Professor, Director of Graduate Studies, Director of Relationships & Development Lab
Biography
Amy Rauer is a Professor in Child and Family Studies. Her work utilizes longitudinal, observational methodologies to reveal how romantic relationships develop as the individuals within them grow and change over the lifespan. She previously served as the director of the Marriage and Retirement Study (MARS), a longitudinal project funded by the Fetzer Institute to examine the role of compassionate love in older couples’ lives. More recently, she founded the Relationships & Development Lab to explore the role of developmental timing in determining the costs and benefits of romantic relationships, as the behaviors that promote couples’ adjustment and well-being earlier in the lifespan may in fact undermine it later in life.
(Currently accepting new graduate students)
Research
- Romantic Relationships across the Lifespan
- Adulthood and Aging
- Developmental and Contextual Influences on Relationship Functioning
- Couples’ Social Networks
- Longitudinal, Observational Assessments of Couples
Education
- Ph.D., Developmental Psychology, University of Michigan, 2006
Awards and Recognitions
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Top Article Award, International Association for Relationship Research, 2020 (Awarded to the top article published in Personal Relationships or Journal of Social and Personal Relationships that made a significant and original contribution to the study of personal relationships)
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College Senate Faculty Mentoring Award, 2020 (Awarded to one faculty member who demonstrated excellence in mentoring junior faculty)
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Top Reviewer, Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 2019 (Awarded to the top reviewer based on the quality and quantity of their manuscript reviews)
Publications
Selected Recent Publications
Kanter, J., Williams, D., & Rauer, A. (in press). Strengthening lower-income families: Lessons learned from policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Family Process.
Hornbuckle, L., Rauer, A., Winters-Stone, K., Springer, C., Jones, C., & Toth, L. (in press). Better together? A pilot study of romantic partner influence on exercise adherence and cardiometabolic risk in African-American couples. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.
Rauer, A. & Proulx, C. (2021). A social perspective on couples across the lifespan: Challenges and opportunities. Research in Human Development, 17, 191-194.
Fiori, K., Rauer, A., Birditt, K., Brown, E., & Orbuch, T. (2021). You aren’t as close to my family as you think: Discordant perceptions about in-laws and risk of divorce. Research in Human Development, 17, 258-273.
Rauer, A., Sabey. A, Proulx, C., & Volling. B. (2020). What are the marital problems of happy couples?: A multi-method, two-sample investigation. Family Process, 59, 1275-1292.