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have found that African-American parents who have had only limited first-hand experience with racial discrimination become less engaged as their sons encounter more racism. These parents are the most involved parents when their sons experience little discrimination. Yet, as their sons' racial discrimination experiences increase, they become less involved than parents of girls and other parents of boys.