Gender	Female
E-mail	christine.rini@mssm.edu
Education and Training	Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
	M.A., University of California, Los Angeles
	B.A., California State University, Los Angeles
	Fellowship, NIH Summer Training Institute on the Design and Conduct of Randomized Clinical Trials Involving Behavorial Interventions
	Fellowship, Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Assistant Professor, Department of Oncological Sciences

Program for Cancer Prevention and Control

Education and Training	Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
	M.A., University of California, Los Angeles
	B.A., California State University, Los Angeles
	Fellowship, NIH Summer Training Institute on the Design and Conduct of Randomized Clinical Trials Involving Behavorial Interventions
	Fellowship, Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Dr. Rini is a social/health psychologist whose work focuses on personal and social resources that affect people's health and well-being in the context of cancer-related stressors.  For instance, her work has focused on protective personal characteristics such as optimism, past or current life stressors and social or interpersonal influences on health and adjustment -- that is, ways in which other people can be sources of assistance and support, stress and hindrance, information, and social influence or pressure. For instance, she is actively investigating how characteristics of social support attempts influence their effectiveness. Her past work in this area has shown that when pregnant women receive more effective support from their partner in early pregnancy, they experience less generalized anxiety and pregnancy-specific anxiety later in their pregnancy. She is currently working to extend these findings to new patient populations in several lines of funded research.

First, Dr. Rini is principal investigator on a National Cancer Institute-funded study of surgical decision making among inflammatory bowel disease patients at high risk for colorectal cancer. This line of research investigates patients' decision making and adjustment after they are referred for prophylactic colectomy, including the influence of spouses/partners as well as other medical and psychosocial factors. Second, she is principal investigator on an American Cancer Society-funded study that is testing a novel intervention developed to address the specific needs and difficulties reported by bone marrow transplant survivors. This intervention harnesses the reciprocal benefits of peer support. That is, it is based on the idea that transplant survivors benefit both from receiving social support from fellow transplant survivors and from providing it to people preparing for transplant. This line of research will also investigate the effects of survivors' stories on patient decision making and well-being and enable development of an informational resource for transplant patients.

Rini C, Manne S, DuHamel KN, Austin J, Ostroff J, Boulad F, Parsons S, Martini R, Williams S, Mee L, Sexson S, Redd WH. Social Support from Family and Friends as a Buffer of Low Spousal Support among Mothers of Critically Ill Children: A Multilevel Modeling Approach. Health Psychology;.

Rini C, Jandorf L, Valdimarsdottir H, Brown K, Itzkowitz SH. Distress among Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients at High Risk for Colorectal Cancer: A Preliminary Investigation of the Effects of Family History of Cancer, Disease Duration, and Perceived Social Support. Psycho-Oncology;.

DuHamel KN, Rini C, Manne S, Austin J, Ostroff J, Parsons S, Martini DR, Williams SE, Mee L, Sexson S, Winkel G, Boulad F, Redd WH. Optimism and Life Events as Predictors of fear in Mothers of Children undergoing Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation. Psycho-Oncology 2007; 16: 821-833.

Rini C, Lawsin C, Austin J, DuHamel K, Markarian Y, Burkhalter J, Labay L, Redd WH. Peer mentoring and survivors' stories as an informational resource for cancer patients: Positive effects and some cautionary notes. Journal of Clinical Oncology 2007; 25(1): 163-166.

Rini C, Dunkel Schetter C, Glynn LM, Hobel C, Sandman CA. Effective Social Support: Antecedents and consequences of partner support during pregnancy. Personal Relationships 2006; 13: 207-229.

Parker-Dominguez T, Dunkel Schetter C, Mancuso R, Rini C, Hobel CJ. Stress in African-American pregnancies: Testing the roles of various stress concepts in prediction of birth outcomes. Annals of Behavioral Medicine 2005; 29: 12-21.

Rini C, Manne S, DuHamel KN, Austin J, Ostroff J, Boulad F, Parsons S, Martini R, Williams S, Mee L, Sexson S, Redd WH. Mothers' perceptions of benefit following pediatric stem cell transplantation: A longitudinal investigation of the roles of optimism, medical risk, and sociodemographic resources. Annals of Behavioral Medicine 2004; 28: 132-141.

Rini C, Manne S, DuHamel KN, Austin J, Ostroff J, Boulad F, Parsons S, Martini R, Williams S, Mee L, Sexson S, Redd WH. Changes in mothers' basic beliefs following a child's bone marrow transplant: The role of prior trauma and negative life events. Journal of Traumatic Stress 2004; 17: 325-333.

Manne S, Ostroff J, Rini C, Fox K, Goldstein L, Grana G. The interpersonal process model of intimacy: The role of self-disclosure, partner disclosure and partner responsiveness in interactions between breast cancer patients and their partners. Journal of Family Psychology 2004; 118: 589-599.

Rini C, Dunkel-Schetter C, Wadhwa P, Sandman CA, . Psychological adaptation and birth outcomes: The role of personal resources, stress, and sociocultural context in pregnancy. Health Psychology 1999; 18: 333-345.