Child Welfare and Inequality among U.S. Children and Adolescents
One of my research areas examines the implications of child welfare system involvement for inequality in the U.S., in childhood and beyond, with particular focus on foster care placement and racial/ethnic inequality. For this work I use both survey and administrative data, including data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Wellbeing, the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, and the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System. My work in this area includes:
- “Can Foster Care Interventions Diminish Justice System Inequality?” Future of Children (with Christopher Wildeman, 2018). See my remarks on this work at a Brookings Institution/Future of Children panel event here.
- “Cumulative Prevalence of Confirmed Maltreatment and Foster Care Placement for US Children by Race/Ethnicity, 2011-2016.” American Journal of Public Health (with Frank Edwards and Christopher Wildeman, 2020).
Incarceration and Family Life
My work in this area focuses on the consequences of incarceration on inmates’ lives and the lives of those to whom they are socially and/or biologically connected. I use survey and administrative data from such sources as the Family History of Incarceration Survey, Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, the 1997 National Longitudinal Study, and the New York City Departments of Corrections and Health and Mental Hygiene. My work within this area includes:
- “Paternal Incarceration and Family Functioning: Variation across Federal, State, and Local Facilities.”ANNALS of the American Association of Political and Social Science (with Christopher Wildeman and Kristin Turney, 2016)
- “What Percentage of Americans Have Ever Had a Family Member Incarcerated? Evidence from the Family History of Incarceration Survey (FamHIS).“ Socius (with Peter K. Enns, Megan Comfort, Alyssa Goldman, Hedwig Lee, Christopher Muller, Sara Wakefield, Emily A. Wang, and Christopher Wildeman, 2019)
- “Exposure to the US Criminal Legal System and Well-being: A 2018 Cross-Sectional Study.” American Journal of Public Health (with Ram Sundaresh, Brita Roy, Carley Riley, Christopher Wildeman, and Emily Wang, 2020)
Race, Immigration, and Social Stratification
Another research area examines the role of race and immigrant status and generation as dimensions of social and spatial stratification and inequality in the social lives of people in the U.S., particularly among those who are Latinx or of Hispanic ethnicity. My work in this area includes:
- “Job Mobility among Unauthorized Immigrant Workers.”Social Forces(with Matthew Hall and Emily Greenman, 2019)
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“Living Arrangements and Household Complexity among Undocumented Latino Immigrants.” Population and Development Review (with Matthew Hall and Kelly Musick, 2019), read a summary of key findings in a Council on Contemporary Families fact sheet here.
- “Racial Separation at Home and at Work: Segregation in Residential and Workplace Settings.”Population Research and Policy Review (with Matthew Hall and John Iceland, 2019), see Alvin Chang at Vox.com’s feature of the data and article here.
Inequality in the Transition to Adulthood
My research on inequality in the transition to adulthood in the U.S. cuts across many of my other research fields and examines variation in and predictors of variation in wellbeing of young people as they transition into adult roles and experiences. My work in this area includes:
- “Leaving the Financial Nest: Connecting Young Adults’ Financial Independence to Financial Security.” Journal of Marriage and Family (with Megan Doherty Bea, 2019)
- “Leaving Home, Entering Institutions: Implications for Home-Leaving in the Transition to Adulthood.” Journal of Marriage and Family (2019)
