Dr. Stephanie Cook aims to understand the pathways and mechanisms linking attachment, minority stress, and health among disadvantaged individuals. She examines how the inter- and intra- personal features of close relationships influence the health of racial/ethnic and sexual minorities.

Through her development of an integrated theory of adult attachment (i.e., the development, or lack, of strong socio-emotional bonds) and minority stress (i.e., social stress experienced by individuals in minority social groups), she seeks to better understand the poor health and HIV prevention needs of disadvantaged youth transitioning into adulthood. She then utilize this theoretical framework of attachment and minority stress to inform effective prevention programs for vulnerable racial/ethnic and sexual minority youth transitioning to adulthood.

As the Principal Investigator and Director of the Attachment and Health Disparities Research Lab, her team assesses the association of attachment-related functioning on health disparities among racial/ethnic and sexual minority youth. Dr. Cook is first exploring how adult attachment orientation is associated with HIV risk in a community sample of Black gay and bisexual men transitioning into adulthood. Second, she illustrates how transitions in attachment during adolescence are associated with trajectories of depression among a community based cohort sample of African-American youth. Third, she seeks to understand how adult attachment, in the context of minority stress, is associated with biomarkers of physical health.

Dr. Cook teaches Global Issues in Social and Behavioral Health and Regression and Multivariate Analysis. At the Center for Health, Identity, Behavior, and Prevention Studies, she conducts research and has published numerous peer-reviewed articles.