My research explores the dialectical relationship between health and the social world. Through my research, I explore 1) the intersection of identities, networks, and wellbeing; 2) social networks and health among Hispanic immigrants; and 3) legitimacy and contested illness. In addition to this sociological research, I am also engaged in interdisciplinary research on migraine and headache disorders from public health and advocacy perspectives.
Networks, Identities, and Wellbeing
A rich tradition within medical sociology examines the multifaceted impact of chronic illness on individuals, documenting the potential of illness to be damaging to the self-concept and mental health. However, I believe existing research has yet to adequately investigate how social relationships can be sources of both harm and protection in the illness experience, the role of social network structure, or how to integrate social psychological models of identity to understand how illness impacts the self. My dissertation addresses these gaps by theoretically integrating literatures on chronic illness, social networks, and identity theory. Empirically, I examine the case of migraine – a common yet misunderstood chronic illness – to understand how social networks can attenuate and/or exacerbate the negative influence of chronic illness on individuals’ identities and subsequent psychological wellbeing.
My project integrates three sources of data and is supported by a National Science Foundation and American Sociological Association Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant. First, using semi-structured interviews of people who experience migraine across a range of severity, I have collected egocentric network data on the structure and content of both social ties and identities – a novel approach for understanding the relational nature of the self. Second, I examine the impact of patient community engagement through participant observations of Retreat Migraine, a hybrid migraine patient advocacy conference, and Migraine World Summit, an online patient education conference. Third, to triangulate my findings and enhance the generalizability of this research, I fielded an online survey using Qualtrics and Network Canvas to a general population sample of people with migraine through Prolific and those in migraine patient communities.
Social Networks and Health among Hispanic Immigrants
While research on social networks and health has traditionally emphasized the benefits of social connection, social relations may have negative consequences. Exploring this paradox requires investigating the specific mechanisms linking social networks to health. Yet relatively little research uses the methods of social network analysis to examine how the structure, function, and content of networks are associated with health, particularly among structurally marginalized populations. My research contributes to this body of work by focusing on the case of Hispanic immigrants in Indiana through a series of independent and collaborative projects.
In a sole-authored paper entitled, “Resilience or Risk? Evaluating Three Pathways Linking Hispanic Immigrant Networks and Health,” published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, I tested two competing theories of the positive and negative health consequences of social networks for Hispanic immigrants. Using data from the VidaSana study, I conducted egocentric social network analysis to explore how network characteristics are associated with physical health, mental health, and healthcare access, through three distinct network pathways, finding differential patterns across outcomes. While greater social capital (i.e., larger networks, more educated, and health literate networks) promoted all kinds of health, the positive effect of social bonding (i.e., close, dense networks) was limited to mental health and healthcare utilization, whereas greater network stress (frequent hassling) threatened mental health while promoting healthcare access.
In collaborative work, my co-authors and I interrogate other social network (and social networks adjacent) processes and their consequences. This includes a paper investigating social network activation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic published in Sociology of Race and Ethnicity; another paper published in the Journal of Marriage and Family examining how familial social ties, through marriage and parenthood, have gendered impacts for financial stress in response to the pandemic; and a third which explores how the effect of social support on dental health is contingent on immigrant country of origin, published in Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology.
Legitimacy and Contested Illness
When illness is invisible, its impact and severity are doubted or contested. In the absence of any way to objectively verify pain or other symptoms, onlookers often rely on cultural scripts of what a sick person should look like to make assessments of others’ suffering. This opens the door for perceptions of pain and illness to be influenced by social statuses and cultural biases.
In collaboration with Emily Ekl, we use survey experiments to examine how the public’s perception of contested illnesses is shaped by different social characteristics. In our first project, published in Social Psychology Quarterly, we examined how race, gender, and their intersection influenced public attitudes about 1) the legitimacy of missing work due to pain and 2) help-seeking recommendations. We found that while white women are least likely to view pain as a valid reason to miss work, they endorse the most treatments. Moreover, Black women are recommended to do the most to treat their pain. These findings highlight how race and gender impact both who validates pain and whose pain is validated.
We currently have a related project that further explores the gendered nature of legitimacy under review.
Migraine & Headache Disorders
In addition to my sociological scholarship, I also pursue interdisciplinary research on migraine and other headache disorders from epidemiological and advocacy perspectives. This includes a recent systematic review article published in Headache about the prevalence and burden of migraine in the United States; three briefs written for the Coalition for Headache and Migraine Patients on their Headache Disease Patient Access Survey; and other work in-progress examining the utility of the current dichotomy in migraine classification, presented at the American Headache Society 2024 Annual Meeting and covered by Healio.
Moreover, although my dissertation research is strongly theoretically grounded in sociology, because of my focus on migraine, my work has been supported in several ways by the American Headache Society (AHS). This support includes funding my participation in the International Headache Academy, designed to inspire future leaders in the field, and the Frontiers in Headache Research Scholarship Award, to support my travel to the AHS 2024 Annual Scientific Meeting and share my ongoing research.