Ph.D. in social psychology, Princeton University; B.S. in psychology, Virginia Tech
Thomas E. Trail is a senior behavioral scientist at the RAND Corporation. Trail's research focuses on how stress affects relationship processes and health outcomes among military and civilian couples and the effectiveness of programs in mitigating family stress. Current research projects he is leading include the Today's Army Spouse Survey assessing the needs of Army spouses and their families and whether those needs are being met by Army and civilian services, an evaluation of the effectiveness of online peer support communities for decreasing social isolation and loneliness among caregivers for ill or wounded veterans, and an evaluation of the Department of Defense programs that provide counseling services to military service members and their families. Trail was also an investigator for the Deployment Life Study, a longitudinal study of military families across the deployment cycle, where he studied the impact of deployment on family and child outcomes. Other recent research includes designing and evaluating a web-based intervention to help spouses concerned about their service member's alcohol use. Prior to joining RAND, Trail was a postdoctoral scholar at UCLA. He received his Ph.D. in social psychology from Princeton University and his M.S. in applied/experimental psychology from Virginia Tech.
Trail, T. E., Friedman, E., Rutter, C. M., & Tanielian, T., "The relationship between engagement in online support groups and social isolation among military caregivers: Longitudinal questionnaire study," Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(4), 2020
Trail, T. E., Osilla, K. C., Rodriguez, L. M., Pedersen, E. R., & Gore, K. L., "Exploring the association between changes in partner behaviors, perceived service member drinking, and relationship quality: Secondary analysis of a web-based intervention for military partners," Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 98, 2019
Trail, T. E., Martin, L. T., Burgette, L. F., Warren May, L., Mahmud, A., Nanda, N., & Chandra, A., An Evaluation of U.S. Military Non-Medical Counseling Programs, RAND Corp. (RR-1861), 2017
Karney, B. R. & Trail, T. E., "Associations between prior deployments and marital satisfaction among Army couples," Journal of Marriage and Family, 79, 2017
Trail, T. E., Meadows, S. O., Miles, J. N. V., & Karney, B. R., "Patterns of vulnerabilities and resources in U.S. military families," Journal of Family Issues, 2015
Trail, T. E., Goff, P. A., Bradbury, T. N., & Karney, B. R., "The costs of racism for marriage: How racial discrimination hurts, and ethnic identity protects, newlywed marriages among Latinos," Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38, 2012
Trail, T. E. & Karney, B. R., "What’s (not) wrong with low-income marriages," Journal of Marriage and Family, 74, 2012
Trail, T. E., Shelton, J. N., & West, T. V., "Daily interracial interactions and interpersonal behaviors," Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, 2009
