Amanda Cooper, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor University of Connecticut
- Storrs CT
Dr. Cooper's research interests fall at the intersection of interpersonal, family, and health communication.
Biography
Amanda’s research has received numerous awards including the Kory Floyd Fellowship in Interpersonal Relations (University of Arizona Department of Communication), the Dawn O. Braithwaite Qualitative Research Award (CSCA Interpersonal and Family Division), Outstanding Master’s Thesis Awards (NCA Communication and Aging Division & ICA Interpersonal Communication Division), and the Outstanding Graduate Research Award (NCA Student Section).
Areas of Expertise
Education
University of Arizona
Ph.D.
Communication
2023
University of Arizona
M.A.
Communication
2020
Utah State University
B.S.
2018
Affiliations
- National Communication Association (NCA)
- Central States Communication Association (CSCA)
- International Communication Association (ICA)
- International Association for Relationship Research (IARR)
- Gerontoological Society of America
Accomplishments
Outstanding Dissertation Award, National Communication Association Interpersonal Communication Division
2024
Outstanding Article Award, Journal of Family Communication
2023
Outstanding Journal Article Award, National Communication Association and Aging Division
2024
Top Paper, Central States Communication Association Interpersonal and Family Interest Group
2025
Leslie A. Baker Early Career Award, National Communication Association Interpersonal Communication Division
2025
Links
- Department of Communication Profile
- Google Scholar Profile
- Caring for Family Members with Dementia - UConn 360 Podcast
- Study Finds That Missionaries Pull from Same Language Toolkit to Describe Experiences - UConn Today
- Investing in Relationships Builds Resilience for Dementia Caregivers, Study Finds - UConn Today
- Communication Scholar Amanda Cooper shares advice on how to navigate loneliness and social interaction - UConn Today
Social
Media
Media Appearances
8 Ways to Become a Nicer Person
Time Magazine online
2026-01-09
One of the easiest ways to be nice to someone is to make it clear you're paying attention to what they say. “We have to actually put in effort to listen,” says Amanda Cooper, an assistant professor in the department of communication at the University of Connecticut. “That means really giving someone the cognitive space to listen to what they’re saying.”
How seniors coping with health challenges can stay motivated and hopeful
Care.com online
2025-12-16
“These changes can limit the activities a person can do independently and leave a person feeling like they’ve lost some part of themselves,” explains Amanda Cooper, assistant professor of interpersonal communication at the University of Connecticut, whose research focuses on individuals and families navigating difficult life transitions, particularly at the end of life.
Study offers guidance for communicating with loved ones living with dementia
News Medical online
2025-08-27
One of the great challenges faced by families coping with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia is learning how to communicate effectively with the person impacted by the disease while also upholding their personhood, or sense of personal value.
A new study from UConn researcher Amanda Cooper – published in time for World Alzheimer's Month in September and World Alzheimer's Day on Sept. 21 - offers concrete recommendations on what to do and what not to do to support personhood for a family member living with dementia.
End of Life Communication, with Amanda Cooper
The Wayne Norman Show radio
2025-09-23
UConn's Amanda Cooper joins Wayne Norman for a conversation about end of life communication
Articles
How to keep dementia from robbing your loved ones of their sense of personhood – tips for caregivers
The Conversation2025-11-06
Every three seconds, someone in the world develops dementia. There are over 6 million people living with dementia in the U.S. and 57 million globally.
These figures will only increase in the coming years, as rates of dementia are predicted to double by 2060. If you don’t know someone affected by dementia, you probably will at some point.
Finding the Communication Sweet Spot: Strategies Promoting Personhood in Conversations Between Individuals with Dementia and Their Family Members
Journal of Family CommunicationR. Amanda Cooper, Chizobam Nweke, Hannah Brocksmith
2025-07-21
The use of person-centered communication to affirm personhood is a fundamental aspect of dementia care. Dementia caregiving is often studied in formal settings, ignoring the informal caregiving that occurs within the family. Grounded in communication accommodation theory, the communication predicament of aging model, and the communication enhancement model, this study explored the various ways through which family members promote the personhood of their loved ones with dementia. 31 audio-recorded conversations between people with dementia and their family members were obtained from the StoryCorps online archive and analyzed. Personhood was promoted by reminding the people with dementia of their identities, encouraging them to share their thoughts, assessing and adjusting to their conversational needs, and cultivating relational connections with them. Some behaviors were inconsistent with the tenets of person-centered communication and involved underaccommodation or overaccommodation. The findings reveal potential strategies and pitfalls of promoting personhood within the family caregiving context.
Bolstering Military Couple Relational Resilience Through Savoring: Applying the Theory of Resilience and Relational Load
Journal of Family Communication2025
Military couples face unique challenges that have the potential to strain their romantic relationships, including the extended rigors of deployment. Using the theory of resilience and relational load, this study examined savoring as a beneficial practice in fostering resilience and relational satisfaction among military partners whose serviceperson partner had completed at least one deployment. Military partners (n = 156) completed an online survey, with results suggesting that savoring positively contributes to relational maintenance and broader resilience processes and relational wellbeing for military couples. Savoring is a skill that can be easily practiced and shows great promise for the cultivation of relational maintenance and resilience for military families.
The Dementia Diagnostic Process: The Caregiver’s Role and the Challenges Faced
Innovation in Aging2025
The objective of this study was to explore the role of the caregiver when seeking a dementia diagnosis for their spouse, as well as identify the challenges they faced. The process of seeking a dementia diagnosis can be a long and complex task, with numerous barriers along the way. Familial caregivers are deeply involved in this process, yet the role and challenges faced by caregivers are not often the focus of this type of research. Thematic analysis was used to explore caregivers’ experiences of seeking a dementia diagnosis for their spouse. This qualitative study included interviews from 18 caregivers. A number of challenges emerged consisting of both doctor-related barriers: (1) Doctors dismissing or ignoring concerns, (2) Unclear disclosure or miscommunication from doctors, (3) Long, complicated, many step process, (4) Misdiagnosis or mistreatment, (5) Lengthy and frustrating evaluations; and personal or disease-related barriers: (6) Misattribution of symptoms, (7) Fear of hurting their spouse’s feelings, and (8) Denial or hesitancy from their spouse. Seven fluid and dynamic caregiver roles were also identified: Fierce Advocate, The Bad Guy, Determined Investigator, Team Player, Secret Agent, Fearful Fighter, and Pragmatic Realist.
Promoting Personhood in Family Conversations with Individuals Living with Dementia
Innovation in Aging2025
As the population of adults aged 65 and above keeps rising in the US and other countries around the world, so does the burden of dementia, with significant impacts on the quality of life of this population. This study explored the various ways through which family members promote the personhood of their loved ones with dementia. Thirty-one audio-recorded conversations between people with dementia, Mage 76.65 (SD 13.35), and their family members were obtained from the StoryCorps online archive and analyzed. The following were identified as the strategies through which family members affirmed personhood: reminding the people with dementia of their identities, encouraging them to share their thoughts, assessing and adjusting to their conversational needs, and cultivating relational connections with them. This study also found that the task of promoting personhood through family relationships is complex and there is a need to ensure that adequate accommodation is provided, as too much or too little can be counterproductive. Also, the findings from this study provide further evidence that people with dementia can have positive and meaningful experiences while navigating their illness at home among loved ones.
Caregiver Identity and Resilience Across and Beyond Dementia Care: A Qualitative Study
Innovation in Aging2025
With increasing dementia prevalence and reliance on spousal care partners, understanding how caregiving identity evolves and how resilience is fostered across the care trajectory is crucial. While dementia research often emphasizes caregiver burden, fewer studies explore how identity and resilience develop in response to shifting roles and changing relationship dynamics. Guided by Caregiver Identity Theory, we conducted a thematic analysis of 18 in-depth interviews with long-term spousal caregivers of people living with dementia to examine how they experience identity transitions and cultivate resilience as care dynamics evolve. Five interrelated themes emerged: disruption of familiar roles and relational structures, highlighting loss of shared routines and partner reciprocity; internalizing the caregiver identity, reflecting deepened commitment and sense of duty; navigating uncertainty and strain, encompassing emotional, physical, and existential stressors, including ambiguous loss and caregiving self-doubt; sustaining identity through adaptation and engagement, illustrating how caregivers reframed challenges, sought support, and retained purpose; and meaning-making through connection and shared history, capturing how long-term bonds, lucid moments, and partner appreciation contributed to resilience and meaning.
Extending communicated sense-making theorizing to social groups: missionaries’ use of metaphor, personification, and in-group vernacular
Human Communication Research2025
Exiting the totalistic and intensively focused structure of missionary service prompts sense-making as missionaries return and adapt to life at home. Drawing from organizational, religious, and interpersonal communication literature, we use the communicated sense-making model to explore how 26 Christian missionaries made sense of their experiences and post-missionary identity. Our findings suggest that missionaries used three sense-making devices—metaphors, memorable messages, and personifications—to find certainty in uncertainty, mobilize identity work, and position themselves toward others. We extend the communicated sense-making model by clarifying the functions of sense-making devices, introducing personification as a novel sense-making device, and proposing in-group vernacular as a shared set of linguistic and ideological resources that can enable or constrain sense-making surrounding difficult life events and transitions.
