Institutional Contact, Race and Racism, and Family Inequality

One of my research areas examines the implications of child welfare and criminal legal system contact for family life, with a focus on racial/ethnic inequality. For this work I use both survey and administrative data, including data from the Family History of Incarceration Survey, National Longitudinal Studies, National Survey of Child and Adolescent Wellbeing, National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, and state and local administrative data. My work in this area includes:

• “Racial Inequality in the Prevalence, Degree, and Extension of Incarceration in Family Life.” Demography (2023).
• “Paternal Jail Incarceration and Birth Outcomes: Evidence from New York City, 2010-2016.” American Journal of Public Health (with Joseph Kennedy, Cynthia Chazotte, Mary Huynh, Yang Jiang, and Christopher Wildeman, 2021)
• “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)
• “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).
• “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)
• “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.

Social Segregation and Separation

Another research area examines racial/ethnic categorization 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)
• “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. For an example of how I conceptualize the role of institutions in the childhood and the transition to adulthood, I invite you to take a peek at my remarks for the Youth Justice Institute’s Lunch & Learn Brown Bag series here. 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)