Papers by Kristi Williams
Transportation Research Record, 2004
Page 1. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1895, T... more Page 1. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1895, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, DC, 2004, pp. 156162. 156 Corridor preservation is an issue of growing concern. ...
Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Jun 1, 2002
Australian Parks and Leisure, 2000
The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences, Jan 19, 2015
Prior U.S. population studies have found that childhood adversity influences the quality of relat... more Prior U.S. population studies have found that childhood adversity influences the quality of relationships in adulthood, with emerging research suggesting that this association might be especially strong for black men. We theorize psychosocial and behavioral coping responses to early life adversity and how these responses may link early life adversity to strain in men's relationships with their indeterminate partners and children across the life course, with attention to possible racial variation in these experiences and implications for later life well-being. We analyze in-depth interviews with 15 black men and 15 white men. We use qualitative analysis techniques to connect childhood experiences to psychosocial processes in childhood and behavioral coping strategies associated with relationship experiences throughout adulthood. Black men describe much stronger and more persistent childhood adversity than do white men. Findings further suggest that childhood adversity contributes...
Demography, 2015
We use more than 20 years of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 to examine ... more We use more than 20 years of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 to examine wealth trajectories among mothers following a nonmarital first birth. We compare wealth according to union type and union stability, and we distinguish partners by biological parentage of the firstborn child. Net of controls for education, race/ethnicity, and family background, single mothers who enter into stable marriages with either a biological father or stepfather experience significant wealth advantages over time (more than $2,500 per year) relative to those who marry and divorce, cohabit, or remain unpartnered. Sensitivity analyses adjusting for unequal selection into marriage support these findings and demonstrate that race (but not ethnicity) and age at first birth structure mothers' access to later marriage. We conclude that not all single mothers have equal access to marriage; however, marriage, union stability, and paternity have distinct roles for wealth accumulation fol...
Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research, 1999
Until very recently, the first" fact&amp... more Until very recently, the first" fact" went largely uncontested. Durkheim (1897/1951) came to a similar conclusion at the turn of the century when he found that suicide rates were higher among the unmarried than the married. Working from a variety of theoretical perspectives, sociologists throughout the twentieth century concluded that marriage has beneficial effects on the individual. The second" fact" generated much more controversy beginning in the 1970s. Jesse Bernard (1972) argued, in support of a gender difference in marital benefits, ...
Social Contexts, Theories, and Systems, 2009
Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 2007
Past research has consistently documented the positive relationship between a transition to marri... more Past research has consistently documented the positive relationship between a transition to marriage and psychological well-being. In this study, we separate the depressed from the nondepressed to assess whether the benefits marriage has for psychological well-being depend on premarital depression. We also examine whether the effect of marital quality in moderating the psychological consequences of marriage differs for the depressed
Journal of health and social behavior, 2013
Social Forces, 2005
Marital relationships, like individuals, follow a developmental trajectory over time with ups and... more Marital relationships, like individuals, follow a developmental trajectory over time with ups and downs and gains and losses. We work from a life course perspective and use growth curve analysis to look at trajectories of change in marital quality over time. Although the tendency is for marital quality to decline over time, some groups begin with much higher levels of marital quality than others. Moreover, a number of life course and contextual factors can accelerate or slow this path of change. Our findings point to the importance of considering the multi-dimensionality of time (e.g., age, marital duration, the passage of years) as well as family transitions (e.g., having children, emptying or refilling the nest) in creating the meanings and experiences of marriage over time.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012
Journal of Marriage and Family, 2003
and Domestic Violence:
Journal of Marriage and Family, 2005
We work from a stress and life course perspective to consider how stress affects trajectories of ... more We work from a stress and life course perspective to consider how stress affects trajectories of change in marital quality over time. Specifically, we ask whether stress is more likely to undermine the quality of marital experiences at different points in the life course. In addition, we ask whether the effects of adult stress on marital quality depend on childhood family stress experiences. Growth curve analysis of data from a national longitudinal survey (Americans' Changing Lives, N = 1,059 married individuals) reveals no evidence of age differences in the effects of adult stress on subsequent trajectories of change in marital experiences. Our results, however, suggest that the effects of adult stress on marital quality may depend on childhood stress exposure. Stress in adulthood appears to take a cumulative toll on marriage over time-but this toll is paid primarily by individuals who report a more stressful childhood. This toll does not depend on the timing of stress in the adult life course.
The Journal of Immunology, 2003
Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 2006
We work from a life course perspective and identify several reasons to expect age and gender diff... more We work from a life course perspective and identify several reasons to expect age and gender differences in the link between marital quality and health. We present growth curve evidence from a national longitudinal survey to show that marital strain accelerates the typical decline in self-rated health that occurs over time and that this adverse effect is greater at older ages. These findings fit with recent theoretical work on cumulative adversity in that marital strain seems to have a cumulative effect on health over time-an effect that produces increasing vulnerability to marital strain with age. Contrary to expectations, marital quality seems to affect the health of men and women in similar ways across the life course. focuses on gender, relationships, and health across the life course. She is currently writing a book that blends qualitative and quantitative data in the study of marital quality over the life course, and she is preparing a new study on relationships and health behavior over the life course.
Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 2004
Kristi Williams is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Ohio State University. Her research ex... more Kristi Williams is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Ohio State University. Her research examines the effects of personal relationships on mental and physical health, the mechanisms through which these effects are produced, and sociodemographic variations in these processes. Current projects focus on the effects of family labor on the health of individuals and their spouses, the impact of widowhood on health regulation, and the relative effects of marital status and marital quality on psychological well-being.
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Papers by Kristi Williams