About

Tamara Afifi is a Professor and Department Chair in the Department of Communication at UC Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on family and interpersonal communication, particularly how family members and relational partners communicate when they are stressed and the impact of these interactions on personal, relational, and physiological health. She examines the theoretical properties of communication patterns such as conflict, social support, avoidance, verbal rumination, and communal coping across various stressful situations to explain and predict biological stress responses, resilience, thriving, and health outcomes. Professor Afifi triangulates data and methods, including surveys with families, longitudinal diary data, lab interactions, field studies in homes, observational coding, biological markers, virtual reality, and qualitative data. Her work often involves community-based populations that are difficult to access, such as undocumented immigrants, families in refugee camps, older adults with dementia and their caregivers, and families with chronic illnesses. She is a Fellow of the International Communication Association, a Distinguished Scholar of the National Communication Association, and a former editor of Communication Monographs. Recognized as an award-winning teacher and mentor, she has received the UCSB Academic Distinguished Teaching Award and the Kathleen Galvin Distinguished Mentoring and Teaching Award. Her external funding includes support from agencies like the National Institutes of Health, and she is currently the lead PI on a Phase II clinical trial funded by the National Institute on Aging. This trial examines the impact of virtual reality on the quality of life of older adults with dementia and their family members across multiple senior living communities. Her research interests encompass community engagement, health and wellness, relational communication, resilience, social support, well-being, stress, and biological markers.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Medicine
• Psychiatry
• Social psychology
• Computer Science
• Family medicine
• Political Science
• Gerontology
• Psychotherapist
• Clinical psychology
• Sociology
• Communication
• Epistemology
• Public relations
• Environmental health
• Geography
• Developmental psychology
• Human–computer interaction

Selected publications

• Using the Theory of Resilience and Relational Load to Examine the Impact of Couples’ Financial Conflict on Relational Load and (Hair and Salivary) Cortisol

  Communication Research · 2026-03-30

  article1st authorCorresponding

  This study examined whether romantic partners’ relationship maintenance and communal orientation predict their financial conflict, and, in turn, their relational load and physiological stress. Eighty-two heterosexual, cohabitating couples participated in a conversation about their financial stress, completed surveys, and provided saliva and hair samples for cortisol. Overall, greater communal orientation and ongoing relationship maintenance were associated with less conflict about financial stress, as well as lower relational load. The findings revealed partner and actor effects. For women, feeling communally oriented was associated with less of their own and their partner’s relational load after the conversation by lessening both of their perceptions of conflict. Even though relationship maintenance and communal orientation did not significantly affect men’s physiological stress, women’s HCC and salivary cortisol (at p < .10) were mediated through their own and their partner’s perceptions of their financial conflict.

  PublisherDOI

• Maintaining closeness at a distance: Technology’s role in mother-daughter relationships during emerging adulthood in their own words

  Journal of Social and Personal Relationships · 2026-02-28

  articleSenior author

  The transition to college represents a pivotal developmental moment, particularly for young adult women navigating increased independence and emotional complexity. During this period, mother-daughter relationships often serve as vital sources of support and connection. Drawing from Zoom conversations with 126 mother-daughter dyads, this thematic analysis explores the everyday and strategic ways technology facilitates or complicates their relationship maintenance. Findings revealed that dyads relied on both active and passive mediated maintenance strategies, including everyday talk, social presence, location tracking, and social media viewership. Although video chat was valued for its emotional richness, text messaging allowed for ongoing contact and flexibility. Participants also identified barriers, such as app incompatibility, difficulty conveying tone, and time constraints. Importantly, many dyads attributed their sustained closeness to a combination of technological affordances and the natural evolution of their relationship during emerging adulthood.

  PublisherDOI

• Balancing Face-to-Face and Digital Communication: The Role of Relationship Maintenance in Dual-Earning Families

  Communication Research · 2026-02-11

  article1st author

  This study examines how face-to-face (FtF) and computer-mediated communication (CMC) contribute to relationship maintenance and resilience in dual-earning families, a largely overlooked area in family communication research. Guided by the theory of resilience and relational load (TRRL), we test how ongoing FtF and CMC maintenance behaviors predicted well-being across a week among 62 families (i.e., two parents and one adolescent). Using a week-long daily diary and physiological measures (cortisol and IL-6 assays), we assess perceived stress, mental health, and loneliness. Findings suggest that both FtF and CMC maintenance are associated with lower stress and better well-being, with FtF showing somewhat stronger associations on certain outcomes such as loneliness. Additionally, perceived gaps between desired and received maintenance predicted higher and more erratic stress and diminished mental health, underscoring the importance of meeting relational needs. These results highlight how families balance FtF and digital maintenance in everyday life and extend the TRRL by incorporating mixed-media contexts and perceived maintenance gaps.

  PublisherDOI

• Explicit acceptance, gentle challenge: exploring (dis)confirmation in parent–adult child mental health conversations

  Human Communication Research · 2025-09-17

  articleSenior author

  Abstract This study explored the role of (dis)confirmation in family mental health conversations. One hundred sixteen parent–young adult child dyads from Black, Latinx, Asian, white, and multiethnic-racial families in the United States participated in a Zoom conversation about mental health. These conversations were analyzed using a phronetic iterative approach. The findings expand upon the concepts of acceptance and challenge to introduce further nuance to confirmation theory. Specifically, the authors proposed the constructs of strict and gentle challenge and considered the role of explicit, absent, and implicit acceptance in these conversations. Both individually and together, these constructs appeared to correspond with varying degrees of (dis)confirmation. The authors considered factors that corresponded with the appearance of (dis)confirmation, including openness as a precursor for confirmation, (dis)confirmation reinforcing or redefining normative beliefs, and the role of confirmation gaps. The authors explored the implications of these findings on confirmation theory and family mental health communication research.

  PublisherDOI

• “Carrying Your History is a Form of Resilience”: Reconceptualizing Resilience from an Indigenous Perspective Through Family Storytelling Among Palestinians Residing in the United States

  Journal of Family Communication · 2025-08-25 · 1 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Cultivating Resilience in Close Relationships

  2025-09-02

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  This chapter describes interpersonal processes in close relationships that position individuals to be resilient in the face of stress and adversity. The chapter provides an overview of the Theory of Resilience and Relational Load (TRRL), which focuses on the ways that relational partners adopt a communal orientation and build emotional capital through the investment of routine relationship maintenance, which provides necessary resources to cope with stressors when they arise. Four applications of TRRL in different relationship contexts and in response to a range of stressors are highlighted. The chapter concludes with a critique of the existing literature on resilience with regard to its lack of diversity in sampling, and it offers recommendations for interventions and policy proposals designed to facilitate resilience in close relationships and foster social justice.

  PublisherDOI

• Psychometric properties of the American version of the Chronic Uncertainty scale: long and short version (CU-40; CU-20)

  BMC Psychology · 2024-11-27 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Uncertainty is a widespread phenomenon experienced worldwide. The bulk of existing research to date has focused on transitory or acute experiences of uncertainty, often in the particular context of illness. The current study evaluated the psychometric properties of the cross-contextual 40-item (long) and 20-item (short) Chronic Uncertainty scale (CU-40; CU-20). METHODS: A U.S. sample of 1083 participants (55% female) was recruited via Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Exploratory factor analysis revealed a six-factor model. RESULTS: Results of the Confirmatory factor analysis showed good model fit for the original and a slightly better model fit for the modified version of the CU-40 and CU-20. Slightly different item-to-factor attributions were suggested for the questionnaires. Internal consistencies were good for both models. CONCLUSION: The evidence suggests that the CU scale offers psychometrically sound assessments of chronic uncertainty across a range of dimensions. Further assessments and implementations of the CU in different contexts using diverse samples are encouraged to test the efficacy of the CU measures as screening tools of general aspects of chronic uncertainty.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Individuals’ perceptions of reciprocal relationship maintenance in their marriage and its impact on communal orientation, relational load, and ability to flourish

  Human Communication Research · 2024-01-09 · 9 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This study investigates individuals’ perceptions of reciprocal relationship maintenance in their marriage over time during the Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19). Using a Qualtrics Panel, married individuals (N = 3,601) completed online surveys at four time points during the initial 3 months of the pandemic. Both the between- and within-person effects were consistent with the theory of resilience and relational load. On average, married individuals who reported giving greater relationship maintenance to their partners also reported receiving greater relationship maintenance from them, as well as reported greater communal orientation and flourishing and lower relational load. Giving relationship maintenance to one’s partner was a stronger predictor of receiving maintenance than the reverse, even though both influenced each other. Giving relationship maintenance to one’s partner was also a stronger and more consistent predictor of communal orientation, relational load, and flourishing than maintenance received. Finally, relational load in one’s marriage was the strongest predictor of flourishing.

  PublisherDOI

• Coping self-efficacy mediates effects of posttraumatic distress on communal coping in parent-adolescence dyads after floods

  Development and Psychopathology · 2024-03-15 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Social cognitive theory provides a framework of human agency during environmental challenges, with coping self-efficacy (CSE) as an important construct underlying adaptation. We examined two alternative models involving CSE as a mediator of the association between posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and communal coping among parent-youth dyads after severe floods using Bayesian dyadic multilevel modeling. The first model included PTSS as the independent variable and communal coping as the dependent variable (disaster distress model). The independent and dependent variables were replaced for each other in the second model (communal coping model). We used data from 485 parent-youth dyads who experienced floods between 2015 and 2016 in Texas, USA. Parents of children (69% women) aged 10-19 years old, and their oldest child (53% male; Mean age = 13.75) in that age range were recruited. We assessed PTSS, CSE, and communal coping for parents and youths. Results favored the disaster distress model over the communal coping model. In the disaster distress model, results demonstrated that CSE declines as PTSS increases, predicting decreased communal coping. This mediation effect of CSE is stronger for youths compared to parents, indicating that children's CSE is affected more by PTSS.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Caught Within the Family System: An Examination of Emerging Adults’ Dilemmas in Navigating Sibling Depression

  Communication Research · 2024-10-17 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  This study investigated the dilemmas faced by emerging adults serving as supporting siblings (SS) for their sibling with depression (SWD). A thematic analysis of 49 interviews revealed the family system as central to sibling depression. Family histories of dysfunction contributed to SWDs’ lasting symptoms, prompting SSs’ felt obligation to their sibling. SSs managed mental health communication in the family by protecting their SWD against their parents and withholding their own mental health challenges. Additionally, this study revealed SSs’ double binds: They were caught between their loyalties to their SWD and parents, and between maintaining their family system and their own well-being. The importance of family systems, family history, and challenges related to navigating sibling depression are discussed.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Walid A. Afifi

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  28 shared

• Amanda Denes

  University of Connecticut

  24 shared

• Shardé M. Davis

  University of Connecticut

  17 shared

• Anne F. Merrill

  Citrix (United States)

  15 shared

• Kathryn Harrison

  National Institute for Health and Care Excellence

  12 shared

• Andrea Joseph

  11 shared

• Desiree Aldeis

  11 shared

• Douglas A. Granger

  10 shared

Awards & honors

• Fellow of the International Communication Association
• Distinguished Scholar of the National Communication Associat…
• UCSB Academic Distinguished Teaching Award
• Kathleen Galvin Distinguished Mentoring and Teaching Award