Welcome!
Sexual health is an important part of identity, overall health, well-being, and relationships across the lifespan. Our goal is to better understand physical, cognitive, attitudinal, and psychological sexual health during adolescence and the transition to adulthood. Our lab group, Developmental Aspects of Sexual
Health (DASH) is committed to understanding the processes of developing healthy sexuality. Under the guidance of Eva S. Lefkowitz, Ph.D., we've recently been exploring a range of topics including:
Health (DASH) is committed to understanding the processes of developing healthy sexuality. Under the guidance of Eva S. Lefkowitz, Ph.D., we've recently been exploring a range of topics including:
- LGBTQ+ college students’ well-being, identity expression, and relationships in the context of stressful situational factors such as COVID-19 and academic breaks
- longitudinal trajectories of sexual behaviors
- positive and negative consequences of sexual experiences
- romantic relationship-context specific sexual behaviors
- religious identity and how it relates to sexual/gender identity and sexual behaviors and beliefs.
What we've been up to:
9/25/24: Alyssa and Eva's paper, "Sexual and affectionate behaviors and satisfaction for adults in romantic relationships: A latent profile analysis" was accepted for publication in the Archives of Sexual Behavior!
9/4/24: Veronica, Eva, and Ryan's paper, "A Latent Profile Analysis of Religious Parents’ Responses to their Sexual and Gender Diverse Child," has been published in the Journal of Homosexuality!
8/22/24: Congratulations to Sara Vasilenko, who was promoted to Associate Professor of Human Development & Family Science at Syracuse University. Sara also serves as the Graduate Director.
7/4/24: Alyssa, Tracy, and Eva's paper, “It's an ongoing discussion about desire”: Adults' strategies for managing sexual and affectionate desire discrepancies in romantic relationships, is now published in Journal of Marital and Family Therapy!
7/2/24: Yuan Zhang will start a postdoctoral scholarship at Arizona State University this Fall. Congratulations Yuan!
7/1/24: Congratulations to Megan Maas, who was tenured and promoted to associate professor at Michigan State!
6/26/24: Alyssa, Tracy, and Eva will be presenting their paper, “It's an ongoing discussion about desire”: Adults' strategies for managing sexual and affectionate desire discrepancies in romantic relationships, at the International Association for Relationship Research conference in Boston, MA this July!
6/24/24: Madeline and Eva’s chapter, Sexual Behavioral Development, was published in the 2nd edition of the Encyclopedia of Adolescence!
6/24/24: Tracy, Alyssa, and Eva's paper ""They mostly preached abstinence which didn’t work': Young adults’ perception of sex-related messages from caregivers prior to initiation of sex" is now published online in the Archives of Sexual Behavior!
4/29/24: Congratulations to Veronica, who successfully defended her dissertation, The Role of Religion in Sexual and Gender Diverse Youth and Young Adults' Lives!
3/13/24: Veronica, Tracy, Eva, and co-authors' paper, Religiosity, sexual behaviors, sexual motivations, and gender: A three-year longitudinal study, is now in print in the Journal of Research on Adolescence!
3/08/24: Eva, Tracy, Veronica, Christina, Madeline, Naomi, and Antonia will be giving seven presentations at SRA this April on topics including well-being across college transitions, communication about sex, religious parents’ responses to their sexual and gender diverse children, digital health applications for Black girls’ sexual health, cyberbullying, abortion access post-Dobbs, and creating inclusive environments.
1/24/2024: Sam, Eva, and Veronica's paper "Sexual orientation and gender identity expression, internalized stigma, and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic" was accepted for publication in the Journal of LGBT Youth!
12/16/2023: Veronica, Antonia, Kay, Ben, Eva, and Ryan's paper "Identity outness to family among gender diverse sexual minority youth: A latent profile analysis" is in press in the Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity journal!
12/8/2023: Eva, Tracy, and Christina all had presentations accepted for the 2024 Society for Research on Adolescence in Chicago!
9/1/2023: Chelom Leavitt received tenure and was promoted to Associate Professor. Congrats Chelom!
8/21/2023: Alyssa and Eva will be presenting their paper, The association of individual and relational factors with adults’ sexual and affectionate behaviors, at the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality in New Orleans, LA in November.
8/21/2023: Tracy, Alyssa, and Eva will be presenting their paper, "They mostly preached abstinence which didn’t work”: Young adults’ perception of sex-related messages from caregivers prior to initiation of sex, at the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality in New Orleans, LA in November.
8/17/2023: Alyssa, Tracy, Veronica, and Eva's paper, "Hugging with masks on”: LGBTQ+ college students’ relationship experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, was accepted for publication in Interpersona!
7/17/2023: Congratulations to Veronica for successfully defending her dissertation proposal: The Role of Religion in Sexual and Gender Diverse Youth and Young Adults' Lives!
6/12/2023: Congratulations to Alyssa, who successfully defended her dissertation, Sexual and Affectionate Behaviors in Adult Romantic Relationships, today! In August, Alyssa will start a position as the Walter D. Foss Endowed Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology at The College of Wooster!
6/9/2023: Madeline and co-authors' paper, Romantic attachment security buffers the effect of stress on anxiety in college students during the COVID-19 pandemic, is now available in the Journal of American College Health!
5/22/2023: Tracy successfully defended her dissertation, Correlates of Young Adults' Sexual Behavior and Its Consequences today! Tracy will start a position as Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater at Rock County, in the Department of Integrated Studies, this fall. Congratulations Dr. Walters!
5/22/2023: Tracy, Veronica, Alyssa, Rachael, and Eva's paper, LGBTQ+ college students' relationship satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic, is now published in Emerging Adulthood!
4/14/2023: Dr. Christina Ross, Veronica, and Tracy with Eva, Antonia, Ben, and Dr. Ryan Watson as co-authors presented their research as posters and flash talks at the annual Society for Research on Adolescents conference.
3/24/2023: Eva and colleagues presented at the biennial Society for Research in Child Development conference on an invited roundtable on the impact of Roe v. Wade on children and families.
3/23/2023: Alyssa's paper, Using Social Exchange Theory to examine relationship processes in asexual-sexual couples is now available in the Journal of Family Theory & Review!
3/23/2023: Dr. Christina Ross with Eva, and Tracy as co-authors presented on a paper on young mothers in foster care's perspectives on pregnancy and parenting at the Eastern Nursing Research Society.
3/6/2023: We are excited to announce that in Fall 2023, Naomi Inman will be joining the UConn HDFS Department and the DASH Lab!
3/1/2023: Tracy and Eva's paper, Does sex improve with experience?: A latent transition analysis of college students' penile-vaginal sex-related consequences, is now published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence!
1/24/2023: Veronica, Sam, Alyssa, Tracy, and Eva's paper, "It's like an elephant in the room with my family": LGBTQ+ college students' identity expression during the COVID-19 pandemic, is now available online in the Journal of Adolescent Research!
1/15/2023: Alyssa and Eva's paper, Sexual and affectionate behaviors in asexual and allosexual adults, is now published in The Journal of Sex Research! This paper was co-authored Dr. Corinne Zimmerman at Illinois State University.
12/20/2022: Sam, Tracy, Rachael, and Eva's paper, College students' sexual motives, experiences, and drinking-related protective behavioral strategies, is now available online through Sexuality & Culture!
12/15/2022: Tracy and Eva are co-authors on a paper, Young mothers in foster care perspectives on pregnancy and parenting: Implications for
healthcare providers and child welfare caregivers’ led interventions, accepted for presentation at the Eastern Nursing Research Society conference in March of 2023! Dr. Christina Ross is the first author and Jessica Smith, Yutong Song, and Dr. Natalie Shook are also co-authors.
11/19/2022: Sara, Tracy, Alyssa, and Eva's paper, Positive, negative, or mixed feelings? A person-centered approach to consequences of first penile-vaginal intercourse in college students, is now published in Archives of Sexual Behavior!
9/9/2022: Eva and Tracy's paper, Selection and socialization effects of living on vs. off campus, is now in Emerging Adulthood!
8/29/2022: Congratulations to Sophie! She graduated this past spring and started her Masters program in Marriage and Family Therapy/Counseling at Southern Connecticut State University today!
8/7/2022: Yuan, Rachael, Sam, Tracy, Alyssa, Veronica, and Eva's paper, How social support and parent-child relationship quality relate to LGBTQ+ college students’ well-being during COVID-19, is now published at the Journal of Family Psychology!
8/5/2022: Congratulations to Yuan Zhang! She defended her dissertation this summer and started a new post-doc with Dr. Linda Halgunseth at Michigan State University!
7/12/2022: Congratulations to Samantha Lawrence, who defended her dissertation this past spring and started a new post-doc this week with Dr. Marla Eisenberg and the PIQTOC lab at the University of Minnesota!
6/12/2022: Rachael's paper, Adolescent pornography consumption: A symbolic interactionist lens, is now in the Journal of Family Theory & Review!
6/1/2022: Tracy's paper, Socialized sexual values and meanings ascribed to sex as predictors of one's experience of sex: A theoretical model, is in the Journal of Family Theory & Review!
5/16/2022: Alyssa's paper, Concordance between romantic orientations and sexual attitudes: Comparing allosexual and asexual adults, was published in Archives of Sexual Behavior! This paper was co-authored with Dr. Corinne Zimmerman at Illinois State University.
4/15/2022: We are excited to announce that in Fall 2022 Madeline Jones will be joining the UConn HDFS Department and the DASH lab!
3/5/2022: Eva, Sam, and Veronica presented posters at the Society for Research on Adolescence in New Orleans, with Alyssa, Antonia Caba, Dr. Chelom Leavitt (BYU), Dr. Rose Wesche (Virginia Tech), Dr. Ryan Watson, Sophia Lindsay, and Tracy as co-authors! In addition, Eva participated in the Meet the Scientist Coffee.
2/23/2022: Sam co-authored a paper in press at Policy Insights from the Behavior and Brain Sciences, with Dr. Leah Lessard as a co-author. The paper is Weight-based disparities in youth mental health: Scope, social underpinnings, and policy implications.
1/25/2022: Alyssa co-authored a paper in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, with Dr. Kay Simon as first author and Heath Hawthorne, Benton Renley, Dr. Rachel Farr, Dr. Lisa Eaton, and Dr. Ryan Watson as co-authors! The paper is Contextualizing the well-being of asexual youth: Evidence of differences in family, health, and school outcomes.
12/18/2021: Veronica's paper, Missing piece of the puzzle: Evaluating a general meaning of sex measure, is now published in Family Process. This paper was co-authored by Chelom and other scholars at Brigham Young University.
11/22/2021: Veronica co-authored a paper in press at Sexual and Relationship Therapy, with David Allsop, Amber Price, Dr. Chelom Leavitt, Emily Milius, and Shayla Driggs as co-authors! The paper is Longitudinal associations between attachment, differentiation of self, and couple sexual and relational outcomes.
10/2/2021: Tracy will be presenting a paper, with Veronica, Alyssa, Rachael, and Eva as co-authors, at SSEA's virtual conference in November!
10/1/2021: Sam, Tracy, Alyssa, Yuan, Veronica, Rachael, and Eva's paper, LGBTQ+ college students' engagement in COVID-protective and COVID-risk behaviors, is now in published at Emerging Adulthood!
9/20/2021: Rachael was accepted as a mentor to the NCFR Mentoring Academy.
9/14/2021: Veronica and Chelom co-authored a paper, with Dr. Dean Busby as first author, which is now in press at the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy! The paper is Is kissing a bellwether of sexual and relationship satisfaction and dissatisfaction?
8/30/2021: Congratulations to Graciela! She was promoted to Professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington!
8/2/2021: Eva recently agreed to a second five-year term as Department Head of HDFS at UConn! Congratulations, Eva!
7/16/2021: Rachael has an entry on Wedding Venues in press in Marriage and Divorce in America Issues, Trends, and Controversies, a two-volume encyclopedia set.
6/5/2021: Eva was quoted in The Times (London)!
6/1/2021: Veronica's paper, Beliefs about sexuality and their associations with sexual passion, is now published in Personal Relationships! This paper was co-authored with Dr. Dean Busby at Brigham Young University.
5/18/2021: Veronica and Chelom are co-authors on a paper published at Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, with Dr. Dean Busby as first author and Dr. Jason Carroll as a co-author. The paper is The sexual wholeness model: An initial evaluation with two samples.
5/10/2021: We are excited to announce the newest addition to the DASH lab, Makayla Dawkins! Makayla is beginning an apprenticeship with us through the SHARE Virtual Summer Research Apprenticeship Program.
5/8/2021: Sara, Eva, and Jennifer's paper, Changes in psychological distress after first vaginal intercourse in late adolescence, is now published online with the Journal of Adolescence!
5/5/2021: Congratulations to Tracy on receiving the HDFS Department's Outstanding Graduate Instructor Award!
4/28/2021: Rose, Eva, and Jennifer's paper, Short-term consequences of sex: Contextual predictors and change across college, is now published online with Archives of Sexual Behavior!
4/8/2021: Rachael was selected for one of the 100 Years of Women Scholarship Awards for the 2021 - 2022 academic year from UConn’s Women's Center in recognition of her outstanding academic achievements, dedicated service, and significant contributions to the advancement of women in society. Congratulations Rachael!
4/7/2021: Eva (PI), Amanda Denes, and Lisa Eaton received funding from CLAS for Research in the CLAS Academic Themes for a project, LGBTQ+ college students’ health and well-being during semesters and academic breaks.
3/22/2021: Eva was quoted in an article in the CT Post regarding the importance of maintaining personal connections during the pandemic.
3/11/2021: Veronica and Chelom are co-authors on a paper in press at The Journal of Sex Research, with Dr. Dean Busby as first author and Nathan Leonhardt as a co-author. The paper is Putting the dyad into the sexual response discussion: A latent class analysis using ratings of self and partner.
3/5/2021: Eva, Sara, Alyssa, Emily, Sam and Tracy presented three posters at the Society for Research on Adolescence Virtual Conference!
2/28/2021: Rachael has an entry on Pornography in press in Marriage and Divorce in America Issues, Trends, and Controversies, a two-volume encyclopedia set.
1/27/2021: Eva was interviewed by the Office of the Vice President for Research at UConn regarding the LGBTQ+ CREW Study! You can read the article here and/or view a short video here.
1/15/2021: Congratulations to Tanya Boone-Holladay, who has accepted a position as the Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at the University of South Carolina, Upstate!
10/17/2020: Eva was quoted in the Sunday Times (UK)!
10/8/2020: Eva participated in InCHIP's panel discussion, "Becoming an Adult during a Public Health Crisis: COVID-19's Impact on Emerging Adults" and presented findings from the LGBTQ+ CREW Study.
7/1/2020: Congratulations to Yuan, who received a 2020 Wood/Raith Gender Identity Living Trust summer fellowship!
5/25/2020: We have finished data collection on the LGBTQ+ CREW Study (InCHIP funded project), with data from a total of 455 students.
5/2/2020: Congratulations to Sam, the recipient of the 2020 graduate student Mentorship Excellence Award from the Office of Undergraduate Research in recognition of her outstanding mentorship of undergraduate researchers!
4/14/2020: Congratulations to Emily Waterman, who has accepted a position as a faculty member in developmental psychology at Bennington College!
4/13/2020: Emily and Eva's paper, Does alcohol use in large group contexts mediate the association between sex-related alcohol expectancies and rape? is now published at Violence and Victims!
4/10/2020: Eva and graduate students Alyssa Clark, Rachael Farina, Samantha Lawrence, Tracy Walters, and Yuan Zhang received Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy (InCHIP) Rapid Response grant funding. The project, LGBTQ+ college students' living arrangements and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic will launch as soon as possible.
3/30/2020: We are excited to announce that in Fall 2020 Veronica Hanna-Walker will be joining the UConn HDFS Department and the DASH lab!
2/13/2020: Eva was quoted in Teen Vogue, discussing her, Rose, and Chelom's paper, Never Been Kissed: Correlates of Lifetime Kissing Status in U.S. University Students.
1/20/2020: Emily, Rose, Chelom, and Eva's paper, Fraternity membership, traditional masculinity ideologies, and impersonal sex: Selection and socialization effects, is now published at Psychology of Men and Masculinities.
1/13/2020: The Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescence Development has been published, with a chapter on Normative Sexual Development and Milestones by Rose and Eva.
12/16/2019: Eva will be chairing a symposium at Society for Research on Adolescence in San Diego in March, on dating and sexual violence. The symposium will feature work by Eva, Emily, Sam, and Megan. Eva will also be leading a panel discussion on careers in administration.
11/27/2019: Rose, Derek, and Eva's Paper, Sources of social influence on adolescents' alcohol use, is now published at the Journal of Research on Adolescence.
10/21/2019: Rose was quoted in the New York Times, discussing her, Derek, and Eva's paper, Sources of social influence on adolescents' alcohol use!
10/10/2019: Eva, Meghan, Emily, Rose, and Tracy are all off to Toronto to present three posters, two papers, and participate in two panels at the Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood conference.
10/2/2019: Eva, Sara, Rose, and Jennifer's paper, Changes in diverse sexual and contraceptive behaviors across college, is now published at the Journal of Sex Research!
9/27/2019: Eva, Rose, Giorgia, and Anna's article was selected by the Sexuality Topic Network of the Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood (SSEA) as the winner of the 2018 Best Research Article award for research advancing scholarship on sex and sexuality among emerging adults. They will be recognized at the upcoming SSEA conference in Toronto. The article is: Lefkowitz, E. S., Wesche, R., Picci, G., & Hochgraf, A. K. (2018). Daily associations between kissing and affect during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 28, 779-785.
9/17/2019: Chelom and Eva, with colleagues from Istanbul Bilgi University and Kyiv Taras Shevchenko University, now have their paper, A cross-cultural study of midlife relational and sexual health: Comparing Ukraine to the U.S and Turkey, published at Sexuality and Culture!
7/16/19: Chelom, Eva, and Emily's paper, The role of sexual mindfulness in sexual wellbeing, relational wellbeing, and self-esteem, is now published at the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy!
5/17/19: Rose and Eva, with colleagues from Penn State, now have their paper, Peer acceptance and sexual behaviors from adolescence to young adulthood, published at the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.
5/15/19: Emily will soon begin her position as a Postdoctoral fellow at Nebraska Center for Research in Children, Youth, Families and Schools. Congratulations, Emily!
5/7/19: Rose Wesche has accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Sciences at Virginia Tech University. She starts in Fall 2019. Congratulations Rose!
4/9/19: We are excited to announce that as of Fall 2019, two new graduate students, Tracy Walters and Alyssa Clark, will be joining the UConn HDFS department and the DASH lab!
3/25/19: Eva, Rose, Sam and Mackenzie presented three posters at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research on Child Development in Baltimore, Maryland last weekend!
12/12/18: Rose and Eva's paper, Daily associations between kissing and affect during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood, is now published at the Journal of Research on Adolescence!
12/4/18: Rose and Eva's paper, Evaluations and future plans after casual sexual experiences: Differences across partner type is now published at the Journal of Sex Research. This paper was co-authored by scholars at Kent State and Morningside College.
12/01/18: Emily, Rose and Eva's paper, Longitudinal correlates of peer sexual communication quality in late adolescence, is now published at Sexuality Research and Social Policy.
7/15/18: Emily has started her Postdoctoral Fellow with the Interpersonal Violence Research Lab at University of New Hampshire!
6/5/18: Sara and Eva's paper, Sexual behavior and daily affect in emerging adulthood, is now published at Emerging Adulthood.
4/14/18: Many members of the lab battled a major snow storm while attending the conference for the Society for Research on Adolescence in Minneapolis, MN! Eva, Rose, Emily, Sam, and Mackenzie presented research. Eva also participated as a panelist on the future of developmental research!
4/13/18: Eva, Rose and Chelom's paper, Never been kissed: Correlates of lifetime kissing status in U. S. university students, is now published at Archives of Sexual Behavior.
4/7/18: Emily, Rose, Chelom, and Eva's paper, Long-distance relationships, relationship dissolution, and college adjustment is now published at Emerging Adulthood. This paper was co-authored by Dr. Damon Jones of Penn State.
3/16/18: Congratulations to Sara Vasilenko, who has accepted a position as assistant professor of Human Development and Family Science at Syracuse University!
11/15/17: Chelom presented a poster at the National Conference on Family Relations in Orlando, Florida!
11/1/17: Dan and Rose will present posters and Dan, Rose, Emily, Chelom, and Eva will be presenting two papers at the Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood conference in Washington, D.C.!
9/1/17: Chelom, Emily, and Eva have 2 chapters in The Sage Encyclopedia of Lifespan Human Development on Midlife sexual development and erectile dysfunction, and Sexuality across the lifespan.
8/7/17: Rose and Eva's paper, Early sexual initiation and mental health: A fleeting association or enduring change? is now published in print by the Journal of Research on Adolescence. This paper was co-authored by scholars at Penn State and Florida State.
9/29/17: We are proud to announce that Tanya Boone-Holladay is now the Associate Dean for the School of Social Sciences and Education at California State University Bakersfield.
6/15/17: Emily and Eva's paper, Are mothers' and fathers' parenting characteristics associated with emerging adults' academic engagement? is now published at the Journal of Family Issues.
6/7/17: Rose successfully defended her dissertation, FRIENDS, ROMANTIC PARTNERS, AND CASUAL SEXUAL PARTNERS: EXPLORING THE SOCIAL TRANSMISSION OF ALCOHOL USE IN ADOLESCENCE AND YOUNG ADULTHOOD, today! Congratulations Rose!
6/6/17: Congratulations to Chelom, who defended her dissertation, RELATIONAL AND SEXUAL SATISFACTION AND MINDFULNESS IN MIDLIFE today!
6/1/17: Emily will begin a postdoctoral position in the Prevention Research Center at Penn State in July. Congrats, Emily!
5/30/17: Congratulations to Emily, who successfully defended her dissertation, PREVENTING SEXUAL VICTIMIZATION ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES:
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE TRANSLATIONAL SPECTRUM, this morning!
5/23/17: Emily recently received the Centre County Women's Resource Center Partner in Prevention award. This award recognizes all of her recent innovative work in the area of sexual assault prevention. It's hard to keep up with this crew!
5/20/17: Chelom, Emily, and Eva presented posters at the Society for Prevention Research conference in Washington, D.C.!
5/17/17: Rose recently received the Steven H. Zarit Award for Graduate Student Excellence in HDFS. Congratulations Rose!
4/28/17: Congratulations to Rose, who has accepted a position as postdoctoral fellow at the Medical College of Wisconsin Center for AIDS Intervention Research next fall!
4/11/17: We are proud to announce that Chelom will be joining Brigham Young University as an assistant professor in the School of Family Life. Congrats Chelom!
4/10/17: Eva, Rose and Emily just got back from the Society for Research in Child Development conference in Austin, Texas. It was wonderful to meet new colleagues and catch up with old friends. Eva and Rose gave talks and Emily showed a poster.
1/19/17: Rose, Sara, Eva's paper, Latent classes of sexual behaviors: Prevalence, predictors, and consequences, is now published in Sexuality Research and Social Policy.
9/4/24: Veronica, Eva, and Ryan's paper, "A Latent Profile Analysis of Religious Parents’ Responses to their Sexual and Gender Diverse Child," has been published in the Journal of Homosexuality!
8/22/24: Congratulations to Sara Vasilenko, who was promoted to Associate Professor of Human Development & Family Science at Syracuse University. Sara also serves as the Graduate Director.
7/4/24: Alyssa, Tracy, and Eva's paper, “It's an ongoing discussion about desire”: Adults' strategies for managing sexual and affectionate desire discrepancies in romantic relationships, is now published in Journal of Marital and Family Therapy!
7/2/24: Yuan Zhang will start a postdoctoral scholarship at Arizona State University this Fall. Congratulations Yuan!
7/1/24: Congratulations to Megan Maas, who was tenured and promoted to associate professor at Michigan State!
6/26/24: Alyssa, Tracy, and Eva will be presenting their paper, “It's an ongoing discussion about desire”: Adults' strategies for managing sexual and affectionate desire discrepancies in romantic relationships, at the International Association for Relationship Research conference in Boston, MA this July!
6/24/24: Madeline and Eva’s chapter, Sexual Behavioral Development, was published in the 2nd edition of the Encyclopedia of Adolescence!
6/24/24: Tracy, Alyssa, and Eva's paper ""They mostly preached abstinence which didn’t work': Young adults’ perception of sex-related messages from caregivers prior to initiation of sex" is now published online in the Archives of Sexual Behavior!
4/29/24: Congratulations to Veronica, who successfully defended her dissertation, The Role of Religion in Sexual and Gender Diverse Youth and Young Adults' Lives!
3/13/24: Veronica, Tracy, Eva, and co-authors' paper, Religiosity, sexual behaviors, sexual motivations, and gender: A three-year longitudinal study, is now in print in the Journal of Research on Adolescence!
3/08/24: Eva, Tracy, Veronica, Christina, Madeline, Naomi, and Antonia will be giving seven presentations at SRA this April on topics including well-being across college transitions, communication about sex, religious parents’ responses to their sexual and gender diverse children, digital health applications for Black girls’ sexual health, cyberbullying, abortion access post-Dobbs, and creating inclusive environments.
1/24/2024: Sam, Eva, and Veronica's paper "Sexual orientation and gender identity expression, internalized stigma, and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic" was accepted for publication in the Journal of LGBT Youth!
12/16/2023: Veronica, Antonia, Kay, Ben, Eva, and Ryan's paper "Identity outness to family among gender diverse sexual minority youth: A latent profile analysis" is in press in the Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity journal!
12/8/2023: Eva, Tracy, and Christina all had presentations accepted for the 2024 Society for Research on Adolescence in Chicago!
9/1/2023: Chelom Leavitt received tenure and was promoted to Associate Professor. Congrats Chelom!
8/21/2023: Alyssa and Eva will be presenting their paper, The association of individual and relational factors with adults’ sexual and affectionate behaviors, at the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality in New Orleans, LA in November.
8/21/2023: Tracy, Alyssa, and Eva will be presenting their paper, "They mostly preached abstinence which didn’t work”: Young adults’ perception of sex-related messages from caregivers prior to initiation of sex, at the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality in New Orleans, LA in November.
8/17/2023: Alyssa, Tracy, Veronica, and Eva's paper, "Hugging with masks on”: LGBTQ+ college students’ relationship experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, was accepted for publication in Interpersona!
7/17/2023: Congratulations to Veronica for successfully defending her dissertation proposal: The Role of Religion in Sexual and Gender Diverse Youth and Young Adults' Lives!
6/12/2023: Congratulations to Alyssa, who successfully defended her dissertation, Sexual and Affectionate Behaviors in Adult Romantic Relationships, today! In August, Alyssa will start a position as the Walter D. Foss Endowed Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology at The College of Wooster!
6/9/2023: Madeline and co-authors' paper, Romantic attachment security buffers the effect of stress on anxiety in college students during the COVID-19 pandemic, is now available in the Journal of American College Health!
5/22/2023: Tracy successfully defended her dissertation, Correlates of Young Adults' Sexual Behavior and Its Consequences today! Tracy will start a position as Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater at Rock County, in the Department of Integrated Studies, this fall. Congratulations Dr. Walters!
5/22/2023: Tracy, Veronica, Alyssa, Rachael, and Eva's paper, LGBTQ+ college students' relationship satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic, is now published in Emerging Adulthood!
4/14/2023: Dr. Christina Ross, Veronica, and Tracy with Eva, Antonia, Ben, and Dr. Ryan Watson as co-authors presented their research as posters and flash talks at the annual Society for Research on Adolescents conference.
3/24/2023: Eva and colleagues presented at the biennial Society for Research in Child Development conference on an invited roundtable on the impact of Roe v. Wade on children and families.
3/23/2023: Alyssa's paper, Using Social Exchange Theory to examine relationship processes in asexual-sexual couples is now available in the Journal of Family Theory & Review!
3/23/2023: Dr. Christina Ross with Eva, and Tracy as co-authors presented on a paper on young mothers in foster care's perspectives on pregnancy and parenting at the Eastern Nursing Research Society.
3/6/2023: We are excited to announce that in Fall 2023, Naomi Inman will be joining the UConn HDFS Department and the DASH Lab!
3/1/2023: Tracy and Eva's paper, Does sex improve with experience?: A latent transition analysis of college students' penile-vaginal sex-related consequences, is now published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence!
1/24/2023: Veronica, Sam, Alyssa, Tracy, and Eva's paper, "It's like an elephant in the room with my family": LGBTQ+ college students' identity expression during the COVID-19 pandemic, is now available online in the Journal of Adolescent Research!
1/15/2023: Alyssa and Eva's paper, Sexual and affectionate behaviors in asexual and allosexual adults, is now published in The Journal of Sex Research! This paper was co-authored Dr. Corinne Zimmerman at Illinois State University.
12/20/2022: Sam, Tracy, Rachael, and Eva's paper, College students' sexual motives, experiences, and drinking-related protective behavioral strategies, is now available online through Sexuality & Culture!
12/15/2022: Tracy and Eva are co-authors on a paper, Young mothers in foster care perspectives on pregnancy and parenting: Implications for
healthcare providers and child welfare caregivers’ led interventions, accepted for presentation at the Eastern Nursing Research Society conference in March of 2023! Dr. Christina Ross is the first author and Jessica Smith, Yutong Song, and Dr. Natalie Shook are also co-authors.
11/19/2022: Sara, Tracy, Alyssa, and Eva's paper, Positive, negative, or mixed feelings? A person-centered approach to consequences of first penile-vaginal intercourse in college students, is now published in Archives of Sexual Behavior!
9/9/2022: Eva and Tracy's paper, Selection and socialization effects of living on vs. off campus, is now in Emerging Adulthood!
8/29/2022: Congratulations to Sophie! She graduated this past spring and started her Masters program in Marriage and Family Therapy/Counseling at Southern Connecticut State University today!
8/7/2022: Yuan, Rachael, Sam, Tracy, Alyssa, Veronica, and Eva's paper, How social support and parent-child relationship quality relate to LGBTQ+ college students’ well-being during COVID-19, is now published at the Journal of Family Psychology!
8/5/2022: Congratulations to Yuan Zhang! She defended her dissertation this summer and started a new post-doc with Dr. Linda Halgunseth at Michigan State University!
7/12/2022: Congratulations to Samantha Lawrence, who defended her dissertation this past spring and started a new post-doc this week with Dr. Marla Eisenberg and the PIQTOC lab at the University of Minnesota!
6/12/2022: Rachael's paper, Adolescent pornography consumption: A symbolic interactionist lens, is now in the Journal of Family Theory & Review!
6/1/2022: Tracy's paper, Socialized sexual values and meanings ascribed to sex as predictors of one's experience of sex: A theoretical model, is in the Journal of Family Theory & Review!
5/16/2022: Alyssa's paper, Concordance between romantic orientations and sexual attitudes: Comparing allosexual and asexual adults, was published in Archives of Sexual Behavior! This paper was co-authored with Dr. Corinne Zimmerman at Illinois State University.
4/15/2022: We are excited to announce that in Fall 2022 Madeline Jones will be joining the UConn HDFS Department and the DASH lab!
3/5/2022: Eva, Sam, and Veronica presented posters at the Society for Research on Adolescence in New Orleans, with Alyssa, Antonia Caba, Dr. Chelom Leavitt (BYU), Dr. Rose Wesche (Virginia Tech), Dr. Ryan Watson, Sophia Lindsay, and Tracy as co-authors! In addition, Eva participated in the Meet the Scientist Coffee.
2/23/2022: Sam co-authored a paper in press at Policy Insights from the Behavior and Brain Sciences, with Dr. Leah Lessard as a co-author. The paper is Weight-based disparities in youth mental health: Scope, social underpinnings, and policy implications.
1/25/2022: Alyssa co-authored a paper in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, with Dr. Kay Simon as first author and Heath Hawthorne, Benton Renley, Dr. Rachel Farr, Dr. Lisa Eaton, and Dr. Ryan Watson as co-authors! The paper is Contextualizing the well-being of asexual youth: Evidence of differences in family, health, and school outcomes.
12/18/2021: Veronica's paper, Missing piece of the puzzle: Evaluating a general meaning of sex measure, is now published in Family Process. This paper was co-authored by Chelom and other scholars at Brigham Young University.
11/22/2021: Veronica co-authored a paper in press at Sexual and Relationship Therapy, with David Allsop, Amber Price, Dr. Chelom Leavitt, Emily Milius, and Shayla Driggs as co-authors! The paper is Longitudinal associations between attachment, differentiation of self, and couple sexual and relational outcomes.
10/2/2021: Tracy will be presenting a paper, with Veronica, Alyssa, Rachael, and Eva as co-authors, at SSEA's virtual conference in November!
10/1/2021: Sam, Tracy, Alyssa, Yuan, Veronica, Rachael, and Eva's paper, LGBTQ+ college students' engagement in COVID-protective and COVID-risk behaviors, is now in published at Emerging Adulthood!
9/20/2021: Rachael was accepted as a mentor to the NCFR Mentoring Academy.
9/14/2021: Veronica and Chelom co-authored a paper, with Dr. Dean Busby as first author, which is now in press at the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy! The paper is Is kissing a bellwether of sexual and relationship satisfaction and dissatisfaction?
8/30/2021: Congratulations to Graciela! She was promoted to Professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington!
8/2/2021: Eva recently agreed to a second five-year term as Department Head of HDFS at UConn! Congratulations, Eva!
7/16/2021: Rachael has an entry on Wedding Venues in press in Marriage and Divorce in America Issues, Trends, and Controversies, a two-volume encyclopedia set.
6/5/2021: Eva was quoted in The Times (London)!
6/1/2021: Veronica's paper, Beliefs about sexuality and their associations with sexual passion, is now published in Personal Relationships! This paper was co-authored with Dr. Dean Busby at Brigham Young University.
5/18/2021: Veronica and Chelom are co-authors on a paper published at Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, with Dr. Dean Busby as first author and Dr. Jason Carroll as a co-author. The paper is The sexual wholeness model: An initial evaluation with two samples.
5/10/2021: We are excited to announce the newest addition to the DASH lab, Makayla Dawkins! Makayla is beginning an apprenticeship with us through the SHARE Virtual Summer Research Apprenticeship Program.
5/8/2021: Sara, Eva, and Jennifer's paper, Changes in psychological distress after first vaginal intercourse in late adolescence, is now published online with the Journal of Adolescence!
5/5/2021: Congratulations to Tracy on receiving the HDFS Department's Outstanding Graduate Instructor Award!
4/28/2021: Rose, Eva, and Jennifer's paper, Short-term consequences of sex: Contextual predictors and change across college, is now published online with Archives of Sexual Behavior!
4/8/2021: Rachael was selected for one of the 100 Years of Women Scholarship Awards for the 2021 - 2022 academic year from UConn’s Women's Center in recognition of her outstanding academic achievements, dedicated service, and significant contributions to the advancement of women in society. Congratulations Rachael!
4/7/2021: Eva (PI), Amanda Denes, and Lisa Eaton received funding from CLAS for Research in the CLAS Academic Themes for a project, LGBTQ+ college students’ health and well-being during semesters and academic breaks.
3/22/2021: Eva was quoted in an article in the CT Post regarding the importance of maintaining personal connections during the pandemic.
3/11/2021: Veronica and Chelom are co-authors on a paper in press at The Journal of Sex Research, with Dr. Dean Busby as first author and Nathan Leonhardt as a co-author. The paper is Putting the dyad into the sexual response discussion: A latent class analysis using ratings of self and partner.
3/5/2021: Eva, Sara, Alyssa, Emily, Sam and Tracy presented three posters at the Society for Research on Adolescence Virtual Conference!
2/28/2021: Rachael has an entry on Pornography in press in Marriage and Divorce in America Issues, Trends, and Controversies, a two-volume encyclopedia set.
1/27/2021: Eva was interviewed by the Office of the Vice President for Research at UConn regarding the LGBTQ+ CREW Study! You can read the article here and/or view a short video here.
1/15/2021: Congratulations to Tanya Boone-Holladay, who has accepted a position as the Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at the University of South Carolina, Upstate!
10/17/2020: Eva was quoted in the Sunday Times (UK)!
10/8/2020: Eva participated in InCHIP's panel discussion, "Becoming an Adult during a Public Health Crisis: COVID-19's Impact on Emerging Adults" and presented findings from the LGBTQ+ CREW Study.
7/1/2020: Congratulations to Yuan, who received a 2020 Wood/Raith Gender Identity Living Trust summer fellowship!
5/25/2020: We have finished data collection on the LGBTQ+ CREW Study (InCHIP funded project), with data from a total of 455 students.
5/2/2020: Congratulations to Sam, the recipient of the 2020 graduate student Mentorship Excellence Award from the Office of Undergraduate Research in recognition of her outstanding mentorship of undergraduate researchers!
4/14/2020: Congratulations to Emily Waterman, who has accepted a position as a faculty member in developmental psychology at Bennington College!
4/13/2020: Emily and Eva's paper, Does alcohol use in large group contexts mediate the association between sex-related alcohol expectancies and rape? is now published at Violence and Victims!
4/10/2020: Eva and graduate students Alyssa Clark, Rachael Farina, Samantha Lawrence, Tracy Walters, and Yuan Zhang received Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy (InCHIP) Rapid Response grant funding. The project, LGBTQ+ college students' living arrangements and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic will launch as soon as possible.
3/30/2020: We are excited to announce that in Fall 2020 Veronica Hanna-Walker will be joining the UConn HDFS Department and the DASH lab!
2/13/2020: Eva was quoted in Teen Vogue, discussing her, Rose, and Chelom's paper, Never Been Kissed: Correlates of Lifetime Kissing Status in U.S. University Students.
1/20/2020: Emily, Rose, Chelom, and Eva's paper, Fraternity membership, traditional masculinity ideologies, and impersonal sex: Selection and socialization effects, is now published at Psychology of Men and Masculinities.
1/13/2020: The Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescence Development has been published, with a chapter on Normative Sexual Development and Milestones by Rose and Eva.
12/16/2019: Eva will be chairing a symposium at Society for Research on Adolescence in San Diego in March, on dating and sexual violence. The symposium will feature work by Eva, Emily, Sam, and Megan. Eva will also be leading a panel discussion on careers in administration.
11/27/2019: Rose, Derek, and Eva's Paper, Sources of social influence on adolescents' alcohol use, is now published at the Journal of Research on Adolescence.
10/21/2019: Rose was quoted in the New York Times, discussing her, Derek, and Eva's paper, Sources of social influence on adolescents' alcohol use!
10/10/2019: Eva, Meghan, Emily, Rose, and Tracy are all off to Toronto to present three posters, two papers, and participate in two panels at the Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood conference.
10/2/2019: Eva, Sara, Rose, and Jennifer's paper, Changes in diverse sexual and contraceptive behaviors across college, is now published at the Journal of Sex Research!
9/27/2019: Eva, Rose, Giorgia, and Anna's article was selected by the Sexuality Topic Network of the Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood (SSEA) as the winner of the 2018 Best Research Article award for research advancing scholarship on sex and sexuality among emerging adults. They will be recognized at the upcoming SSEA conference in Toronto. The article is: Lefkowitz, E. S., Wesche, R., Picci, G., & Hochgraf, A. K. (2018). Daily associations between kissing and affect during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 28, 779-785.
9/17/2019: Chelom and Eva, with colleagues from Istanbul Bilgi University and Kyiv Taras Shevchenko University, now have their paper, A cross-cultural study of midlife relational and sexual health: Comparing Ukraine to the U.S and Turkey, published at Sexuality and Culture!
7/16/19: Chelom, Eva, and Emily's paper, The role of sexual mindfulness in sexual wellbeing, relational wellbeing, and self-esteem, is now published at the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy!
5/17/19: Rose and Eva, with colleagues from Penn State, now have their paper, Peer acceptance and sexual behaviors from adolescence to young adulthood, published at the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.
5/15/19: Emily will soon begin her position as a Postdoctoral fellow at Nebraska Center for Research in Children, Youth, Families and Schools. Congratulations, Emily!
5/7/19: Rose Wesche has accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Sciences at Virginia Tech University. She starts in Fall 2019. Congratulations Rose!
4/9/19: We are excited to announce that as of Fall 2019, two new graduate students, Tracy Walters and Alyssa Clark, will be joining the UConn HDFS department and the DASH lab!
3/25/19: Eva, Rose, Sam and Mackenzie presented three posters at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research on Child Development in Baltimore, Maryland last weekend!
12/12/18: Rose and Eva's paper, Daily associations between kissing and affect during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood, is now published at the Journal of Research on Adolescence!
12/4/18: Rose and Eva's paper, Evaluations and future plans after casual sexual experiences: Differences across partner type is now published at the Journal of Sex Research. This paper was co-authored by scholars at Kent State and Morningside College.
12/01/18: Emily, Rose and Eva's paper, Longitudinal correlates of peer sexual communication quality in late adolescence, is now published at Sexuality Research and Social Policy.
7/15/18: Emily has started her Postdoctoral Fellow with the Interpersonal Violence Research Lab at University of New Hampshire!
6/5/18: Sara and Eva's paper, Sexual behavior and daily affect in emerging adulthood, is now published at Emerging Adulthood.
4/14/18: Many members of the lab battled a major snow storm while attending the conference for the Society for Research on Adolescence in Minneapolis, MN! Eva, Rose, Emily, Sam, and Mackenzie presented research. Eva also participated as a panelist on the future of developmental research!
4/13/18: Eva, Rose and Chelom's paper, Never been kissed: Correlates of lifetime kissing status in U. S. university students, is now published at Archives of Sexual Behavior.
4/7/18: Emily, Rose, Chelom, and Eva's paper, Long-distance relationships, relationship dissolution, and college adjustment is now published at Emerging Adulthood. This paper was co-authored by Dr. Damon Jones of Penn State.
3/16/18: Congratulations to Sara Vasilenko, who has accepted a position as assistant professor of Human Development and Family Science at Syracuse University!
11/15/17: Chelom presented a poster at the National Conference on Family Relations in Orlando, Florida!
11/1/17: Dan and Rose will present posters and Dan, Rose, Emily, Chelom, and Eva will be presenting two papers at the Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood conference in Washington, D.C.!
9/1/17: Chelom, Emily, and Eva have 2 chapters in The Sage Encyclopedia of Lifespan Human Development on Midlife sexual development and erectile dysfunction, and Sexuality across the lifespan.
8/7/17: Rose and Eva's paper, Early sexual initiation and mental health: A fleeting association or enduring change? is now published in print by the Journal of Research on Adolescence. This paper was co-authored by scholars at Penn State and Florida State.
9/29/17: We are proud to announce that Tanya Boone-Holladay is now the Associate Dean for the School of Social Sciences and Education at California State University Bakersfield.
6/15/17: Emily and Eva's paper, Are mothers' and fathers' parenting characteristics associated with emerging adults' academic engagement? is now published at the Journal of Family Issues.
6/7/17: Rose successfully defended her dissertation, FRIENDS, ROMANTIC PARTNERS, AND CASUAL SEXUAL PARTNERS: EXPLORING THE SOCIAL TRANSMISSION OF ALCOHOL USE IN ADOLESCENCE AND YOUNG ADULTHOOD, today! Congratulations Rose!
6/6/17: Congratulations to Chelom, who defended her dissertation, RELATIONAL AND SEXUAL SATISFACTION AND MINDFULNESS IN MIDLIFE today!
6/1/17: Emily will begin a postdoctoral position in the Prevention Research Center at Penn State in July. Congrats, Emily!
5/30/17: Congratulations to Emily, who successfully defended her dissertation, PREVENTING SEXUAL VICTIMIZATION ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES:
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE TRANSLATIONAL SPECTRUM, this morning!
5/23/17: Emily recently received the Centre County Women's Resource Center Partner in Prevention award. This award recognizes all of her recent innovative work in the area of sexual assault prevention. It's hard to keep up with this crew!
5/20/17: Chelom, Emily, and Eva presented posters at the Society for Prevention Research conference in Washington, D.C.!
5/17/17: Rose recently received the Steven H. Zarit Award for Graduate Student Excellence in HDFS. Congratulations Rose!
4/28/17: Congratulations to Rose, who has accepted a position as postdoctoral fellow at the Medical College of Wisconsin Center for AIDS Intervention Research next fall!
4/11/17: We are proud to announce that Chelom will be joining Brigham Young University as an assistant professor in the School of Family Life. Congrats Chelom!
4/10/17: Eva, Rose and Emily just got back from the Society for Research in Child Development conference in Austin, Texas. It was wonderful to meet new colleagues and catch up with old friends. Eva and Rose gave talks and Emily showed a poster.
1/19/17: Rose, Sara, Eva's paper, Latent classes of sexual behaviors: Prevalence, predictors, and consequences, is now published in Sexuality Research and Social Policy.
12/1/16: Rose, Chelom, and Emily have successfully completed their dissertation proposals!
11/20/16: Chelom presented research at the International Symposium for Contemplative Studies in early November.
11/2/16: The manuscript Gender's role in misperceptions of peers' sexual motives, by Rose, Graciela, and Eva, is now published in Sexuality & Culture.
9/15/16: Eva is co-author on a paper that is now published at Sex Roles, with Derek Kreager as first author. The paper is The double standard at sexual debut: Gender, sexual behavior, and adolescent peer acceptance.
9/1/16: Megan Maas is now an assistant professor in Human Development and Family Studies at Michigan State University. She is a core faculty member in the university's Research Consortium in Gender Based Violence. We are extremely proud of her accomplishments.
8/23/16: As of this date, Eva will be the department head of HDFS at the University of Connecticut! We are very proud and wish her luck during the transition.
8/4/16: Emily completed an internship in sexual and reproductive health at ETR Associates, a nonprofit that disseminates evidence-based interventions. The internship was based in Oakland, CA.
6/30/16: Eva, Emily, Nicole, and Jennifer's paper, College students’ perceptions of the links between alcohol use and sex, is now published in Emerging Adulthood.
4/22/16: Press release! The paper The double standard at sexual debut: Gender, sexual behavior, and adolescent peer acceptance is now featured in an article by the Penn State News. Check it out here.
4/22/16: Emily has completed and passed comprehensive exams! Hooray!
3/29/16: The whole lab will see you in Baltimore for SRA this week. Chelom is co-chairing the SRA pre-conference on romantic relationships. Eva, Rose, and Emily will be presenting research.
3/16/16: Chelom has completed and passed comprehensive exams! Congratulations Chelom!
3/15/16: Ian and Eva's paper, Emerging adults’ male role attitudes: Developmental pattern and within-person association with self-esteem, is now published at Emerging Adulthood.
1/18/16: Rose has completed and passed comprehensive exams! Great job!
1/11/16: Eva, Sara, and Chelom's paper, Oral vs. vaginal sex experiences and consequences among first year college students, is now published in Archives of Sexual Behavior.
11/20/16: Chelom presented research at the International Symposium for Contemplative Studies in early November.
11/2/16: The manuscript Gender's role in misperceptions of peers' sexual motives, by Rose, Graciela, and Eva, is now published in Sexuality & Culture.
9/15/16: Eva is co-author on a paper that is now published at Sex Roles, with Derek Kreager as first author. The paper is The double standard at sexual debut: Gender, sexual behavior, and adolescent peer acceptance.
9/1/16: Megan Maas is now an assistant professor in Human Development and Family Studies at Michigan State University. She is a core faculty member in the university's Research Consortium in Gender Based Violence. We are extremely proud of her accomplishments.
8/23/16: As of this date, Eva will be the department head of HDFS at the University of Connecticut! We are very proud and wish her luck during the transition.
8/4/16: Emily completed an internship in sexual and reproductive health at ETR Associates, a nonprofit that disseminates evidence-based interventions. The internship was based in Oakland, CA.
6/30/16: Eva, Emily, Nicole, and Jennifer's paper, College students’ perceptions of the links between alcohol use and sex, is now published in Emerging Adulthood.
4/22/16: Press release! The paper The double standard at sexual debut: Gender, sexual behavior, and adolescent peer acceptance is now featured in an article by the Penn State News. Check it out here.
4/22/16: Emily has completed and passed comprehensive exams! Hooray!
3/29/16: The whole lab will see you in Baltimore for SRA this week. Chelom is co-chairing the SRA pre-conference on romantic relationships. Eva, Rose, and Emily will be presenting research.
3/16/16: Chelom has completed and passed comprehensive exams! Congratulations Chelom!
3/15/16: Ian and Eva's paper, Emerging adults’ male role attitudes: Developmental pattern and within-person association with self-esteem, is now published at Emerging Adulthood.
1/18/16: Rose has completed and passed comprehensive exams! Great job!
1/11/16: Eva, Sara, and Chelom's paper, Oral vs. vaginal sex experiences and consequences among first year college students, is now published in Archives of Sexual Behavior.
12/31/15: Megan M. accepted a tenure-track position in HDFS and the Gender Based Violence Research Consortium at Michigan State! Congrats Megan!
10/15/15: Megan, Cindy, Meghan, and Eva's paper, Sex rules: Emerging adults’ perceptions of gender’s impact on sexuality, is now published in Sexuality and Culture.
10/13/15: The whole lab is off to Miami this week for the Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood to chair two symposia and one pre-conference, and give four talks, one poster, and two discussions.
6/5/15: Daily Associations Between Drinking and Sex Among College Students: A Longitudinal Measurement Burst Design, by Megan Patrick, Jennifer Maggs, and Eva, is now published.
5/15/15: Meghan Gillen received tenure and was promoted to associate professor. Congrats Meghan!
5/15/15: Eva was promoted to full professor. Congratulations Eva!
5/1/15: Our group will be presenting 5 papers and posters at SSEA in Miami this October.
3/31/15: Congratulations to Emily, who was awarded a Prevention & Methodology Training fellowship. Emily's fellowship will start in July.
2/20/15: Gender, Contraceptive Attitudes, and Condom Use in Adolescent Romantic Relationships: A Dyadic Approach, by Sara Vasilenko, Derek Kreager, & Eva Lefkowitz, is now published in Journal of Research on Adolescence.
1/15/15: Rose and Emily will both be presenting their research in posters at SRCD in Philadelphia this March.
1/1/15: Chelom, Megan, Rose, and Emily all successfully advanced to doctoral candidacy since May. Congratulations all!
11/8/14: Megan, Rose, and Emily are representing our group well with presentations at the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality in Omaha.
11/7/14: How Gendered Attitudes Relate to Women's and Men's Sexual Behaviors and Beliefs by Eva Lefkowitz, Cindy Shearer, Meghan Gillen, and Graciela Espinosa-Hernandez is now published in Sexuality and Culture.
11/1/14: Sara and Eva's paper, Changes in religiosity after first intercourse in the transition to adulthood, is now published in Psychology of Religion and Spirituality.
9/12/14: Megan and Eva's paper on sexual esteem, based on Megan's masters thesis, is now available online Journal of Sex Research. Find it here.
8/6/14: Eva's paper on predictors of HPV vaccination (based on Kate Kelly's honors thesis and co-authored by Sara and Jennifer Maggs), is now published in Women and Health. Find it here.
7/2/14: Kelly Cichy, former advisee of Eva, was recently tenured and is now an associate professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Kent State. Congratulations Kelly!
7/1/14: Rose is officially a Prevention & Methodology pre-doctoral fellow!
6/24/14: Eva and Sara's edited issue of New Directions in Child and Adolescent Development, Positive and Negative Outcomes of Sexual Behaviors is now in print. It includes two chapters by Eva and Sara, as well as excellent contributions by Elizabeth Morgan, Lucia O'Sullivan, Wendy Manning and colleagues, and Dennis Fortenberry.
5/7/14: Congratulations to Rose for successfully defending and filing her masters thesis this semester.
4/4/14: Congratulations to Chelom, whose paper with Brian Willoughby, Associations Between Attempts at Physical Intimacy and Relational Outcomes Among Cohabiting and Married Couples, is now published in Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.
3/23/14: We returned from an intellectually stimulating (and warm!) Society for Research on Adolescence conference in Austin, where many of us presented our research, and where current and former students got together for dinner at Taverna
3/1/14: Congratulations to Emily, who will be supported by the Karl Freeman Peterson Graduate Fellowship for 3 semesters.
2/24/14: Eva just gave a talk at Ohio State. She enjoyed seeing faculty there who are former HDFS students (Claire Kamp-Dush, Tasha Snyder, and Jen Wong).
12/27/13: Congratulations to Tanya Boone-Holladay, former lab member and Eva's FIRST grad student, who is now chair of the psychology department at Cal State University, Bakersfield!
12/20/13: Congratulations to Megan and Emily, who will be presenting first authored posters at the Society for Research on Adolescence in Austin in March. Eva and Sara also are both chairs/first authors and/or discussants on SRA symposia.
12/5/13: Congratulations to Megan for successfully defending and filing her masters thesis!
10/9/13: Eva, Rose and Emily are headed to Chicago to present research at the 6th annual Conference on Emerging Adulthood!
8/1/13: Megan is officially a Prevention & Methodology pre-doctoral fellow!
7/1/13: Eva is officially on a much-deserved sabbatical! She is missed here in State College, but enjoying life in Boston!
10/15/15: Megan, Cindy, Meghan, and Eva's paper, Sex rules: Emerging adults’ perceptions of gender’s impact on sexuality, is now published in Sexuality and Culture.
10/13/15: The whole lab is off to Miami this week for the Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood to chair two symposia and one pre-conference, and give four talks, one poster, and two discussions.
6/5/15: Daily Associations Between Drinking and Sex Among College Students: A Longitudinal Measurement Burst Design, by Megan Patrick, Jennifer Maggs, and Eva, is now published.
5/15/15: Meghan Gillen received tenure and was promoted to associate professor. Congrats Meghan!
5/15/15: Eva was promoted to full professor. Congratulations Eva!
5/1/15: Our group will be presenting 5 papers and posters at SSEA in Miami this October.
3/31/15: Congratulations to Emily, who was awarded a Prevention & Methodology Training fellowship. Emily's fellowship will start in July.
2/20/15: Gender, Contraceptive Attitudes, and Condom Use in Adolescent Romantic Relationships: A Dyadic Approach, by Sara Vasilenko, Derek Kreager, & Eva Lefkowitz, is now published in Journal of Research on Adolescence.
1/15/15: Rose and Emily will both be presenting their research in posters at SRCD in Philadelphia this March.
1/1/15: Chelom, Megan, Rose, and Emily all successfully advanced to doctoral candidacy since May. Congratulations all!
11/8/14: Megan, Rose, and Emily are representing our group well with presentations at the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality in Omaha.
11/7/14: How Gendered Attitudes Relate to Women's and Men's Sexual Behaviors and Beliefs by Eva Lefkowitz, Cindy Shearer, Meghan Gillen, and Graciela Espinosa-Hernandez is now published in Sexuality and Culture.
11/1/14: Sara and Eva's paper, Changes in religiosity after first intercourse in the transition to adulthood, is now published in Psychology of Religion and Spirituality.
9/12/14: Megan and Eva's paper on sexual esteem, based on Megan's masters thesis, is now available online Journal of Sex Research. Find it here.
8/6/14: Eva's paper on predictors of HPV vaccination (based on Kate Kelly's honors thesis and co-authored by Sara and Jennifer Maggs), is now published in Women and Health. Find it here.
7/2/14: Kelly Cichy, former advisee of Eva, was recently tenured and is now an associate professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Kent State. Congratulations Kelly!
7/1/14: Rose is officially a Prevention & Methodology pre-doctoral fellow!
6/24/14: Eva and Sara's edited issue of New Directions in Child and Adolescent Development, Positive and Negative Outcomes of Sexual Behaviors is now in print. It includes two chapters by Eva and Sara, as well as excellent contributions by Elizabeth Morgan, Lucia O'Sullivan, Wendy Manning and colleagues, and Dennis Fortenberry.
5/7/14: Congratulations to Rose for successfully defending and filing her masters thesis this semester.
4/4/14: Congratulations to Chelom, whose paper with Brian Willoughby, Associations Between Attempts at Physical Intimacy and Relational Outcomes Among Cohabiting and Married Couples, is now published in Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.
3/23/14: We returned from an intellectually stimulating (and warm!) Society for Research on Adolescence conference in Austin, where many of us presented our research, and where current and former students got together for dinner at Taverna
3/1/14: Congratulations to Emily, who will be supported by the Karl Freeman Peterson Graduate Fellowship for 3 semesters.
2/24/14: Eva just gave a talk at Ohio State. She enjoyed seeing faculty there who are former HDFS students (Claire Kamp-Dush, Tasha Snyder, and Jen Wong).
12/27/13: Congratulations to Tanya Boone-Holladay, former lab member and Eva's FIRST grad student, who is now chair of the psychology department at Cal State University, Bakersfield!
12/20/13: Congratulations to Megan and Emily, who will be presenting first authored posters at the Society for Research on Adolescence in Austin in March. Eva and Sara also are both chairs/first authors and/or discussants on SRA symposia.
12/5/13: Congratulations to Megan for successfully defending and filing her masters thesis!
10/9/13: Eva, Rose and Emily are headed to Chicago to present research at the 6th annual Conference on Emerging Adulthood!
8/1/13: Megan is officially a Prevention & Methodology pre-doctoral fellow!
7/1/13: Eva is officially on a much-deserved sabbatical! She is missed here in State College, but enjoying life in Boston!