Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2019, Sociology

Income pooling, or the sharing of income, in U.S. families and couples has received considerable attention over the past decade. However, many questions regarding how income pooling is associated with commitment or financial difficulties remain. Further, income pooling is often treated as a static behavior, but it may be one that changes over time. The present study draws on the theories of structural investments, family adaptive strategies, and incomplete institutionalization to approach these questions to study these gaps. Using wave five of the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS), I examine the associations between income pooling and multiple indices of relationship uncertainty, material hardship, and financial stressors among young adults in the U.S. In the third chapter, I examine whether income pooling may be a strategy families employ to manage material hardship using the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS). The final analytic chapter describes changes in income pooling behavior among mothers of young children using the FFCWS. The overall findings suggest that motivations of income pooling are multifaceted among young adults: income pooling may both represent structural commitment and an adaptive strategy to overcome material hardship. However, it does not appear that income pooling is an adaptive strategy among mothers of young children: income pooling had no consistent association with material hardship for mothers of the FFCWS. This study reaffirms differences in income pooling behavior between married and cohabiting couples: differences in commitment and material hardship between married and cohabiting young adults did not explain the differences in income pooling behavior, suggesting unmeasured differences between married and cohabiting young adults. Further, married mothers were significantly more likely to be completely pooling their income rather than not pooling their income, compared to mothers who were cohabiting, after acco (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Wendy Manning Dr. (Advisor); Monica Longmore Dr. (Committee Member); Kelly Balistreri Dr. (Committee Member); Karen Guzzo Dr. (Committee Member); Kara Joyner Dr. (Committee Member); Arthur Samel Dr. (Other) Subjects: Demography; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Sociology

The “Diverging Destinies” of American families has been a central focus of family demography for nearly two decades. Patterns of union and family formation associated with the second demographic transition have become stratified, particularly along the lines of maternal education, creating inequalities in children's household contexts and resources. Household wealth may also be highly relevant to increasing inequality among families as wealth predicts entry into marriage. However, unlike maternal education, household wealth gaps between family structures may grow throughout childhood as marriage facilitates subsequent wealth accumulation. Understanding the role of wealth in shaping the diverging destinies of children is vitally important given massive wealth inequality in the US and the importance of household wealth for children's college attendance and completion. In this dissertation, I use the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to examine (1) the association between children's family structure and household wealth over time, (2) how stability and change in family structure throughout childhood shapes household wealth accumulation, and (3) the consequences of household wealth for child well-being. My analyses lead to three central conclusions. First, family structure disparities in household wealth are wide and have remained quite stable over time, even in the face of growing wealth inequality and over the course of the Great Recession. In line with past research, I find that children living with married parents have the highest levels of household wealth, followed closely by children living with a remarried parent. These children have considerably more household wealth than children living with a divorced parent, and children living with a never married parent have the lowest levels of household wealth. My second central conclusion is that family instability, but not family structure, shapes household wealth accumulation throughout childhood. Fa (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kristi Williams PhD (Committee Chair); Kammi Schmeer PhD (Committee Co-Chair); Sarah Hayford PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2018, Sociology

The past two decades have been a time of rapid social change for sexual minority individuals living in the United States. Marriage for same-sex couples is now legally recognized in all states and the number of adults identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual is at an all-time high. Nevertheless, certain rights are still not afforded to all sexual minorities, and stressors exist beyond the legal and institutional context. Social context is salient for sexual minorities because they are likely to encounter stressful situations in their neighborhoods, workplaces, and families. Previous research has examined the effects of context on the health and well-being of sexual minorities, but has rarely analyzed contextual influences on other outcomes for this population. The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) provides the unique opportunity to examine how different indicators of social context are associated with a variety of outcomes for a nationally representative cohort of young adults in the United States. Using data from Add Health, I first examine how indicators of social context are associated with the likelihood that sexual minorities (i.e., homosexuals and bisexuals) have come out to parents prior to Wave III. Second, I examine how indicators are associated with their likelihood of forming a same-sex coresidential union between Wave III and IV. Third, I consider how sexual minorities fare in the labor market in comparison to sexual majorities (i.e., heterosexuals) at Wave IV, paying close attention to how their outcomes also differ according to relationship context. In support of minority stress and ecological systems frameworks, I find evidence that social context matters for sexual minorities. Specifically, sexual minorities living in census tracts with relatively moderate or high concentrations of same-sex couples are more likely to be out to either parent than their counterparts living in tracts with low concentration of same-sex (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kara Joyner Ph.D. (Advisor); Susan Brown Ph.D. (Committee Member); Karen Guzzo Ph.D. (Committee Member); Wendy Manning Ph.D. (Committee Member); Laura Landry-Meyer Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: Families and Family Life; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2009, Sociology

Divorce and subsequent remarriage have become an important part of American family life in recent decades. Divorce has negative consequences for mental health, physical health, overall well-being, and economic well-being. Remarriage can help divorcees overcome many of these problems, especially financial difficulties. However, there are significant gender differences in the likelihood of remarriage. Men are much more likely to remarry than women. This gender gap has important micro- and macro-level social implications. At the individual level, gender differences in remarriage mean that men are more likely to regain the benefits associated with marriage, including economic benefits, at higher rates than women. At the macro-level, some family scholars argue that first marriage has increasingly resembled remarriage in recent decades (Popenoe 1993; Cherlin 2004). In first marriage, both men's and women's socioeconomic status is positively associated with first marriage formation and both educational and age homogamy – a move away from traditional marriage where men's, but not women's, economic status was important in the marriage market. However, empirical work focusing on the claim that first marriage and remarriage formation are similar is lacking because little is known about remarriage formation patterns.I focus on two aspects of remarriage formation to understand how remarriage patterns compare to first marriage formation. First, I analyze the individual characteristics associated with the likelihood of remarriage for men and women. I pay particular attention to socioeconomic status (income, labor force status, and educational attainment), first marriage ties (co-residential children) and time since divorce as important factors in the remarriage market. Second, I examine educational and age assortative mating patterns in second marriages to identify whether remarriage follows a more contemporary homogamous pattern or a more traditional form where men marry less-edu (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Zhenchao Qian PhD (Advisor); Chris Knoester PhD (Committee Member); Reanne Frank PhD (Committee Member); Elizabeth Cooksey PhD (Other) Subjects: Demographics; Families and Family Life; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Sociology

In recent decades, there have been large changes in family formation in the U.S. The marriage rate has decreased concomitantly with increasing premarital cohabitation and premarital fertility. A majority of young adults today are indirect marriers, meaning that they cohabit with their spouse prior to marriage, as opposed to marrying without first cohabiting or direct marriage. At the same time there have been significant shifts in the labor market. The majority of women today are in the labor force, the most common household type is now a dual-earner household, and the gender pay gap is still significant but shrinking. Extant research on the role of economic factors in the transition to marriage as well as the economic outcomes of marriage and fertility has often been limited to older generations or have not explicitly considered the roles of direct or indirect marriage. In turn prior research often disregards the paths to marriage and focuses on a marital framework. This dissertation uses the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to investigate how the path to marriage influences marriage bar, the marriage wage premium, and the effect of parenthood on the within-couple earnings equality among men and women born between 1980 and 1984. The results showed that the marriage bar existed for both direct and indirect marriage with few differences based on economic characteristics. Furthermore, only indirect marriers receive a marriage wage premium in the short tun, however not one that was statistically different between direct and indirect marriers. Finally, the share of women's earnings decreased upon parenthood and there were no differences between direct and indirect marriers. This dissertation contributes to previous research by focusing on a younger generation and their more complex paths into marriage in an economic climate where men and women's economic resources are becoming more equally important in family formation. Yet the focus on direct and indirect ma (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Wendy Manning PhD (Committee Chair); Karen Guzzo PhD (Committee Member); Kei Nomaguchi PhD (Committee Member); I-Fen Lin PhD (Committee Member); Lubomir Popov PhD (Other) Subjects: Demographics; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Sociology

Historically and in the present, immigration looms large in the American consciousness. Today, we find ourselves in a challenging moment, struggling with political polarization alongside key questions about the causes and consequences of immigration. In this contemporary context, I explore the views that Americans hold about immigration, which may in turn impact immigrant integration. I then explore how first, second, and third-generation immigrants experience national and transnational social ties with attention to their health impacts. Broadly speaking, my dissertation seeks to understand how proximity to the immigrant experience is an important marker of group change. Since a large number of Americans are immigrants or have parents, grandparents, or even great-grandparents who are or were immigrants, understanding variability in the ideas or stereotypes that Americans hold with respect to contemporary immigration is crucial to understanding how today's immigrants will be incorporated into the fabric of American life. To that end, I collect and analyze original survey data through the American Population Panel (APP) to first examine variability by generation in how Americans view immigrants in today's climate (Chapter Two). I find that generation is an important predictor of views towards immigration, but generation matters less for how individuals perceive diversity. Next, I use the commentary associated with my original APP survey to understand the thought processes and ideas that respondents invoke when presenting their views of immigration (Chapter Three). I find that oftentimes respondents cannot separate immigration from illegality, with politics, nationalism, and mistrust combining to create archetypes that respondents superimpose on immigrants broadly. Last, I conduct interviews with first, second, and third-generation immigrants in order to characterize the social ties that immigrants hold, how these ties inform their experiences in both the U.S. and in t (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Reanne Frank (Committee Chair); Tasleem Padamsee (Committee Member); Townsand Price-Spratlen (Committee Member); Cindy Colen (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; Applied Mathematics; Asian American Studies; Asian Studies; Behavioral Sciences; Behaviorial Sciences; Demographics; Demography; Health; Hispanic American Studies; Hispanic Americans; Mental Health; Political Science; Public Health; Public Policy; Social Research; Social Structure; Sociology

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2022, Sociology/Applied Demography

Growing shares of older adults are cohabiting in later life, and increasing evidence suggests that cohabitation for older adults serves as an alternative to marriage. However, prior literature examining the benefits of marriage in later life have yielded mixed findings on whether individuals who are married versus cohabiting differ in psychological well-being. Furthermore, past research has lumped together first marriages with remarriages, despite remarriage being a more appropriate comparison group to cohabitors, as cohabitors are overwhelmingly previously married. Using the 2014 and 2016 Health and Retirement Study, I assessed whether older adult cohabitors and remarrieds differed on two dimensions of psychological well-being: depressive symptoms and loneliness. I also examined whether relationship quality accounted for any differences observed. Lastly, I tested whether the association between union-type and psychological well-being varied according to relationship quality. The findings indicated that cohabitation and remarriage yielded similar psychological benefits. Additionally, the association between union-type and psychological well-being did not vary according to relationship quality. Taken together, the results provide further support that cohabitation operates as an alternative to marriage in later-life.

Committee: Susan Brown Ph.D. (Committee Chair); I-Fen Lin Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jenjira Yahirun Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Demography; Families and Family Life

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2021, Sociology

Long-acting reversible contraceptives, LARCs, have been gaining popularity in the past two decades, but other methods, including sterilization, are still more frequently used. Different sociodemographic and societal factors influence contraceptive use among different groups of women. In particular, mothers and younger women have the highest rates of LARC use. In comparison, mothers and older women have the highest rates of those using sterilization. I analyze the relationship between motherhood status/parity and age on contraceptive method use using the 2015-2017 and 2017-2019 cycles of the National Survey of Family Growth. Mothers are more likely to use LARCs and sterilization relative to other methods compared to childless women. Higher parities increase the likelihood of using LARCs and sterilization relative to other methods, along with using sterilization relative to LARCs. Age increases the likelihood of using sterilization relative to LARCs and other methods. There is evidence that age moderates the relationship between motherhood and parity and contraception use, especially for sterilization use relative to LARCs and other methods. Younger mothers at parity three or more have a higher likelihood of being sterilized relative to using other methods than childless women and older mothers. Older women and women in the middle of their childbearing years are less likely to use LARCs and sterilization relative to other methods compared to their childless counterparts. Older mothers with higher parities are less likely to use sterilization relative to LARC compared to childless women. These findings suggest that mothers and childless women use contraception for different reasons across the childbearing years.

Committee: Karen Guzzo Ph.D. (Advisor); Kei Nomaguchi Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jenjira Yahirun Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Demographics; Demography; Families and Family Life; Health; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, History

This dissertation uncovers a `lost generation' of Roman senators who were killed in the Hannibalic War. In the process it reconstructs the size, enrollment, and demographic composition of the Middle Republican Senate, and defends the use of modern model life tables in the study of antiquity. Between 218 and 216 BC, approximately half of the Senate's members perished while serving as officers and soldiers in the war against Carthage. That the Republic recovered from such a blow is astounding. Indeed, my dissertation argues that these deaths amounted to a `lost generation' of Roman elites whose absence created an enormous political vacuum that would itself take decades to refill. Though no ancient author mentions this `lost generation' explicitly, an analysis of our ancient sources combined with modern demographic modelling techniques is revealing. By using model life tables, my dissertation argues that Livy's figures for senatorial losses matches a realistic approximation of the number of iuniores in the Senate combined with the number of seniores who likely perished from natural attrition between 220 and 216 BC. This `lost generation' provides new evidence in turn for the disruptive impact of elite involvement in warfare, and it highlights the extent of Roman losses in the opening years of the Hannibalic War. Both the crisis caused by the decimation of the Senate and the Senate's response to this political crisis are indispensable to any account of Rome's eventual triumph over Carthage. Still, despite the decisive role of these events in determining the outcome of the war, there have been few attempts to reconstruct the particulars of Rome's elite casualties in these years or to underline the significance of what was essentially a `lost generation' of Roman leaders. The result has been a diminished appreciation of the Roman experience of war as well as an incomplete understanding of Rome's development during the third and second centuries BC. My dissertation aims t (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Nathan Rosenstein (Advisor); Greg Anderson (Committee Member); Tina Sessa (Committee Member) Subjects: Classical Studies; Demographics; Demography; History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, Human Development and Family Science

The changing landscape of young adult cohabitation has important implications for family formation, childrearing, and individual health and wellbeing. As the social norms surrounding cohabitation have changed over time, more and more young adults enter cohabitation and cohabitation is growing more diverse. Young adults' motivation for cohabiting, length of their union, and number of cohabiting partners contributes to this diversity. Yet young adult long-term cohabitation remains understudied. This dissertation study focuses on young adult long-term cohabitation by identifying the changing prevalence of long-term cohabitation over time, the barriers to transitioning out of cohabitation and long-term cohabitation, and the implications of these long-term unions for young adult mental health. This dissertation study enhances scholarship on cohabitation by examining long-term cohabitation during a critical period in the life course, young adulthood, a time when these early relationships may alter young adults' future relationship and union trajectories. Further, a critical developmental task during these years is establishing intimacy within romantic unions, suggesting that cohabitation during this period is more important than at any other developmental stage. I use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79), the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to examine the prevalence of long-term cohabitation over time, identify variables contributing to transitions out of cohabitation and long-term cohabitation, and the mental health implications of young adult long-term cohabitation. These data are well-suited for this study as all are nationally-representative longitudinal studies containing high-quality cohabitation data. In Chapter 1, I provide a brief introduction highlighting important changes in young adult cohabitation over time, including changes (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Claire Kamp Dush (Advisor); Kristi Williams (Committee Member); Anastasia Snyder (Committee Member); Kelly Purtell (Committee Member) Subjects: Demography; Families and Family Life; Mental Health; Personal Relationships

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, Sociology

The reversal of the gender gap in education has reshaped the U.S. marriage market and could have far-reaching consequences for marriage and family lives. As women increasingly marry men with less education than themselves, does this imply greater economic gender equality in marriage? My dissertation takes a life course approach to answer this question. First, I examine gender asymmetry in educational and income assortative mating patterns among newlyweds. I use log-linear models to analyze data from the 1980 U.S. Census and the 2008–2012 American Community Surveys. I find that between 1980 and 2008–2012, educational assortative mating reversed from a tendency for women to marry up to a tendency for women to marry down in education, whereas the tendency for women to marry men with higher incomes than themselves persisted. Moreover, in both time periods, the tendency for women to marry up in income was greater among couples in which the wife's education level equals or surpasses that of the husband than among couples in which the wife is less-educated than the husband. The findings suggest that men and women continue to form marriages in which the wife's socioeconomic status does not exceed that of the husband. Second, I investigate how educational assortative mating shapes husbands' and wives' income trajectories over the course of marriage. I use multilevel dyad models to analyze data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79). Educational assortative mating is captured by three types of educational pairings of spouses: educational hypergamy in which the wife is less educated than the husband, educational homogamy in which both spouses have same levels of education, and educational hypogamy in which the wife is more educated than the husband. I find that change in husbands' income with marital duration was similar regardless of educational pairings of spouses, whereas change in wives' income varied by educational pairings of spouses such that wi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Zhenchao Qian (Advisor); Claudia Buchmann (Committee Co-Chair); John Casterline (Committee Member) Subjects: Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2015, Population and Social Gerontology

Current research on intimate relationships of older adults in the U.S. is predominantly focused on marriage. Furthermore, gender relations in later life relationships have historically been studied within long-term marital relationships, which show patterns of high gender conformance earlier in family life, especially with young children, and less so later in life. Demographic and socio-cultural changes are transforming the ways in which people partner across the life course, including later life. Women's increasing education and workforce participation has helped alter family and household composition, giving rise to different partnership forms including cohabitation, divorce, remarriage, and living apart together (LAT), an intimate relationship in which the couple maintains separate residences. Very little is known about this type of relationship in the U.S. Using a life course framework I examine how gender is manifested in the formation and maintenance of LAT relationships in later life using social constructivism and the theory of gender as social structure. A grounded theory qualitative study with 13 women and 7 men age 59 to 89 reveals patterns of “doing” gender as well as “doing” family earlier in life. LAT relationships in later life appear to be an opportunity to “redo” family in an individualized way, with the men and women both valuing and maintaining the autonomy and freedom that comes in a life stage with lessening work and family responsibilities. Additionally, LAT allows the women in the study to continually “redo” gender by actively resisting doing gender in ways such as being submissive to men, catering to men's needs and wants, and taking on caregiving duties. This study demonstrates how LAT meets the individualistic needs of both men and women in later life. It is also an intimate relationship that provides the opportunity to exercise agency to act outside of gender norms and expectations present in earlier life, especially for women.

Committee: Jennifer Bulanda (Committee Chair) Subjects: Aging; Families and Family Life; Gender; Gender Studies; Gerontology; Individual and Family Studies; Personal Relationships

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2015, Human Ecology: Human Development and Family Science

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a preventable health problem that has multiple effects on the family, including the youngest member of the family, the child. For many years children were not recognized as having detrimental consequences of IPV. Now that it is recognized that children suffer from the negative effects of IPV, it is important to examine how and when exposure to IPV is associated with the development of children. This study uses the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study to examine the socioemotional development of children exposed to IPV from birth to 9 years old. Using structural equation modeling, latent growth curve models were conducted to analyze internalizing and externalizing problems at age 3, 5, and 9. Children who were exposed to IPV, whether it be a violent and controlling or a controlling only relationship, had more internalizing and externalizing problems. Also, the earlier and longer the child was exposed to IPV, the more socioemotional problems the child had. Identifying the critical time period of externalizing and internalizing problems for children exposed to IPV is crucial for intervention techniques and child victims' long-term development. Every child should be able to develop to their fullest potential, by targeting intervention efforts at those critical time points, it could allow for children to live up to their full promise.

Committee: Claire Kamp Dush PhD (Advisor); Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Demography; Developmental Psychology; Early Childhood Education; Families and Family Life

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, Comparative Studies

This dissertation focuses on the World Congress of Families (WCF), a transnational network of “pro-family” organizations striving to influence global sexual and gender norms. Previous scholarship characterizes WCF as a particular subset of the US Christian Right that has the makings of a global social movement. By contrast, I argue that WCF provides the intellectual core of a still-emerging transnational pro-family movement---albeit primarily a Euro-American one--comprised of organizations associated with intertwined Catholic, Mormon, and Protestant Evangelical networks. The alliance consolidates around the “natural family” a heteronormative, marital, procreative, conservative Christian model. This dissertation investigates the affective and intellectual resonance of natural family discourse across various constituencies. It traces WCF materials, activities, interactions, and strategies around human rights issues related to population, sexuality, reproductive rights, marriage, women's rights, LGBT equality, and religious freedom. These issues are hotly contested in international debates and interact with complex questions related to immigration, economic disparities, national sovereignty, and Western economic and cultural imperialism. I examine how these contestations overlap and combine in natural family discourse. My project builds on and extends earlier scholarship in at least two important ways. First, it provides more extensive contextualization for the rise of a transnational pro-family movement. I ground the WCF worldview and activism in a longer history of US Christian beliefs and organizing centered on “the family.” My analysis engages affect theory, conceiving emotions not as psychological states, but as social and cultural practices, highlighting emotions that matter in WCF's global sexual politics. As such, my work illuminates the importance of emotions for transnational pro-family activism. A second contribution of this project is to provide a crucial u (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Debra Moddelmog (Advisor); Tanya Erzen (Committee Co-Chair); Mytheli Sreenivas (Committee Member); Hugh Urban (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Demography; Families and Family Life; Gender Studies; Religion; Womens Studies

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2013, Sociology

This thesis examines the variation in lifespan sibling availability in low fertility populations. Demographic transition has had profound effects on family structure, shrinking kin networks while extending the duration of kin ties. Siblings are unique among these ties in their duration, degree of shared contexts, and salience for various outcomes (such as support of aging parents). While low fertility yields smaller sibships ceteris paribus, sibship distributions can vary among low fertility populations. Indeed, the variety of unique sibships – sib sets with only sibling dyads of a particular type – increases as fertility decreases. The composition of sib sets is dynamic, too: lifespan sibling availability varies, depending upon mothers' fertility patterns. This study uses kinship microsimulation to model the lifespan composition of individuals' sib sets, focusing on three critical life course stages: during childhood, at orphanhood, and near death. The microsimulations illustrate how sib set composition is linked to its roots in women's fertility by varying: (i) women's age at first union, (ii) women's average number of children, and (iii) variance among women in number of children. The thesis demonstrates that low fertility allows for diversity and lifespan variation in sibship size (average and distribution). This finding has applicability to current and future low-fertility populations, especially in light of indications that low fertility in some non-Western societies may have a different structure than observed in the West and East Asia.

Committee: John Casterline PhD (Advisor); Edward Crenshaw PhD (Committee Member); Zhenchao Qian PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Demography; Sociology