News & Events 2012

Jessica Cohen Wins BGSU's 2011-2012 Distinguished Dissertation Award

Former graduate student, Jessica Cohen, earned the BGSU 2011-2012 Distinguished Dissertation Award for her work, "Postmarital Union Formation and Childbearing." Jess is now an Assistant Professor at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas. Her committee included Wendy Manning (Chair), Susan Brown, Al DeMaris, Diane Frey, and Kara Joyner. This marks the second year in a row the Sociology Department had Ph.D. students earn this distinguished achievement. Last year, Lauren Rinelli McClain earned this award with Susan Brown (Chair).

Susan Brown Earns Prestigious Olscamp Research Award

Today we heard that Susan Brown earned the Olscamp Research Award, an honor given to faculty who have demonstrated outstanding scholarly productivity in the past three years. We will report more about this honor, once Susan has formally received the award, during the presentation ceremony later this Spring.

Susan Brown and I-Fen Lin's Research on Unmarried Baby Boomers Garners Media Attention

Over the past weeks, Dr. Brown and Lin's research on the marriage and divorce patterns of aging Baby Boomers received widespread media coverage. Their work appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Atlanta Constitution, to name a few newspapers. Dr. Brown was also interviewed on Talk of the Nation for National Public Radio and in a spot for The Today Show. The New York Times covered Dr. Lin and Brown's 2012 lead article in a special issue on Baby Boomers in The Gerontologist. They found that one-third of Boomers are unmarried and that unmarried boomers are more vulnerable in terms of poorer financial resources, social support, and health. The Wall Street Journal coverage referred to Dr. Brown and Lin's NCFMR working paper, The Grey Divorce Revolution, in which they demonstrate that the actual rate of divorce for those age 50 and older more than doubled since 1990. In 1990, less than 1 in 10 people aged 50 and over were divorced, but in 2009, 1 in 4 people aged 50 or older are divorced. Susan will soon present an update to their research at the Ohio State University Initiative on Population Research. Of course, earlier versions of these papers appeared at Population Association of America Annual Meetings!

• Brown and Lin. 2012. "The Gray Divorce Revolution." WP-12-04, National Center for Family and Marriage Research
• Lin and Brown. 2011. "Ummarried Boomers Confront Old Age." The Gerontologist

CFDR hosts "Parental Well-Being in Contemporary Families" Conference

On Monday, March 26, 2012, the CFDR hosted a series on parental well-being. Maureen Perry-Jenkins (Psychology, University of Massachusetts Amherst) presented "New Parents' Mental Health in Socio-Cultural Context," Kristi Williams (Sociology, the Ohio State University) presented "Early and Nonmarital Childbearing, Union History, and Women's Health at Midlife," and Kevin Roy (Family Science, University of Maryland College Park) presented "Taking Care of My Own: Consequences of Fathering for Young Men on the Margins of Families and Work.