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
Examples of current projects in these areas can be found below.
Families and Inequality
Faculty Associate Philip Cohen brings sociology research to the public eye by tackling thorny issues about race, gender, family, and inequality in an online public forum.
Time Use Data Access System
Sandra Hofferth continues Time Use project to extend data "backwards through time and geographically across countries"
Multidimensional Pathways to Healthy Aging among Filipino Women
Feinian Chen is working with the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, on an interdisciplinary study for the National Institute on Aging on health and functional outcomes in women's "transitional years" of middle and later adulthood
Change in Elderly Living Arrangements in Rural South Africa, 2000-2010
Sangeetha Madhavan project, an R03 funded by NICHD, examines the impact of HIV on the probability that an elderly person will face a transition in living arrangements
Institutional Change and the Consequences of Military Service
In a Collaborative Research project funded by the National Science Foundation, Meredith Kleykamp looks at outcomes in marriage, education, employment and earnings among veterans and non-veterans over the last 40 years.
Social Observatory Coordinating Network
Faculty Associates Sandra Hofferth and Klaus Hubacek are participating in an NSF-funded interdisciplinary effort to explore the feasibility and potential structure of a network of social observatories akin to networks in the physical sciences
How Does the Amount of Time Mothers Spend with Children Matter?
Dr. Milkie's research helps to reshape cultural frames regarding maternal time and children's well being
Teens, Technology, and Dating Violence
Donna Howard and colleagues are studying the impact of electronic communication technologies on dating violence
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
How Does Parental Stress Affect Child Outcomes?
Natasha Cabrera has completed a paper on “Parenting and early predictors of Latino children’s cognitive and social development: Direct and Indirect Effects”
Intergenerational Parenting and Health
MPRC Associate Terrence Thornberry is studying Intergenerational Health using the Rochester Youth Development Study
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.