Research

Widowhood is associated with elevated mortality risk in many social contexts. This research note is the first study to quantify and contextualize the mortality risk of widowhood for men (widowers) and women (widows) in India. We do so by using data from the first wave of the India Human Development Survey (2004–2005) on individuals whose survival status was observed seven years later in the second wave of the survey. We find no differences in mortality by widowhood status for adults aged 60 or older. However, we find higher mortality risks for widows and widowers aged 25–59 than for individuals who are married. Despite the unique vulnerabilities experienced by Indian widows, we find similar levels of elevated mortality for widows and widowers relative to married individuals aged 25–59. In this age group, we also document higher mortality for widows exposed to conservative and less egalitarian gender norms. These findings suggest that despite India's similarity to other contexts with elevated mortality for both widows and widowers, unequal gender norms still shape life chances for Indian widows. 

Presented at PAA 2022, ASA 2023, European Population Conference 2024 (poster)

Arranged marriage has declined dramatically since the mid-20th century in most countries where it was historically practiced. India is an outlier to this trend. There is little evidence of a decline in either the prevalence or popularity of arranged marriage in India. This study examines the attitudes of middle-class young adults towards marriage using data from 40 interviews conducted in New Delhi. Middle-class young adults were found to approach marriage with marital pragmatism, centering risks, uncertainty, and costs in describing  their preferences. To most young people interviewed, arranged marriage was the viewed as the “safest” option because parental support for the marriage could serve as a form of insurance in the event of marital problems. Self-selection of one’s marriage partner, also known as “love marriage,” was less popular because of the steep social costs that are believed to accompany it including social stigma and less parental support. The findings highlight the centrality of the family and the normative context in determining marriage choices.

Presented at ASA 2020, IUSSP Seminar on New and Emerging Family forms around the World 2020, PAA 2019

Objective: This study examines the role of roka marriage engagements in blurring the distinction between self-choice, also known as “love” marriage, and arranged marriage in urban India.

Background: Arranged marriage remains highly prevalent in India though recent research suggests that arranged marriages today increasingly incorporate elements of choice and compatibility. Previous research, however, has overlooked the important role of marriage engagements in this transformation. In North India, a roka ceremony often formalizes an arranged marriage match and marks the beginning of the engagement period.

Method: This study uses data from 48 interviews conducted in 2018 and 2019 with recently married couples, unmarried young people, and parents in the New Delhi area. All respondents were part of the college-educated middle class.  

Results: Couples in arranged marriages were found to engage in courtship during their engagement, drawing on the scripts of romantic love and deviating from traditional practices which disallowed contact before the wedding. This courtship sometimes leads to a broken engagement. Roka engagements are also important, albeit to different aims, for couples in premarital romantic relationships. They often use the roka engagement to signal that they have obtained parental endorsement of their self-chosen match, an important step in avoiding social stigma and achieving the social legitimacy of their relationship.

Conclusions: The case of roka engagements reveals important ways in which the definition of arranged marriage has expanded to incorporate romantic love, emotional compatibility, and autonomy.

Presented at ASA 2022 and PAA 2024 (poster)

This study investigates patterns of communication among non-coresident kin in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic using data from the New York City Robin Hood Poverty Tracker. Over half of New Yorkers spoke to their non-coresident family members several times a week during the pandemic and nearly half increased their communication with non-coresident kin since March 2020. Siblings and extended kin proved to be especially important ties activated during the pandemic. New Yorkers were most likely to report increased communication with siblings. A quarter of respondents reported that they increased communication with at least one aunt, uncle, cousin, or other extended family member. While non-Hispanic White respondents reported the highest frequency of communication with kin, it was those groups most impacted by COVID-19 – foreign-born, Black, and Hispanic New Yorkers – who were most likely to report that they increased communication with kin in the wake of the pandemic.

Presented at PAA 2022 (Poster) and EPC 2022

This study examines the relationship between economic mobility and the practice of female seclusion in Indian households using the India Human Development Survey (IHDS), a nationally representative panel survey. Women from households which became wealthier between survey waves were found to have increased restrictions on their physical mobility as well as higher odds of practicing head-covering or purdah. These results held even after the inclusion of controls for changes in household composition, health of the woman, and her labor force participation. Stratified fixed effects regression analyses revealed that mobility-induced female seclusion was primarily practiced in poorer communities, in rural areas, and among the less-educated. The findings suggest that economically mobile households may use female seclusion as a strategy to signal household status.

Presented at SWS Summer Meeting 2020 and PAA 2018 (Poster)

***This paper was awarded the 2019 van de Walle biennial prize for best graduate student paper in demography at the University of Pennsylvania***

Using panel data, this study tracks the impact of reproductive transitions on women’s status in the household in India. Here, status refers to the social benefits that women experience by meeting societal expectations related to childbearing. The analysis shows that becoming a mother is associated with increased freedom of movement and access to enabling resources. The adoption of permanent contraception—a common life course event marking the end of childbearing in India—is associated with increased freedom of movement but has no association with changes in access to enabling resources. Household decision-making, another dimension of women’s status examined in the paper, is less dynamic over time and there is limited evidence of its association with reproductive transitions. The findings illustrate the tight linkages between household power dynamics and the life course in the South Asian context, and highlight the centrality of women’s role as mothers in determining their social position.

Presented at ASA 2019, Madison Conference on South Asia 2017

This paper documents the effect of widowhood on the labor force participation of Indian widows using panel data from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS). The analysis shows how labor force participation changes associated with widowhood vary by age, caste/religion, relation to head of household, rural/urban status, and region. Widowhood was associated with a decrease in days worked for older women; but for women widowed before age 52, widowhood was associated with a large increase in the number of days they worked. Widows who joined the labor force were more likely to gain employment in permanent, full-time, and salaried work than married women, perhaps in part due to government preferential hiring programs. Women who resided with their in-laws or who became the household head after their husband’s death saw the largest increases in their work participation with widowhood. Those who lived in households headed by their adult children experienced negative widowhood effects on their work participation. These findings highlight the link between marital status and female employment in India.

Presented at PAA 2017

This review paper discusses how kinship is construed and enacted in diverse forms of the family that are now part of the culturally pluralistic family system of Western societies. We identified three general processes by which alternative family forms are created and discussed how kinship practices work in each of them. The first cluster of alternative family forms comes about through variations of formal marriage or its absence, including sequential marriages, plural marriages, consensual unions, single parenthood, and same-sex marriages and partnerships. The second cluster is formed as a result of alterations in the reproduction process, when a child is not the product of sexual intercourse between two people. We included here families created through adoption and the recent innovation of children born through assisted reproductive technology. Finally, the third cluster results from the formation of voluntary bonds that are deemed to be kinship-like, in which affiliation rests on neither a biological nor legal basis. Our findings point to a broad cultural acceptance of an inclusive approach to incorporating potential kin in “family relationships.” It is largely left to individuals to decide whether they recognize or experience the diffuse sense of emotional connectedness and perceived obligation that characterizes the bond of kinship. Also, we found that family scripts and kinship terms often borrow from the vocabulary and parenting practices observed in the standard family form in the West. Concurrently, our findings suggest that the cultural importance of biology remains strong. We concluded by identifying important gaps in the literature and lay out a research agenda for the future.

Many marriages in India follow a male breadwinner model resulting in India having one of the lowest rates of female labor force participation in the world. Despite this pattern, there is evidence of growing labor force participation among the highest educated women in India’s metros. This study uses data from 46 interviews conducted in New Delhi to examine how the urban middle class makes sense of the competing cultural ideals of male breadwinning and dual earner marriage. Men married to working women frequently report that they were explicitly looking for a working woman on the arranged marriage market. Women’s careers were seen as essential to some families because the second income could help insure against financial instability. Working women, on the other hand, report that they want to work because their careers provide them with autonomy and a sense of accomplishment. Countering narratives which idealize the breadwinning household model, dual earning couples argued that working women make better partners and that shared career experience helps facilitate a companionate marriage. There was less willingness, however, to challenge gender roles in the division of household and care work. Dual earner couples employed patchwork of different strategies to manage household labor including employing domestic workers and relying on the labor of other female household members.

Presented at ASA 2023 and WFRN 2024

This study examines the differences in self-reported pride levels among various subgroups within the LGBTQ+ community, utilizing quantitative data from the National Couples Time and Health Study (NCHAT). The findings indicated that there were significant differences in pride levels between subgroups, with lesbian women reporting the highest scores and bisexual+ men reporting the lowest scores. Many factors like mental health, race, age, socioeconomic status and relationship indicators did not explain these differences. Rather, sexual orientation identity centrality proved to be the only relevant moderator between gender/sexual orientation and pride levels. As such, the results of this study suggest that individuals with higher identification with their sexual orientation feel more pride. Overall, these findings highlight the importance of identity affirmation among sexual minorities, but especially for bisexual+ individuals. 

Presented at PAA 2025 (poster)