Gender, Family, and Social Change
Broad changes in recent decades, including economic restructuring and the stagnation of male wages, the gender revolution and the entry of women into labor force, and the aging of most populations, have transformed family life in ways that are still not well understood. MPRC researchers are leaders in the study of how these larger changes affect families and individuals in both the U.S. and in other countries. Many aspects of family life (how they form, their size, composition and stability, and inequalities in family experiences) have direct impact on larger demographic processes underlying the composition, geographic distribution, and growth of the population. Thus the study of family life is of central concern to population research.
Areas of focus include :
- Transition to adulthood and family formation
- Parenting over the life course
- Intersection between gender, work, and family
- Data development
Examples of current projects in these areas can be found below.
Nurturing Dads: Social Initiatives for Contemporary Fatherhood
Faculty Associate Kevin Roy co-authors book on public policy impacts on fatherhood
Exploring the culture of despair
Faculty Associate Melissa Kearney and Philip B. Levine find that inequality trumps location in predicting early childbearing out of wedlock
Macroeconomic Conditions and Marital Dissolution
Faculty Associate Melissa Kearney explores marriage markets through an R03 with North Carolina State University
Grandparents caring for grandchildren in China
Faculty Associate Feinian Chen is wrapping up a five-year K01 project studying the role of grandparenting in China
Low-Income Fathers' Linguistic Influence on their Children's' Language Development
Faculty Associate Natasha Cabrera begins work on the effects of speech on children
Transitions to Fatherhood
Sandra Hofferth and Frances Goldscheider have just published an article entitled “Family Structure and the Transition to Early Parenthood” in Demography
Using IHDS Data to Explore Inequality in India
Sonalde Desai and Reeve Vanneman study the "Determinants of Maternal and Child Health in India"
American Time Use Survey Data Extract Builder (ATUS-X) and Conferences
The American Time Use Survey Data Extract Builder has been up and running for a number of years, and the research team has sponsored conferences in 2007, 2009, and 2011
Family Processes, Intergenerational Learning and Involved Fathering
MPRC associates are collaborating on a component project that investigates intergenerational mechanisms through which “responsible fathering” may be transmitted.
Methodological Studies on Data Quality and Data Collection
MPRC faculty are dedicated to improving the quality of data and its documentation.
The 1990 and 2000 Decennial Employee-Employer Databases (DEEDs)
Associate Judy Hellerstein and colleagues use business address information to match workers to employers to create a new data product.