Expert

Daniel Carlson is an assistant professor of Family, Health, and Policy in the Department of Family and Consumer Studies at the University of Utah. His research focuses, generally, on the causes and consequences of variation in family formation and family processes. To date, this overarching focus has produced three streams of research.

The first stream of research involves understanding the health consequences of shifts in family formation patterns during the second demographic transition. Specifically, Dr. Carlson examines the prevalence and mental health consequences of discrepancies between individuals’ expectations for family formation and their actual experiences.

The second research stream explores race/ethnic and socioeconomic differences in family formation experiences and orientations and the consequence of these for well-being and health disparities.

The final stream of research examines the causes and consequences of the gendered division of labor in families and shifts in these domains across cohorts.

Dr. Carlson’s research findings have been published in outlets such as Journal of Marriage and Family, Journal of Family Issues, Social Science & Medicine, and Journal of Youth and Adolescence and have earned me the Graduate Student Paper Award from the American Sociological Association Section on Aging and the Life Course (2007; 2010) and the Outstanding Graduate Student/New Professional Award from the National Council on Family Relations (2011). Additionally, my research has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Daily Telegraph, the Independent, and Time magazine.