Family

Sociology of Family

The sociological study of family focuses on how family and intimate relationships are shaped by structural variables, how individual members of relationships interact, and how choices about family and relationships may change other social institutions. 

Please feel free to contact any of our faculty to learn more about graduate study in sociology of family at NC State.

The Program

Students choosing the family specialization at NC State must complete at least three courses (see below) and pass a written preliminary examination.  We have an excellent student-to-faculty ratio of about 3:1 and faculty who are active researchers in the specialties.  Recent graduates have studied a wide range of family-related issues (click here for a list of recent NCSU theses and dissertations related to family and gender issues) and often integrate their study of families with other areas of specialization in the program such as inequality and criminology.

Faculty
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Professors Maxine Atkinson, Ted Greenstein, Toby Parcel, and Feinian Chen. 
Not shown: Sinikka Elliott.

Maxine Atkinson

Professor and Head, Department of Sociology & Anthropology
Ph.D. Washington State University, 1980
1911 Building, Room 335, (919) 515-9001
email: maxine_atkinson@ncsu.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Current research interests: Scholarship of Teaching & Learning, Sociology of the Family and Gender, Aging.

Recent Publications:
  • Atkinson, Maxine P., Theodore N. Greenstein and Molly Monahan Lang.  2005.  For women, breadwinning can be dangerous: Gendered resource theory and wife abuse.  Journal of Marriage and Family, 67:1137-1148.
  • Wright, Mary C., Nandini Assar, Edward Kain, Laura Kramer, Carla Howery, Kathleen McKinney, Becky Glass, and Maxine Atkinson. (2004). “The Importance of Institutional Context for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.” Teaching Sociology 32: 144-159.
  • (2004). Sociology 204: “Predictors of Family Structure: A Data Analysis Module for Sociology of the Family.” Pp. 4-6 in Integrating Data Analysis, Susan M. Hilal and Merredith Redlin, (Eds). Washington, DC: American SociologicalAssociation.
  • Atkinson, Maxine P., Alton J. Banks, Judy C. Peel and J. Douglas Wellman (order of authorship is alphabetical). (2003). “Peer Review of Teaching: Developing a Program in a Large, Research-Extensive, Land Grant Institution.” Pp. 121-124 in Campus Programs that Work, Barbara Cambridge, (Ed.). Washington, D.C.: The American Association for Higher Education.
  • (2003). “The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Revisited.” Emphasis. ( N.C. State teaching commentaries). May. http://www.ncsu.edu/fctl/Services/Emphasis_Teaching_And_Learning


Feinian Chen

Associate Professor
Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2001
1911 Building, Room 317, (919) 515-9011
email: feinian_chen@ncsu.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Current research focus: Family and life course, Demography, Aging, Research methods and statistics, Gender and inequality.

Recent Publications:

  • Chen, Feinian. 2005. “Employment Transitions and the Household Division of Labor in China.” Social Forces 84:831-851.
  • Chen, Feinian. 2005. “Family Context and Transition to First Birth in Contemporary China.” In Dudley L. Poston, Jr., Chiung-Fang Chang, Sherry L. McKibben, Carol S. Walther, and Che-Fu Lee (editors), Fertility, Family Planning, and Population Control in China. London: Routledge Publishers. Forthcoming.
  • Chen, Feinian. 2005. “Residential Patterns of Parents and Their Married Children in Contemporary China: A Life Course Approach.” Population Research and Policy Review 24: 125-148.
  • Chen, Feinian. 2004. “The Division of Labor between Generations of Women in Rural China.” Social Science Research 33: 557-580.
  • Curran, Patrick, Kenneth Bollen, Feinian Chen, Pamela Paxton, and James Kirby. 2003. “The Finite Sampling Properties of the RMSEA: Point Estimates and Confidence Intervals.” Sociological Methods and Research 32: 208-252.


Sinikka Elliott

Assistant Professor
Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin, 2008
1911 Building, Room 324, (919) 513-0285
email: Sinikka_Elliott@ncsu.edu

Current research interests: Family, Gender and Sexuality, Qualitative Methods, Feminist Theory.

Recent Publications:

  • Elliott, Sinikka and Debra Umberson.  2008.  The performance of desire: Gender and sexual negotiation in long-term marriages.  Journal of Marriage and Family 70:391-406.


Theodore N. Greenstein

Professor and Director of Graduate Programs
Ph.D. Washington State University, 1976
1911 Building, Room 309, (919) 515-9006
email: Ted_Greenstein@ncsu.edu
Personal web page

Current research interests: Family (division of household labor, marital stability, child well-being), Quantitative Methods, Social Psychology

Recent Publications:


Toby L. Parcel

Professor
Ph.D., University of Washington
1911 Building, Room 252, (919) 515-9014
email: Toby_Parcel@ncsu.edu

Current research interests: Work and family, Organizations.

Recent Publications:

  • Dufur, Mikaela, Toby L. Parcel, and Benjamin A. McKune.  2008.   “Capital and Context:  Using social capital at home and at school to predict child social adjustment.”  Journal of Health and Social Behavior 49:146-161. 
  • Parcel, Toby L.  2007. Capital at home and at school as determinates of child social adjustment.” Pp.139-161 in Olivia Sanchero and Bernard Spodek (Eds.)  Contemporary Perspectives on Social Learning in Early Childhood Education.  Information Age Publishing.
  • Parcel, Toby L.  2006. “Managing work and family:  Insights from Europe and the United States.”  Review Essay for Work and Occupations  33:  106-111.
  • Haurin, Donald R., Toby L. Parcel and R. Jean Haurin.  2002. “Does homeownership affect child outcomes?”  Real Estate Economics 30:635-666.
  • Haurin, Donald, Toby L. Parcel and R. Jean Haurin.  2002.   "The impact of home ownership on child outcomes."  Pp. 427-446 in Low Income_Home Ownership:  Examining the Unexamined Goal.  Brookings Institution.
  • Parcel, Toby L. and Mikaela Dufur.  2001. "Capital at home and at school:  Effects on student achievement."  Social Forces 79:881-912.
    Parcel, Toby L. and Mikaela Dufur.  2001. “Capital at home and at school: Effects on child social adjustment.” Journal of_Marriage and Family  63:32-47.
  • Parcel, Toby L.2000.   “Secondary data analysis.” Pp. 2473-2482 in Borgatta and Montgomery (Eds). Encyclopedia of Sociology (Second Edition). New York: Macmillan.
  • Powell, Mary Ann and Toby L. Parcel.  1997.   “Parental work, family size and social capital effects on early adolescent educational outcomes: The U.S. and Great Britain compared.”  Pp. 1-30 in T. L. Parcel (Ed). Research in the Sociology of Work. Work and Family.  Vol. 7. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.


Graduate Courses

SOC 731 Survey of Family Sociology (usually taught in Spring semesters of odd-numbered years)

SOC 737 Sociology of Gender (usually taught in Fall semesters of even-numbered years)

SOC 732 Contemporary Family Theory and Research (usually taught in Fall semesters of odd-numbered years)

Recent Dissertations

Marks, Jennifer P. Gerteisen.  Cohabitation, Marriage, and Health.  Ph. D. dissertation, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, North Carolina State University, in progress.

May, Jonathan.   Conservative Protestantism, Education, and Female Labor Force Participation.  Ph. D.  dissertation, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, North Carolina State University, in progress.

Fahrney, Kristine.  Sociological Explorations of the Marital Wage Premium.  Ph. D.  dissertation, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, North Carolina State University, in progress.

Wills, Jeremiah B.  Maternal Employment, Relative Income, and Child Well-Being: The Effects of Gendered Household Resource Allocation on Children’s Cognitive Development Trajectories.  Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, North Carolina State University, 2007.

Joyner, Jason M.  Inequality and Men’s Parental Involvement.  Ph.D. dissertation,  Department of Sociology & Anthropology, North Carolina State University, 2006.

Davis, Shannon N.  Is Justice Contextual?  A Cross-National Analysis of Perceptions of Fairness of the Division of Household Labor.  Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, North Carolina State University, 2004.