Brian J. Willoughby, Ph.D.
is currently an assistant professor in the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University. He received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Brigham Young University and then went on to receive a masters and doctoral degree in Family Social Science from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Willoughby is considered an international expert in the field of couple and marital relationships. His research generally focuses on how adolescents, young adults, and adults move toward and form long-term committed relationships.
Dr. Willoughby has published numerous articles and book chapters on young adult development, couple dynamics, marriage, and sexuality in the leading family science, psychological and sociological journals. Dr. Willoughby’s research on sexuality and relationships has recently appeared in such top journals as the Journalof Family Psychology, the Journal of Family Issues, the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, the Journal of Sex Research and Archives of Sexual Behavior, the leading sexuality journal in the world. Dr. Willoughby also currently serves on the editorial boards for both the Journal of Sex Research and the Journal of Adult Development. His research has been widely cited in the media, appearing in such outlets as USA Today, MSNBC, Men’s Health, the Washington Post, ABC News, and Prevention Magazine. His research has won international awards from organizations such as the National Council on Family Relations and one recent paper was nominated by the Journal of Youth and Adolescence as the top paper in 2011 by an emerging scholar. Dr. Willoughby currently serves on the international board of the Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood as an expert on couple and family relationships and is considered one of the top upcoming scholars studying young adult development and couple formation patterns.
Dr. Willoughby currently teaches several classes at Brigham Young University in the areas of family dynamics and couple process. He is the primary instructor for Family Adaptation and Resiliency, an upper division course focused on helping families overcome challenges and adversity. Dr. Willoughby has been married for ten years to his wife Cassi and together they have four children.
Spencer James, Ph.D.
is an assistant professor in the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University. Prior to working at BYU, he received bachelor's and master's degrees in sociology from Brigham Young University, followed by a Ph.D. in Sociology and Demography from The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. James studies contemporary trends in marriage and cohabitation with a research focus on couple dynamics across the life course. Particulary, he is interested in the ways people form, maintain, and dissolve long-term romantic relationships.
Dr. James has published articles on marital quality, divorce, cohabitation, and remarriage. His work has been published in leading journals in the field, including Journal of Marriage and Family, Social Forces, Journal of Family Issues, and Family Relations.
Currently, Dr. James teaches classes on marriage formation patterns in the United States, introductory research methods, and statistics. He and his wife of 8 years, Alyssa, are currently raising three children.
Research Assistants
- Miranda Marsee: Miranda is a senior studying Family Life with an emphasis in Family Studies. She plans to start a non-profit organization for troubled youth. Her role in the Marital Paradigms study includes transcribing interviews and creating charts to update participants with more recent information.
- Amanda Terry: Amanda is a nontraditional student attending school after serving 13 years as a U.S. Army Chaplain's Assistant. Amanda is a Family Life major with an emphasis in Family Studies. She is interested in researching and working with military families. She assists in this project by transcribing interviews and searching for common trends and themes found in the data sets.
- Ellie Hendrickson: Ellie is working with Dr. Willoughby and Dr. James to compile data from all three waves of the study.
- Sarah Sorensen: Sarah is a 22-year-old student in the School of Family Life majoring in Family Studies with a personal emphasis on marriage. She enjoys learning about marriage and marital roles in society. Her role in the study is transcribing interviews, to later be assessed and analyzed.
- Monica Stebbing: Monica works with visual coding part of the study. She is a Family Studies major and when she grows up she wants to be a Marriage and Family Therapist. She and her husband live in Provo with their 2 sewing machines.
- Quinn Boyack: Quinn is assisting in the Marital Paradigms project by finding a lower-income group to add to the study.
- Katelyn Rickords: Katelyn is in her first semester of college and is an undeclared major. She is leaving for a year and a half to serve an LDS Church mission in January. She is currently working with a team of researchers to find and survey a lower-income group to add to the study.