My research is in the sociology of families and public policy. I have published books and articles on topics such as marriage and divorce, children's well-being, intergenerational relations, family policy, and welfare policy. I am the principal investigator of the "Three-City Study," an interdisciplinary study of low-income children and their caregivers in the post-welfare-reform era. The study’s web site includes downloadable documents that describe the study and a searchable list of publications. The data from all three survey waves of our study are publicly available through Sociometrics and ICPSR.

I am also the author of a textbook in the sociology of the family, Public and Private Families: An Introduction (Sixth edition, McGraw-Hill, 2010); and a companion reader, Public and Private Families: A Reader (Sixth edition, McGraw-Hill 2010).

My most recent book is The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family Today (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009).