I’m interested in questions that focus on the impact of poverty on family structure and children’s life chances. Families are central to the system of social stratification and are the first social institution to which children are exposed, so I am interested to learn how they might shape our future. My work shows that they both mediate and modify the effects of genes and the environment on future life chances.

While 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), I am presently 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. The 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.