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Researchers Examine Impact of Population Changes
Population Research Center
This month, the U.S. Bureau of the Census predicts the nation's population will reach 300 million. Since the 1967 census, when the country's population reached 200 million, the minority population has grown, especially among Hispanics. Since the 1915 census, when the country's population reached 100 million, there has been a dramatic increase in educational attainment and life expectancy.
During the next two weeks, the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin will distribute a series of press releases and experts lists on the country's population - from demographic shifts and language preservation to educational attainment and health challenges.
POPULATION RESEARCH CENTER
The Population Research Center brings together the inter-disciplinary talents of faculty members throughout the university. Researchers focus on health disparities, religion, children and families, education, transitions to adulthood and the demography of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Language and Hispanic student achievement in Texas
Chandra Muller
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology
512-471-8377
Muller explores the academic achievement and social integration of Hispanic adolescents in Texas. She studies language use, generational status and residency length.
Education and adult mortality
Robert Hummer
Chair, Department of Sociology
512-471-8391
Hummer and his colleagues research the link between educational attainment and adult mortality. The research team is identifying key mechanisms that lead to low mortality among the highly educated and higher mortality among the less educated.
Education, resources and health
Catherine Ross
Professor, Department of Sociology
512-471-1122 and
John Mirowsky
Professor, Department of Sociology
512-471-1122
Ross and Mirowsky extend the examination about how education benefits health to determine whether the strength of this association depends on social status. She focuses on parental divorce, gender, minority status, lack of full-time employment and perceived neighborhood disorder.
Race, marriage and adolescent social relations
R. Kelly Raley
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology
512-471-8357
African Americans marry later and are more likely never to marry than non-Hispanic whites. Consequently, two-thirds of black children are born to unmarried mothers. Economic factors, specifically high rates of unemployment and low earnings among black men, explain some, but not all, of the difference in marriage rates. Raley investigates how adolescent relationships with the opposite sex are shaped by the institutional and social context of schools.
Oral contraceptive use on the U.S.-Mexico border
Joseph Potter
Professor, Department of Sociology
512-471-8341
Potter explores what motivates women in the United States to obtain contraception pills from U.S. family planning clinics or Mexican pharmacies. The researchers will study the contraceptive use of Hispanic women in a series of in-depth and follow-up interviews with Hispanic women who obtain their pills in pharmacies in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and those who obtain them from family planning clinics in El Paso.
Religion and economic change
Robert Woodberry
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
512-232-6308
Woodberry evaluates how religions influence the economy - from the individual to the national level. He researches the religious influences on political institutions, elite attitudes and tolerance.
OTHER POPULATION ISSUES
Latinos
Jason Casellas
Assistant Professor, Department of Government
512-232-7202
David Leal
Associate Professor, Department of Government
512-471-1343
Anne Martinez
Assistant Professor, Department of History
512-471-3261
John McKiernan-Gonzalez
Assistant Professor, Department of History
512-475-7260
Race relations
Ben Carrington
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
512-232-6341
Economics and the labor market
Daniel Hamermesh
Professor, Department of Economics
512-475-8526
Family policy
Norval Glenn
Stiles Professor in American Studies, Department of Sociology
512-232-6320
Women's issues
Gretchen Ritter
Director, Center for Women's and Gender Studies
512-471-5765
Media contact:
Christian Clarke Casarez
Director of Public Affairs, College of Liberal Arts
512-471-4945