rhl.psych.ucla.edu

Our Mission:

To understand the biological mechanisms that explain how social relationships influence health, particularly close relationships like marital/spousal and family relationships.

Our current research directions:

  • Using intensive repeated measures designs to study family functioning, health, and underlying biological mechanisms in naturalistic settings
  • Understanding how family functioning, via inflammatory processes, can exacerbate the harmful effects of outdoor air pollution
  • Documenting social support and loneliness in the Diabetes Prevention Program lifestyle intervention
  • Investigating intersections among physical affection, culture, allostatic processes, and health in first-year college students
  • Interrogating underlying social-cognitive and biological mechanisms that link close intimate relationship quality to physical health

We focus on two sets of biological processes in couples, parents, and children:

Recent News

2022 graduate admissions

Dr. Robles will not be available as a primary mentor for students in the 2022-2023 academic year, but can be secondary mentor for students in the Health or Clinical areas with research interests in family functioning and health, and/or allostatic processes and trauma exposure for the 2020-2021 academic year. Visit Join our lab! for more info.

Research opportunities

Several graduate students working with Dr. Robles may be recruiting undergraduate research assistants. No paid opportunities are available at this time.