Emily C. Soriano, M.A., is a doctoral candidate in the Clinical Science Program at the University of Delaware, where she recently earned a Graduate Certificate in Statistics from the Department of Applied Economics & Statistics. Emily’s research aims to identify close relationship processes that contribute to the development and progression of chronic illness (e.g., addiction, cancer, diabetes) and can be targeted in interventions.
Emily uses a variety of intensive longitudinal methods, particularly those that allow for examination of within-person, dyadic associations, and that utilize data from multiple sources (e.g., self-report, physiological) and temporal designs (e.g., daily diary, EMA), to identify problematic patterns of dyadic interaction that unfold in everyday life and accumulate over time to affect physical health outcomes. Emily’s dissertation research and training, supported by an Individual NRSA F31 Fellowship from NIDDK, examines the link between spousal involvement in type 2 diabetes self-care and patients’ continuously measured glucose. A central goal of her Fellowship is to apply dynamical systems methods to model complex within-person associations between momentary dyadic interactions and subsequent shifts in glucose level and variability. As a clinical science trainee, Emily draws heavily on her experience as an individual and couple therapist to make hypotheses about patterns of within-person change and close relationship dynamics in her data. Emily will be starting her year-long behavioral medicine clinical residency this summer at the University of California, San Diego/VA San Diego Healthcare System.