Women and men often hold disparate expectations about their roles in the workplace, at school, and in the household. This project asks how the economics of intimacy, or the negotiation of "for me and for thee?" unfold in Americans' perceptions of young people's responses to sexual requests. Using a national survey experiment of 18-44-year-old women and men, I find that women and men believe young men and women feel expected to perform oral sex when asked by a partner. At the same time, young men are perceived to , whereas women do not. 

Using the National Couples' Time and Health Study (NCHAT), the first population-representative study of same-gender and mixed-gender couples, this study shows how stress about household labor during the COVID-19 pandemic affects childbearing desires. Findings indicate that stress about household labor was positively associated with desires for men and for women partnered with women, but not for women partnered with men, who had the lowest desire for children overall. These findings highlight how gendered divisions of labor shape family formation attitudes in unique ways.

Sexual minoritized adults in the United States face daily interpersonal discrimination and anti-LGBTQ legislation that negatively affects their mental health and wellbeing. This project asks whether positive intimate relationships can buffer the negative effects of identity-based discrimination on  poor mental health outcomes, stress, and social isolation.

This proposed study uses data from the National Couples' Health and Time Use Study to test whether sexual satisfaction buffers against the association between self-reported Interpersonal discrimination and negative mental health, stress, and social isolation.

Having children in today's world is expensive and time-consuming, and costs continue to rise each year. Some young adults decide to have fewer children, and others decide to opt out of becoming parents altogether. Sexual minoritized adults face additional financial and logistical barriers to becoming parents, but we know little about the factors that influence their fertility preferences.

In collaboration with Dr. Kathleen Broussard at the University of South Carolina, this project asks adults in the United States about the relative importance of social and economic factors in shaping their fertility preferences, and which specific barriers affect their childbearing ideals and plans.