“It is my sincere desire that my research and hard work will help create a world where we all learn to walk this Earth, safe, enlightened and free from the perils of cruelty, ignorance, and all the other dark and sinister forces … ”
– Alexei Maxim Russell
I study how major life challenges—like incarceration, mental health struggles, and systemic inequality—affect families and relationships, and how strong relationships can promote resilience, healing, and long-term well-being.
Check out my three main areas of research below.
relationship
health
is
public
health.
Areas of Research
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I study how systems like incarceration, healthcare, and social policy shape family relationships, mental health, caregiving, and access to support. This work examines how chronic adversity is experienced as part of everyday family life.
RECENT PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS IN THIS AREA
Morgan, A. A., & Tadros, E. (in press). Incarceration as a relational disruption: Systemic frameworks for family intervention.
Morgan, A. A., Kosi-Huber, J., Farley, T. M., Tadros, E., & Bell, A. M. (2022). Felons Need Not Apply: The tough-on-crime era’s felony welfare benefits ban and its impact on families with a formerly incarcerated parent. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 32(2), 613–625. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02400-3
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This area of my research explores how relationships can help people cope, heal, and rebuild amid chronic adversity. I focus on how connection, support, parenting, and partnership promote resilience and coping.
RECENT PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS/PRESENTATIONS IN THIS AREA
Morgan, A. A., & Jankins, K. (revise & resubmit). Reconnecting through screens: Virtual visits and parenting interventions for incarcerated fathers. Submitted to Family Relations.
Morgan, A. A., Mittal, M., Myers, I., & Kelly, A. (2025, November). Who’s really got your back? The power and pitfalls of social support after incarceration. In A. A. Morgan (Chair), Justice for who, exactly? Repairing the unequal road to social equity and family well-being after incarceration [Symposium]. Annual Meeting of the National Council on Family Relations, Baltimore, Maryland.
Morgan, A. A., Arditti, J. A., Dennison, Si., & Frederiksen, S. (2021). Against the Odds: A structural equation analysis of family resilience processes during paternal incarceration. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(21), 11592. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182111592
Morgan, A. A., Arditti, J. A., Spiers, S., Buechner-Maxwell, V, & Shivy, V. (2020). “Came for the horses, stayed for the men”: A mixed methods analysis of staff, community, and reentrant perceptions of a Prison Equine Program (PEP). Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 59(3), 156-176. https://doi.org/10.1080/10509674.2019.1706688
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My research is building toward developing relationship-centered programs designed to improve mental health, strengthen families, and increase access to support. This includes community-based interventions, prevention programs, and public health initiatives focused on real-world impact.
RECENT PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS/PRESENTATIONS IN THIS AREA
Morgan, A. A., & Mittal, M. (2026, March). Rebuilding together: Designing a relationship intervention for couples navigating reentry. Will be presented at the Annual International Family Therapy Congress, Bergen, Norway.
current collaborations
Montgomery county prerelease center
The Montgomery County Pre-Release and Reentry Services (PRRS) center, based in Rockville, MD, is a community corrections facility that helps incarcerated people prepare for reentry. I am partnered with the MCPRRS to develop a couples-based relationship education program for incarcerated people and their partners navigating the challenges of reentry.
Jessup women’s prison
Through a partnership with the Office of Veterans and the Jessup Women’s Correctional Institution, I am part of a team of researcher-clinicians that provide workshops for veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces who are incarcerated at Jessup Women’s prison. Workshops focus on trauma, emotion regulation, and healthy relationships.
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
In response to the rising rate of mental health crises on college campus, I developed a one-credit mental health prevention and intervention program, BE WELL (Building Emotional Wellness through ExperientiaL Learning), offered to undergraduates at the University of Maryland. Current efforts are focused on funding, evaluating, and scaling BE WELL.