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The Role of Motherhood Biographies in Midlife Women’s Health

Dr. Corinne (Rin) Reczek, Department of Sociology
Rank at time of award: Associate Professor

This project will provide essential pilot data to facilitate the development of an R01 project. This pilot project develops the concept of marital biographies, tests whether and how varying motherhood biographies across the life course are related to mothers’ midlife health, and contextualizes this relationship within differences by educational attainment. Our pilot project and subsequent R01 application will be the first to build and test a new theoretical paradigm detailing how motherhood biographies—in concert with educational attainment—matter for midlife mother’s health, providing insight into education-based health disparities in midlife. We use nationally-representative data from the 1979-2014 waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY79; N=6,283 women). The data are unmatched in their ability to address our research aims as they include nationally-representative longitudinal data—the gold standard in research on family and health—and allow us to follow women from adolescence to their 50s, tracking key moments in both motherhood and education prospectively. We examine a comprehensive collection of health variables in order to capture the critical heath disparities found at midlife including a) health behaviors, b) physical health, and c) mental and cognitive health. 

 

Publications resulting from this seed grant 

Peer reviewed Articles  

2023. Reczek, R., Stacey, L., & Thomeer, M.* “Parent-Adult Child Estrangement in the United States by Gender, Race/ethnicity, and Sexuality.” J Marriage Fam. 2023 Apr; 85(2): 494–517. PMCID: PMC10254574 RPPR2024 

2022. Thomeer, M.B., Reczek, R. & Ross, C.* “Childbearing Biographies and Midlife Women’s Health.” Journal of Aging and Health, 34: 870–882. PMC9346094 

2020. Thomeer, M., Umberson, D., Reczek, C. “The Gender-as-Relational Approach for Theorizing about Romantic Relationships of Sexual and Gender Diverse Mid- to Later-life Adults” Journal of Family Theory and Review, 12:220-237. PMCID: PMC7731939

2020. Reczek, C. “Sexual- and Gender- Minority Families: A 2010-2020 Decade in Review” Journal of Marriage and Family, 82:300-325. PMCID:PMC7710266

2020. Kissling, A., Reczek, C. “Intensive Mothers, Cautionary Tale Fathers: Adult Children’s Perceptions of Parental Influence on Health.” Journal of Family Issues, 41:312–337. PMCID: PMC7889037RPPR202

2020. Reczek, C., Thomeer, M., Gebhardt-Kram, L., Umberson, D. “Go See Somebody”: How Spouses Promote Mental Health Care” Society and Mental Health, 10:80-96. PMCID: PMC7676732

2020. Thomeer, M. & Reczek, C. “Intergenerational Coresidential Patterns by Young Adult’s and Their Mother’s Mental Health and Substance Use” Journal of Family Issues, 41:1387–1419. PMCID:PMC7720913 RPPR2021  

2020. Zhang, Z., Reczek, C., Colen, C.* “Intergenerational Coresidence and Mothers’ Body Weight at Midlife” Population Research and Policy Review, 2020 Dec;39(6):1051-1085. RPPR 2021 PMCID: PMC8459805

2021. Bosley-Smith, E. & Reczek, R.* “Why LGBTQ Adults Keep Ambivalent Ties with Parents: Theorizing ‘Solidarity Rationales.'" Social Problems. In process NIHMS RPPR2022 acknowledgement in process NIHMS 

2021. Reczek, R. & Bosley-Smith, E.*  “How LGBTQ Adults Maintain Ties with Rejecting Parents: Theorizing Conflict Work” Journal of Marriage and Family, 83: 1134-1153. PMCID: PMC8654036; DOI: 10.1111/jomf.12765. RPPR2022 PMCID: PMC8654036 

2021. Zhang, Z.,* Chien, H., Wilkins, K., Gorman, B., Reczek, R.* “Parenthood, Stress, and Wellbeing among Cisgender and Transgender Gay and Lesbian Adults” Journal of Marriage and Family, 83 (4): 1460-1479. PMCID: PMC8601588; DOI: 10.1111/jomf.12778 RPPR2022