Our first line of research seeks to explore ways to promote and maintain healthy romantic relationships among couple members who face discrimination. This research has focused on people in interracial relationships since these couples often report worse relationship quality (e.g., lower satisfaction and commitment) and higher rates of breakup and divorce partly due to the racial discrimination they experience (Rosenthal & Starks, 2015; Zhang & Van Hook, 2009).  

Theoretically, our research considers that for people in interracial relationships (specifically those between White partners and Black or non-White Hispanic partners in the United States), racial discrimination is not an experience that is parallel for the involved partners. This has implications for relationship outcomes. Notably, White partners who find the experience of racial discrimination too aversive have the option to end the relationship to stop their experience of racial discrimination, which Black and non-White Hispanic partners do not have. Thus, despite the fact that being the target of racial discrimination is undeniably more stressful for a Black or non-White Hispanic partner, it is vital to understand processes that can mitigate discrimination for White partners as well, since it is a process that can to be beneficial for interracial relationship longevity.

Our second line of research to date examines how romantic relationships influence a person's sense of self, which is a person's malleable conceptualization of who they are, including their characteristics, beliefs, values, and identities (Aron et al., 2013; Mattingly et al., 2014). Importantly, a person's understanding of their sense of self is directly related to their well-being (Ritchie et al., 2011). That is, people who have a clear understanding of who they are report better well-being, whereas people who lack this clarity do not. 

Romantic relationships provide people with the opportunity to change who they are and how they come to think of themselves throughout their relationship (Aron et al., 2013; Mattingly et al., 2014). This process, known as self-concept change, occurs when people experience subtle changes in their behavior and cognitions due to their interactions with their romantic partner (Mattingly et al., 2014). However, research to date lacks exploring specific relationship contexts and their influence on the self, rather researchers have examined the act of being in a romantic relationship. Thus, our research examines specific contexts within the relationship and their impact on self-change.