Dr. Mroz is a developmental psychologist with expertise in life story and narrative theory. She applies this framework to recognize the ways family caregivers build subjective, influential personal narratives of what caregiving is, how it feels to be a caregiver, and how one’s relationship with their care recipient has changed across the caregiving journey. She then examines associations between caregivers’ narratives and health, wellbeing, and care navigation outcomes. Dr. Mroz is particularly interested in a subgroup she has defined as experienced caregivers: adults who have been caregivers in the past, and are stepping into new caregiving roles in the present. This subgroup is expected to grow as our population ages, and these caregivers have the unique trait of having developed rich narratives from their former caregiving experiences before stepping into new caregiving roles. To that end, Dr. Mroz is developing new, narrative based interventions to support caregivers to develop personal narratives that emphasize their own competencies, promoting preparedness for the challenges that care roles bring. Dr. Mroz has developed extensive skills in qualitative analysis and community-engaged research, and uses these skills to support intervention development, testing, and implementation. Her work and training have been funded by the National Institute on Aging.
Emily Mroz, PhD
