SARA MCLANAHAN Office of Population Research 265 Wallace Hall Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08544 T (609) 258-4875 F (609) 258-5804 mclanaha@princeton.edu fragilefamilies.princeton.edu |
HOW DO FAMILIES SHAPE THE FUTURE?
Families are central to the system of social stratification. As the first social institution to which children are exposed, families both mediate and modify the effects of genes and the environment on future life chances. My early work focused on the growth of single-mother families and what it meant for women and children, an inquiry which yielded Growing Up With a Single Parent. Today, I am immersed in the study of “fragile families,” unmarried parents raising a child together. This population is growing rapidly and to understand its contours, I have collaborated with many colleagues to create the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study which follows a cohort of about 5000 children (including 3700 children born to unmarried parents) who were born between 1998 and 2000. This survey will help us understand the capabilities of unmarried parents, especially fathers, the nature of parental relationships, from casual to committed, the fortunes of children in these households, and the role of local labor market conditions and government policies in shaping family dynamics and child wellbeing. CURRICULUM VITA (pdf) SELECTED PUBLICATIONS: McLanahan, Sara. 2004. “Diverging Destinies: How Children Fare Under the Second Demographic Transition.” Demography. 41(4): 607-627. Carlson, Marcia, Sara McLanahan, and Paula England. 2004. “Union formation in Fragile Families” Demography. 41(2): 237-261. Harknett, Kristen and Sara McLanahan. 2004. “Racial and Ethnic Differences in Marriage After the Birth of a Child,” American Sociological Review. 69: 790-811. Gibson, Christina, Kathryn Edin, and Sara McLanahan. “High Hopes, but Even Higher Expectations: The Retreat from Marriage Among Low-Income Couples.” Journal of Marriage and Family. (2005) 67(5): 1301-1312. Kenney, Catherine and Sara McLanahan. “Violence in Cohabitation and Marriage.” Forthcoming in Demography Western, Bruce, Leonard M. Lopoo, and Sara McLanahan. 2004. “Incarceration and the Bonds Among Parents in Fragile Families.” Pp. 21-45 in Imprisoning America: the Social Effects of Mass Incarceration. M. Patillo, D. Weiman, and B. Western (Eds.). New York: Russell Sage Foundation. |
