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Expert

Debra Umberson

Centennial Professor in Liberal Arts and Professor of Sociology, University of Texas

Phone:
(512) 232-6330
Email:
umberson@prc.utexas.edu
Topics of Expertise:
Health & Illness / LGBTQ Partnering & Families / Loss & Resiliency within Families

Debra Umberson is Professor of Sociology, Director of the Population Research Center, and Centennial Commission Professor in the Liberal Arts #1 at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on relationships and health with a particular emphasis on marital and family ties including same-sex marriage, gender and racial variation in relationship/health linkages, and the blending of quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Recent publications have focused on marital transitions and body weight; stress and health behavior; gender and health in gay, lesbian, and straight couples; race, social ties, and disadvantage in health; and health policy addressing the link between social ties and health. She has been the recipient of a National Research Service Award and a FIRST Award from the National Institute on Aging. Dr. Umberson is also an elected Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America. Her current research, supported by a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator in Health Policy Research Award and the National Institute on Aging, examines how marital relationships affect health-related behavior and health care, and how those processes vary across gay, lesbian, and heterosexual unions. She is the immediate past editor of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior and past Chari of the Medical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association. She is also the receipient of the 2015 Matilda White Riley Distinguished Scholor Award from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Aging and the Life Course. 

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News & Publications by Debra Umberson

  • CCF’s Stephanie Coontz for The New York Times: What Can Different-Sex Couples Learn From Same-Sex Couples?
  • Same-Sex Couples Devote More Attention to End-of-Life Plans than Heterosexual Couples
  • Black Deaths Matter: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Racial Disparities in Relationship Loss and Health
  • Perceptions of Shared Power, Gender Conformity, and Marital Quality in Same- and Different-Sex Marriages
  • Do Gay, Lesbian, and Heterosexual Spouses Differ in the Ways They Care for Each Other During Physical Illness?
  • CCF ADVISORY: Debra Umberson reports on African-Americans’ much greater exposure to the early death of close family members

Recent News & Publications

  • Why Families Need More Financial Support during the COVID-19 Pandemic
  • CCF’s Joshua Coleman on the Complicated Realities of Parental Estrangement
  • New from CCF! Do the Media’s “Sexy Girl” Messages Trump Their “Girl Power” Ones?
  • Media Messages to Young Girls: Does “Sexy Girl” Trump “Girl Power”?
  • CCF Board Member Barbara Risman On How To Help Working Parents While Also Equalizing Children’s Educational Access

Featured Expert

Elizabeth Gershoff

Professor, University of Texas at Austin

View Expert

Browse Publications by Topic

  • Adoption & Foster Care
  • Aging
  • Biracial/ Multicultural Children and Interracial/ Multicultural Families
  • Childcare (Providers & Systems)
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  • Couples Conflict, Separation & Divorce
  • Division of Labor in Families
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  • Economic Inequality
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