Professor Awarded Visionary Grant from APF for Work on Transgender Couples and Intimate Partner Violence

  Palo Alto University Psychology Professor Kimberly Balsam, PhD, in collaboration with University of Texas at San Antonio’s Assistant Professor Shelby Scott, PhD, and Lex Pulice-Farrow, MA, at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, has been awarded a Visionary Grant from the American Psychological Foundation (APF).   The Visionary Grant seeks to seed innovation through supporting research, education and intervention projects and programs that use psychology to solve social problems in priority areas such as at-risk, vulnerable populations, preventing violence, human behavior and health and eliminating stigma and prejudice.   The goal of this project is to better understand the risk factors that predict intimate partner violence, relationship quality, and mental health outcomes in transgender individuals in romantic relationships.   “This project is an important step in developing the scientific literature on intimate relationships” says Balsam. “Although there have been numerous studies of same-gender couples, very few include transgender participants. The results of this study have great potential to inform future research, clinical work and advocacy regarding relationships in which one or more partners identifies as transgender.”