Jennifer Belus, a graduate student in Clinical Psychology, is the recipient of a 2016 Baughman Dissertation Research Award.
The Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at UNC offers the Earl and Barbara Baughman Dissertation Research Award annually to two of the top researchers within the department. The purpose of this award is to promote and support innovative dissertation research in our department and to support award recipients in their completion of their dissertation projects.
Jennifer won for her dissertation titled “Evaluating the Couples Health CoOp in South African Couples: Understanding Sexual Concurrency, Long-Term Skill Retention, and Relationship Dynamics.” She focuses on improving couple-based HIV prevention interventions for South African couples by understanding predictors of overlapping sexual relationships, evaluating the long-term effects of these programs, and developing a culturally-sensitive theory of adaptive relationship functioning.