Welcome

In this paper, I examine whether, and under what conditions, children’s gender predicts parental gender ideology. To reconcile conflicting findings in prior research on the so-called “egalitarian daughter effect,” I draw on social heterogeneity in Chinese society to show that broader gender equality environments moderate how responsive parental gender ideology is to the experience of raising a daughter—a framework I refer to as the Sensitivity Threshold Hypothesis.

Sleep is a key health indicator across the life course, yet prior research has not examined variation in sleep duration among midlife mothers with different coresidential patterns. Using NLSY79 data, we find that mothers living with minor or adult children sleep less than those without coresiding children or grandchildren. This pattern holds for White and Black mothers, but not for Hispanic mothers. We discuss potential mechanisms underlying these findings in the paper.

A growing number of children are being raised with few or no siblings yet the consequences of this seismic demographic shift are not well understood. In this paper, we examine how the number and characteristics of siblings relate to adolescent mental health in both the U.S. and China. Using nationally representative data from over 9,000 eighth graders in each country, we find that having more siblings is generally associated with poorer mental health, though the specific patterns vary by sibship composition and national context.

In a follow-up study, we extend this question into adulthood, analyzing data from the U.S. GSS and the SHARE in Europe. We modify the Resource Dilution Model, suggesting that as individuals age, siblings shift from being competitors for parental resources to sources of emotional and social support. Consistent with this revision, we find that sibling number is typically neutral or positively associated with adult mental health across contexts.