Samantha Tornello has three major research interests: family, sexual orientation, and gender identity. The majority of Dr. Tornello’s work has focused on the role of family composition and parental sexual orientation and gender in the family system (children’s development, parental dynamics, and couple functioning). How do variations (e.g., pathways to parenthood or division of unpaid labor) and changes (e.g., divorce) in family composition relate to family members’ development and functioning? Specifically, for this area of work Dr. Tornello is interested in the role and experiences of parents across gender and sexual orientation, as they relate to individual development within these differently designed families.

Dr. Tornello’s research also focuses on the experiences of becoming a parent among sexual and gender minority individuals. How do sexual and gender minority people decide to become parents and what methods do they use to create their families? How do these families function? What are the unique challenges, strengths, and issues among this population? How can we harvest the resiliency and minimize the risk impacting sexual and gender minority people and their families? She hopes that this research can add to knowledge as well as inform public debates about families, parenting, sexual orientation, gender, and children’s development.

Dr. Tornello loves to mentor graduate and undergraduate students as research assistants and collaborators.