BRIAN BAUCOM, PH.D.

Research Interests

My research is focused on understanding how partners in committed, romantic relationships interact to promote vs. inhibit the well-being and stability of their relationship as well as the individual physical and mental health of one another. I conduct basic and applied research with a particular emphasis on couples and families coping with psychological distress, psychopathology, and chronic health conditions. My work integrates multiple modalities of assessment including self-report, daily diary, psychophysiology, cognitive performance tasks, observational coding methods, speech signal processing methods (e.g., f0) and natural language processing. I have been fortunate to receive funding for this work from national and international agencies and foundations including the Department of Defense, National Science Foundation, multiple institutes of the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Justice, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft e.V (German Science Foundation), the Israeli Science Foundation, and Apple.

Clinical Interests

My clinical interests are focused on increasing access to empirically supported psychotherapies, particularly for underserved and underresourced populations. I co-direct the Behavioral Health Innovation and Dissemination Center with Dr. Feea Leifker where we offer low fee, empirically supported psychotherapies to individual adults and couples and train and supervise graduate students from Clinical Psychology, Counseling Psychology, and Social Work as well as Psychiatry Residents and Triple-Board Psychiatry Fellows in learning and providing these psychotherapies to all residents of Utah. 

Opportunities for Students

Our research group is currently conducting or involved in a number of interdisciplinary projects on many different aspects of couple interaction. These projects include studies of couple- or family-based interventions to reduce risk for suicide and for HIV , to treat PTSD, Anorexia Nervosa, and Binge Eating Disorder, and to assist couples in making health behavior changes in the context of cancer, sleep apnea, and stroke.

Another major focus of our research group is the development of computational tools and statistical models for studying couple interaction. Most current projects involve collaboration with colleagues from a number of disciplines such as electrical engineering, computer science, and biostatistics. As a result, our research group is active in a number of areas outside of clinical psychology including speech signal processing, affective computing, computational linguistics, and statistical modeling for multiply nested designs. These aspects of the lab make it an excellent fit for students with backgrounds both within and outside of clinical psychology, students with interests in couple interaction, couple therapy, and behavior & emotion, and creative thinkers who are excited about interdisciplinary collaboration.

I will not be accepting applications from potential graduates who would start in Fall, 2025. Our lab is accepting applications for a limited number of volunteer RA positions that have a variable start date; if interested, please contact Abby Boggins  to apply and for further information about opportunities in our lab.

Education

Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Southern California (Clinical and Quantitative Psychology, Electrical Engineering, 2008-2012)
Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles (Clinical Psychology, 2008)
Internship, Veterans Administration, Los Angeles (APA-Accredited Clinical Psychology Internship, 2007-2008)
M.A., University of California, Los Angeles (Clinical Psychology, 2003)
B.S., Vanderbilt University (Psychology, 2000)
B.S., Vanderbilt University (Engineering Science, 2000)

Selected Publications

Baron, K. G., Gilles, A., Sundar, K. M., Baucom, B. R., Duff, K., & Troxel, W. (2022). Rationale and study protocol for We-PAP: a randomized pilot/feasibility trial of a couples-based intervention to promote PAP adherence and sleep health compared to an educational control. Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 8(1), 171. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40814-022-01089-x

Baucom, B. R., Georgiou, P., Bryan, C. J., Garland, E. L., Leifker, F., May, A., ... & Narayanan, S. S. (2017). The promise and the challenge of technology-facilitated methods for assessing behavioral and cognitive markers of risk for suicide among US Army National Guard Personnel. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(4), 361. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14040361

Baucom, B. R. W., Leo, K., Adamo, C., Georgiou, P., & Baucom, K. J. W. (2017). Conceptual and statistical issues in couples observational research: Rationale and methods for design decisions. Journal of Family Psychology, 31(8), 972–982. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000370

MY CURRENT GRADUATE STUDENTS

Robyn Kilshaw

Emily Spargo

Stevie Shock

Anais d'Oelsnitz

MY CURRENT POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS & MENTEES

Andy Godfrey, University of Utah

Karena Leo, NIH NRSA F32 Award, Duke University

Robert Warner, University of Utah

MY CURRENT FACULTY MENTEES

Jackie Chen, NSF CAREER Award

Dusti Jones, CTSI K12 Award

Feea Leifker, VPCAT Program

Larissa McGarrity,  CTSI K12 Award

MY FORMER GRADUATE STUDENTS

Colin Adamo. Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania

Alex Crenshaw. Assistant Professor at Kennesaw State University

Jasara Hogan. Assistant Research Scientist at New York University

Karena Leo. Postdoctoral Scholar at Duke University

Kelsi Rugo. Psychotherapist in Spokane Valley, WA

Nick Perry. Assistant Professor at the University of Denver

MY FORMER POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS & MENTEES

Chris Cambron, Associate Professor in the College of Social Work at the University of Utah

Alexis May. Assistant Professor at Wesleyan University.

Feea Leifker. Research Assistant Professor and Co-Director of the Behavioral Health Innovation and Dissemination Center at the University of Utah