Karen Fingerman, Ph.D.
College of Natural Sciences-Human Development and Family Sciences
Karen Fingerman, Ph.D. is a Professor of Human Development and Family Sciences and Co-Director of the Aging and Longevity Center at The University of Texas at Austin. She studies adult development and aging and directs the Aging Network (an interdisciplinary group of faculty and graduate students who study aging) and the Graduate Portfolio in Aging and Health.
Her research has asked how relationships with family members, friends, and acquaintances change from young adulthood to old age, with particular attention to emotional qualities of ties and support exchanges. She has published over 150 scholarly articles on families and friends in late life. The National Institute on Aging (NIA) has funded her work for nearly 20 years
NIA provided funds for Dr. Fingerman’s Family Exchanges Study, a longitudinal study involving middle-aged adults, their romantic partners, grown children and aging parents. This project has shown the ways in which midlife adults negotiate demands and connections with generations above and below as well as considering the implications of family ties for young adults and older adults.
Fingerman is currently conducting the NIA-funded Daily Experiences and Well-being in Late Life Study looking at over 300 older adults’ social relationships and physical and cognitive functioning in a daily context using a variety of sensory and ecologically valid assessments.
Her prior work has been funded by the Brookdale Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation Network on Transitions to Adulthood and the MacArthur Foundation Network on an Aging Society. Her research has drawn on survey methods, observational studies, experimental paradigms, daily diary, and salivary hormone data collection techniques.
More:
- Co-Director, Aging and Longevity Center
- Director, Aging Network
- Director, Graduate Portfolio in Aging and Health
- Lead, Adult Family Project
- The Adult Family Project also runs the NIA-sponsored Family Exchanges Study R01AG027769.
- NIA-funded Daily Experiences in Late Life Study R01AG046460
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