Adults sometimes have strong preferences for their own family formation and childbearing, but these preferences can also be shaped by relationship context in distinct ways for women and men and the gender of their partner. 

Using the National Couples' Time and Health Study (NCHAT), the first population-representative study of same-gender and different-gender couples, we consider the role of stress felt about household division of labor on desires for a child, focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic. In different-gender relationships, women are disproportionately burdened by household work and childcare relative to men, and in same-gender couples, household work tends to be more balanced across partners but is often dictated by one partner's femininity or biological connection to a child. This study revealed that higher stress about household work is associated with higher fertility desires only for men, regardless if they were partnered with a woman or man. There was no relationship for women. These findings suggest that men who desire a child may feel stress to be the breadwinner, whereas women's stress is just a part of their burden of household work, unrelated to their desires for a child.

Gender norms lead to disparate expectations in the workplace, at school, and in the household, particularly for mixed-gender couples (i.e., women and men). Women have a more difficult time obtaining a promotion or recognition for their work relative to men and often shoulder the brunt of household labor and childcare unless they ask their partners to help.

This project asks: how do women's and men's gender expectations about young adults extend into the bedroom? Using a national survey experiment of 1,503 people aged 18-59 enrolled in the American Population Panel, I find that women and men purport similar expectations to perform oral sex for young men and women. Despite this similarity, however, gender differences emerge in ways that parallel the gendered expectations in the workplace and the home.

Sexual minoritized adults in the United States face daily interpersonal discrimination and anti-LGBTQ legislation that negatively affects their mental health and wellbeing. This project asks: Does a satisfying sexual relationship mitigate the negative effects of identity-based discrimination on  poor mental health outcomes, stress, and social isolation?

This proposed study uses data from the National Couples' Health and Time Use Study, the first nationally representative sample of same-gender and mixed-gender couples in the United States, and policy equality score data from the Movement Advancement Project, to test whether sexual satisfaction buffers against the association between self-reported anti-LGBT discrimination and exposure to hostile anti-LGBTQ policies and negative mental health, stress, and social Iisolation.

Having children in today's world is expensive and time-consuming, and costs continue to rise each year. Some young adults decide to have fewer children, and others decide to opt out of becoming parents altogether. Sexual minoritized adults face additional financial and logistical barriers to becoming parents, but we know little about the factors that influence their fertility preferences.

In collaboration with Dr. Kathleen Broussard at the University of South Carolina, this project asks adults in the United States about the relative importance of social and economic factors in shaping their fertility preferences, and which specific barriers affect their childbearing ideals and plans.