Life Course and Intergenerational Processes
The study of families, social relationships, and institutions is central to understanding how health inequalities emerge, are modified, or are sustained across the life course.
Recent Publications
Augustine, Jennifer March. 2021. Mothers’ Out-of-Sequence Postsecondary Education and Their Health and Health Behaviors. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 62(1): 2–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022146520979664
*Pfeffer, Carla A., and *Jones, Kierra B. 2020. Trans-Parent Families. In Abbie E. Goldberg and Katherine R. Allen (eds.), LGBT-Parent Families: Innovations in Research & Implications for Practice (2nd edition) (pp. 199-214). New York: Springer-Verlag. *Equal co-authorship
Wong, Jaclyn S., Hannah Breslau, V. Eloesa McSorley, Kristen E. Wroblewski, Melissa J. K. Howe, and Linda J. Waite. 2020. The Social Relationship Context of Elder Mistreatment. The Gerontologist 60: 1029-1039. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnz154
Wong, Jaclyn S. 2021. Aspiring Dual-Professional Couples Career Launch Plans and Childbearing Timing. Journal of Family Issues 42(5): 1092-1115. doi: 10.1177/0192513X20983380
Walsemann KM, Ailshire JA, Hartnett CS. 2019. “The other student debt crisis: How borrowing to pay for a child’s college education relates to parents’ mental health at midlife.” The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences. doi:10.1093/geronb/gbz146.
Augustine, Jennifer March, Kate E. Prickett, and Daniela Negraia. 2018. “Doing it all? Mothers’ college enrollment, time use, and affective well-being.” Journal of Marriage and Family. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12477
Hartnett, C. S., Fingerman, K. L., & Birditt, K. S. (2018). Without the ties that bind: U.S. young adults who lack active parental relationships. Advances in Life Course Research, 35, 103-113. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcr.2018.01.004
Current Projects
Augustine ASPIRE
This project aims to replicate and extend my previous research, in which I find that increases in mothers’ educational attainment does not lead to significant changes in children’s cognitive skills or noncognitive skills.
Stress and Women’s Health
Studies of social disparities in accelerated aging have shown mixed results in the association between chronic stress and accelerated aging, with racial disparities often less pronounced than socioeconomic ones.
Religion and Cognitive Functioning
Dr. Henderson examines the extent to which various dimensions of religiosity is associated with trajectories of cognitive functioning among older adults and whether this relationship varies by race.
Faculty
Jennifer Augustine, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Sociology
How mothers shape family level processes and in turn their children’s health and academic outcomes.
Caroline Hartnett, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Sociology
How social factors influence decision-making around childbearing and how the exchange of resources within families impact inequality.
Andrea Henderson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Sociology
The religious lives of Black Americans and how religion influences health and well-being in the face of stress, including racial discrimination.
Carla Pfeffer, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Sociology and Women’s and Gender Studies
Contemporary families, genders, sexualities, and bodies considered marginal, as well as social actors’ management of stigma and discrimination.
Jaclyn Wong, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Sociology
How positive and negative social relationships shape older adults’ health and wellbeing. The role of gender, marriage, and family relationships on life course health.
