Biography: Benjamin Karney is a Professor and Chair of Social Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and an adjunct behavioral scientist at the RAND Corporation.  His research examines intimate relationships, especially marriage, and focuses on how relationships are facilitated or constrained by the contexts in which they take place. Currently, he leads the Los Angeles Project on Newlywed Development (LAPOND), a longitudinal study of low-income couples, and co-directs (with Thomas Bradbury) the UCLA Marriage and Close Relationships Lab. He has twice received the National Council on Family Relation’s Reuben Hill Research and Theory Award for outstanding family science.

Title: Public policies and private lives: How socioeconomic status affects intimacy

Abstract: lthough the desire for a stable, healthy intimate partnership is nearly a human universal, the likelihood of achieving this goal varies widely across levels of socioeconomic status. Compared to their more affluent peers, individuals at lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder far less likely to marry, and once married far more likely to divorce. What happens to intimacy under conditions of financial strain and limited access to resources? In this talk, I describe a program of research exploring answers to this question through longitudinal and observational studies of recently first-married couples recruited from lower-income neighborhoods in Los Angeles, CA and Harris County, TX. The results of this work highlight new directions for policies aimed at supporting and strengthening lower-income families.