About

Brian Baucom, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Utah and serves as the Director of Clinical Training. His research focuses on understanding how partners in committed, romantic relationships interact to promote or inhibit their well-being, stability, and individual physical and mental health. He conducts both basic and applied research with an emphasis on couples and families coping with psychological distress, psychopathology, and chronic health conditions. His work integrates multiple assessment modalities, including self-report, daily diary, psychophysiology, cognitive performance tasks, observational coding, speech signal processing, and natural language processing. Dr. Baucom has received funding from various national and international agencies, including the Department of Defense, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Justice, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Israeli Science Foundation, and Apple. His clinical interests are centered on increasing access to empirically supported psychotherapies, especially for underserved populations. He co-directs the Behavioral Health Innovation and Dissemination Center, which offers low-fee, evidence-based psychotherapies to individuals and couples, and trains graduate students, psychiatry residents, and fellows in providing these therapies. His research group is involved in interdisciplinary projects examining couple and family-based interventions for health behavior change and risk reduction, including HIV prevention, cancer, sleep apnea, and stroke. The group also develops computational tools and statistical models for studying couple interactions, collaborating with experts in computational psychiatry, electrical engineering, computer science, and biostatistics. His educational background includes a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Southern California, a Ph.D. from UCLA, and a master's and bachelor's degrees from UCLA and Vanderbilt University, respectively.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Clinical psychology
• Psychiatry
• Social psychology
• Medical education
• Applied psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Cognitive psychology
• Medicine
• Neuroscience

Selected publications

• Feasibility and preliminary efficacy results for WePAP: A transdiagnostic, couples-based intervention to promote positive airway pressure adherence and patient and partner sleep health

  Sleep Health · 2025-10-28

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Parenting Concerns, Psychological Distress, and Relationship Adjustment Among Patients With Cancer and Their Partners: A Longitudinal Study

  Psycho-Oncology · 2025-01-01 · 7 citations

  articleOpen access

  OBJECTIVE: Studies have found that cancer patients with dependent children exhibit high symptoms of anxiety, depression, and worry. Patients' parenting concerns can negatively impact their own and their family's adjustment to the cancer experience. However, relatively little is known about parenting concerns of partners of cancer patients, or associations between parenting concerns and couples' relationship adjustment. This longitudinal study investigated parenting concerns among both patients and partners, and their associations with psychological and relationship adjustment. METHODS: One hundred thirty-four patients with cancer and their partners (67 couples) completed the Parenting Concerns Questionnaire at baseline and measures of psychological distress, communication, and relationship adjustment at four time points (baseline, 4-, 8-, and 12-month follow up). RESULTS: Baseline parenting concerns did not differ by role, gender, cancer site or cancer stage (p > 0.05). Patients and partners who reported higher levels of parenting concerns at baseline reported significantly greater psychological distress and poorer communication concurrently and at each subsequent assessment. There were no significant associations between parenting concerns and relationship satisfaction either concurrently or over time. CONCLUSIONS: These findings reinforce the need for a dyadic perspective to assessing both patients' and partners' parenting concerns and a focus on processes such as communication as an avenue for managing and processing parenting concerns.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Testing an Online Parent-focused HIV prevention Intervention for Gay and Bisexual Adolescents: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial (Preprint)

  2025-11-18

  articleOpen access

  <sec> <title>BACKGROUND</title> Among US teenagers, 79% of HIV infections are attributable to male-to-male sexual contact, yet few interventions have been shown to effectively reduce sexual risk among gay and bisexual adolescents (GBA). Parent communication about sex is associated with adolescent sexual risk, and interventions to improve parent communication have been shown to successfully reduce sexual risk among heterosexual samples. However, no interventions designed specifically for parents of GBA have been tested in clinical trials. Parents and Adolescent Talking about Healthy Sexuality (PATHS) is an online intervention we created for parents of GBA that aims to improve parent communication about sexuality and HIV and increase parent behaviors supportive of GBA sexual health. </sec> <sec> <title>OBJECTIVE</title> The current trial aims to test whether delivering PATHS to parents of GBA ages 14-19 will improve GBA sexual health outcomes. A secondary aim is to test whether the intervention’s effects are mediated through specific parent behaviors. </sec> <sec> <title>METHODS</title> Three-hundred fifty parents of GBA will be recruited and randomized to receive either PATHS or an active control. Both parents and their GBA sons will complete assessments every 3 months over a 1-year period. Primary outcomes will be evaluated at 6 months post-intervention, and then the control arm will crossover and receive PATHS, and dyads will be followed for another 6 months. Primary outcomes include both adolescent sexual preparedness (e.g., condom skills), as well as HIV-related sexual risk behavior (i.e., condomless anal/vaginal sex that is not protected by pre-exposure prophylaxis). </sec> <sec> <title>RESULTS</title> We hypothesize that GBA whose parents receive PATHS will be more prepared for intercourse, and will have fewer CAVS partners, relative GBA whose parents receive only LWL, at 6 months post intervention; and when control parents cross over and receive PATHS, we will observe similar improvements in that group. We further hypothesize that families originally assigned PATHS will maintain intervention-related gains 1-year post intervention. Finally, we hypothesize that intervention effects will be mediated by the specific parent behaviors described above. </sec> <sec> <title>CONCLUSIONS</title> If proven efficacious PATHS will be among the first HIV prevention interventions shown to reduce sexual risk for GBA. Moreover, as other adolescent-focused interventions emerge, PATHS’ unique focus on parents will offer a complementary, additional means for researching GBA who are not touched by other intervention options. </sec> <sec> <title>CLINICALTRIAL</title> ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05852600 </sec>

  PublisherDOI

• The CHARMS study: rationale and study protocol for an observational study of sleep and biobehavioral rhythms in older adult couples

  SLEEP Advances · 2025-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) demonstrate cognitive decline without major functional impairment and are at increased risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). Sleep and biobehavioral rhythm disturbances (disruptions in 24-h oscillations in physiology and behavior, including rest–activity patterns and mealtimes) are more than twice as common among patients with MCI than cognitively intact older adults. Importantly, the consequences of sleep and biobehavioral rhythm disruption in MCI extend beyond the patient, also profoundly affecting the spouse/partner. However, scant research has investigated sleep and biobehavioral rhythms that may contribute to the health and cognitive functioning of individuals with MCI and their partners. The current paper presents the rationale and methods for the Couples Healthy Aging and Rhythms (CHARMS) study, a longitudinal cohort study of sleep and biobehavioral rhythms among older couples in which one partner evidences cognitive decline but is independent in daily functioning. The targeted enrollment goal will consist of 185 couples who meet study eligibility criteria including that one partner shows evidence of cognitive decline but reports being independent in daily activities. This is a longitudinal observational study that includes a baseline assessment, a seven-day at-home naturalistic study protocol, and a two-year follow-up to examine change over time. Findings from this study will advance the understanding of the daily and longitudinal relationships between the individual and couple-level processes in sleep and biobehavioral rhythms that influence the progression of cognitive decline in a population at increased risk for developing ADRD. Statement of Significance This report describes the rationale and study protocol for the Couples Healthy Aging and Rhythms (CHARMS) study. Findings from the CHARMS study will advance the understanding of the daily and longitudinal relationships between the individual- and couple-level processes in sleep and biobehavioral rhythms that influence the progression of cognitive decline in a population at increased risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. The goal of this work is to guide the development of dyadic intervention efforts aimed at improving cognitive outcomes among older adult couples.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Testing the Daily Bidirectional Relationships Between Stress and Sleep Using Bivariate Multilevel Autoregressive Modeling

  Biopsychosocial Science and Medicine · 2025-10-20

  article

  OBJECTIVE: Previous studies have demonstrated that stress and sleep are bidirectional and perseverative cognition (ie, worry and rumination) is a key cognitive mechanism in this relationship. The goal of our study was to examine the relationships between stress and sleep, and test whether physical activity moderates the stress-sleep link. METHODS: Participants aged 18 and above were recruited from May 2020 to November 2021 and completed questionnaires and 7 days of twice daily text-based surveys, morning and evening. Morning text-based surveys assessed evening/overnight perseverative cognition and sleep, and evening surveys assessed daily stress ratings. Habitual physical activity was measured by the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Analyses were conducted using bivariate multilevel autoregressive modeling (ML-VAR), a discrete-time structural equation model (SEM), to test relationships between repeated daily measures of sleep (duration/efficiency), stress, and preservative cognition, which were adjusted for age, sex, and race/ethnicity. RESULTS: We obtained data from 155 participants (age M =42, SD=15, 82 f) over 1009 days. In the models, 95% credibility intervals for both stress (95% CI=-0.7, -0.1) and perseverative cognition (95% CI=-13.3, -6) showed they predicted shorter sleep duration during the corresponding night. Perseverative cognition had a stronger relationship with sleep duration than stress, but did not mediate its relationship. Participants with higher habitual MVPA had a weaker relationship between stress and sleep duration (95% CI=<0.001, 0.015). Perseverative cognition also predicted lower sleep efficiency that night (95% CI=-0.024, -0.006). There were no significant mediators or moderators in models of sleep efficiency. CONCLUSIONS: Results demonstrated that stress and perseverative cognition had a stronger impact on sleep at night than the opposite direction. In addition, results highlight the importance of physical activity in mitigating the deleterious effects of stress.

  PublisherDOI

• Distinct Patterns of Dynamical Regulation in Passive Sensor Data Following Binge and Purge Behaviors

  International Journal of Eating Disorders · 2025-04-11 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Binge eating is a cardinal symptom of binge-eating disorder (BED) and bulimia nervosa (BN), while recurrent purging is specific to BN (American Psychiatric Association, 2022). These behaviors are associated with health consequences (e.g., gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, and metabolic problems; Sheehan & Herman, 2015). The distress-regulating effects of binge and purge behaviors are important targets for intervention. The aims of this examination were to characterize the regulatory dynamics of heart rate (HR) and physical activity following binge and purge behaviors, test whether these dynamics were different from control periods, and test whether these dynamics were different from one another. METHODS: A subsample of participants (n = 295) from the BEGIN study reported binges and purges using the Recovery Record app for 30 days; Apple Watch devices were used to measure steps and HR. Regulatory dynamics of the velocity and acceleration of HR and steps were modeled using multilevel models. RESULTS: Regulatory dynamics of HR were different following binges (dysregulated) relative to control periods (homeostatic) and relative to those following purges (mixed). Regulatory dynamics of steps were significantly different following binges (dysregulated) and following purges (homeostatic) relative to control periods (different type of homeostatic) as well as with respect to one another. CONCLUSIONS: Regulatory dynamics of HR and physical activity can be captured using smart watches and modeled using systems models. Regulatory dynamics of HR have promise as a marker of treatment progress in reducing binge eating frequency, and regulatory dynamics of steps have promise as a digital marker of binge and purge behaviors. PUBLIC SIGNIFICANCE: Measures from commercial smart watches are able to detect changes in the complex patterning of heart rate and physical activity following binge eating and purging for individuals with BED. Given the cycle of past dynamics relating to future dynamics, the results suggest that these commercial devices could be useful for tracking treatment progress in reducing binge and purge frequency.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Benchmarking Mental Health Status Using Passive Sensor Data: Protocol for a Prospective Observational Study

  JMIR Research Protocols · 2024-02-22 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  BACKGROUND: Computational psychiatry has the potential to advance the diagnosis, mechanistic understanding, and treatment of mental health conditions. Promising results from clinical samples have led to calls to extend these methods to mental health risk assessment in the general public; however, data typically used with clinical samples are neither available nor scalable for research in the general population. Digital phenotyping addresses this by capitalizing on the multimodal and widely available data created by sensors embedded in personal digital devices (eg, smartphones) and is a promising approach to extending computational psychiatry methods to improve mental health risk assessment in the general population. OBJECTIVE: Building on recommendations from existing computational psychiatry and digital phenotyping work, we aim to create the first computational psychiatry data set that is tailored to studying mental health risk in the general population; includes multimodal, sensor-based behavioral features; and is designed to be widely shared across academia, industry, and government using gold standard methods for privacy, confidentiality, and data integrity. METHODS: We are using a stratified, random sampling design with 2 crossed factors (difficulties with emotion regulation and perceived life stress) to recruit a sample of 400 community-dwelling adults balanced across high- and low-risk for episodic mental health conditions. Participants first complete self-report questionnaires assessing current and lifetime psychiatric and medical diagnoses and treatment, and current psychosocial functioning. Participants then complete a 7-day in situ data collection phase that includes providing daily audio recordings, passive sensor data collected from smartphones, self-reports of daily mood and significant events, and a verbal description of the significant daily events during a nightly phone call. Participants complete the same baseline questionnaires 6 and 12 months after this phase. Self-report questionnaires will be scored using standard methods. Raw audio and passive sensor data will be processed to create a suite of daily summary features (eg, time spent at home). RESULTS: Data collection began in June 2022 and is expected to conclude by July 2024. To date, 310 participants have consented to the study; 149 have completed the baseline questionnaire and 7-day intensive data collection phase; and 61 and 31 have completed the 6- and 12-month follow-up questionnaires, respectively. Once completed, the proposed data set will be made available to academic researchers, industry, and the government using a stepped approach to maximize data privacy. CONCLUSIONS: This data set is designed as a complementary approach to current computational psychiatry and digital phenotyping research, with the goal of advancing mental health risk assessment within the general population. This data set aims to support the field's move away from siloed research laboratories collecting proprietary data and toward interdisciplinary collaborations that incorporate clinical, technical, and quantitative expertise at all stages of the research process. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/53857.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• 0569 Breathing Easy Together: How Positive Airway Pressure Adherence Benefits Both Patients and Partners

  SLEEP · 2024-04-20 · 1 citations

  article

  Abstract Introduction Emerging research highlights the interdependence of sleep within couples and the impact of sleep and sleep disorders on couples’ relationship quality. The current study examines how adherence to positive airway pressure (PAP) as well as sleep duration and efficiency associates with both patient and partners’ relationship quality, among patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and their partners. Methods The sample included OSA patients initiating PAP treatment and their partners (N= 36 couples; mean age = 63.06, SD = 9.15). Mixed model analyses examined actor and partner effects of PAP adherence and actigraphy-assessed sleep duration and efficiency, on patient and partners’ self-reported relationship satisfaction and conflict. Results Greater patient PAP adherence (defined as &amp;gt; 4 hours use per night on average over 3 months of recording) was associated with higher levels of relationship satisfaction (B = 4.26; SE = 1.40; p = 0.01) and lower levels of relationship conflict (B = -5.24; SE = 2.51; p = 0.04) for patients and partners. Higher patient sleep efficiency was associated with higher levels of patient and partner reported relationship satisfaction (B = 0.12; SE = .06; p = 0.04). Associations involving sleep duration were significantly different for patients and partners. For patients, greater own total sleep time was significantly associated with higher levels of patients’ relationship satisfaction (B = 0.92; SE = 0.35; p = 0.01) whereas greater partner total sleep time was significantly associated with lower levels of patients’ relationship satisfaction (B = -1.35; SE = 0.67; p = 0.045). After adjusting for patient adherence, the magnitude and direction of these associations were similar but the p-values increased slightly (p = 0.085 for sleep efficiency; p = 0.054, 0.14, 0.12, respectively for sleep duration). Conclusion Results highlight how sleep and sleep disorders are implicated in couples’ relationship quality. Among couples in which one member has sleep apnea, adherence to PAP treatment and better sleep efficiency is associated with higher relationship satisfaction. Recognizing the dyadic implications of sleep and sleep disorders, including the potential impact on relationship quality, may be a powerful motivator to encourage adherence in sleep disorders populations. Support (if any) R21AG067183 (Baron and Troxel)

  PublisherDOI

• Interpersonal dynamics of vocal fundamental frequency in couples: Depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and relationship distress

  Behaviour Research and Therapy · 2024-05-22

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Given the bidirectional association between psychopathology and relationship distress, an in-depth understanding of couples’ interaction processes that contribute to psychopathology is needed. This study examined the interpersonal dynamics of vocally-encoded emotional arousal (fundamental frequency, f0) during couple conversations and their associations with depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and relationship distress. Data from eight samples were pooled (N = 404 couples) to examine (a) overall trajectories of f0 across the interaction and (b) moment-by-moment intraindividual changes in and interpersonal reactivity to partners’ f0. Multilevel growth models and repeated-measures actor-partner interdependence models demonstrated that individuals with more severe depression showed more synchronizing reactivity to their partners’ f0 on a moment-by-moment basis, and their overall baseline level of f0 was lower. More severe relationship distress was associated with more steeply increasing trajectories of f0 and with greater synchronizing reactivity to partners’ f0. Relative differences in depressive symptoms between the two members of a couple were associated with interpersonal dynamics of f0 as well. There were no associations with anxiety symptoms. Thus, depressive symptoms were associated with characteristic interpersonal dynamics of vocally-encoded emotional arousal; yet, most consistent associations emerged for relationship distress, which future studies on individual psychopathology should take into account.

  PublisherDOI

• 0578 Feasibility and Preliminary Efficacy of WePAP, a Dyadic Transdiagnostic Intervention

  SLEEP · 2024-04-20

  article

  Abstract Introduction The goal of this study was to examine feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of WePAP, a novel, couples-based treatment to promote positive airway pressure (PAP) adherence in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and sleep quality in patients and partners. Methods Patients who were recently diagnosed with OSA and starting PAP and their partners completed pre- and post-treatment self-report measures of study constructs and actigraphy. Couples were randomly assigned to WePAP or information control (IC) groups. Post-PAP assessments and adherence downloads were completed at 1 and 3 months. The main outcomes were feasibility and acceptability ratings. Preliminary efficacy outcomes included: patient PAP adherence and subjective and actigraphy-assessed sleep in patients and partners. Secondary outcomes included depression, quality of life, relationship, and cognitive functioning. Results The study enrolled 37 couples (age m= 62.97; SD=9.04). All WePAP couples attended each of the three sessions. Compared to the IC group, patients and partners in WePAP rated the intervention more favorably and were more satisfied. Among the primary efficacy outcomes, PAP adherence was high in both groups (PAP use &amp;gt;4 h= 85% in WePAP and 77% in IC). There were significant within-group differences for subjective sleep, such that patients in both groups showed significant reductions in sleep disturbance at 3-months. In addition, patients in both groups and partners in WePAP showed significant reductions in sleep related impairment at 3-months. Among secondary outcomes, patients in both WePAP and IC showed significant improvements in depression and QOL. WePAP patients also showed small but significant improvements in a measure of processing speed and attention. There were no within- or between-group changes in relationship quality. Conclusion Results demonstrate that WePAP is feasible and well-liked by patients and partners, but did not demonstrate greater adherence or improved sleep quality in this sample of highly adherent patients. Future studies should examine longer-term outcomes and enroll patients at greater risk for non-adherence to PAP. Support (if any) The research reported in this publication was supported (in part or in full) by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Numbers R21AG067183 (PIs: Baron and Troxel), 3R21AG067183-01A1S1 (Baron/DeVettori), UL1TR002538 and UM1TR004409.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant F32HD060410

  NIH · $118k · 2013

Frequent coauthors

• Panayiotis Georgiou

  Apple (United Kingdom)

  53 shared

• Shrikanth Narayanan

  33 shared

• Cynthia M. Bulik

  Karolinska Institutet

  23 shared

• Donald H. Baucom

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  18 shared

• Melanie S. Fischer

  Heidelberg University

  18 shared

• Jonathan Butner

  University of Utah

  17 shared

• Alexander O. Crenshaw

  Kennesaw State University

  15 shared

• David C. Atkins

  15 shared

Labs

• Behavioral Medicine Research GroupPI

  Engage with a dynamic interdisciplinary group of researchers including core Health Psychology faculty, affiliated faculty in the U of U Medical Center, and health-focused graduate students across all areas of the department.