News Releases

ANN ARBOR – Christina Cross, a former PSC predoctoral trainee and a 2019 graduate of the joint PhD program Sociology and Public Policy, has received the 2020 Dorothy S. Thomas Award graduate student paper award from the Population Association of America. The Dorothy Thomas Award recognizes the best graduate student paper on the interrelationships among social, economic and demographic variables. Christina received the award in recognition of her paper titled “Racial/Ethnic Differences in the Association Between Family Structure and Children’s Education,” published in Journal of Marriage and Family. Her paper was selected from a field of 24 submissions.

In lieu of the PAA 2020 Annual Meeting and live awards ceremony, this video presentation honors the 2020 Dorothy S. Thomas Awardee.

Christina Cross is a Postdoctoral Fellow (2019-2021) and Assistant Professor (beginning 2021) of Sociology at Harvard University. She received her BA in Sociology from Emory University. Her research examines how family structure, change, and dynamics influence individual wellbeing across the life course, particularly among minority and/or low-income populations. Much of her work has focused on childhood as a key stage in the life course for the emergence and accumulation of social advantages or disadvantages. Her current work focuses on 1) documenting the prevalence and predictors of previously under-explored family structures that are common among disadvantaged populations (e.g., the extended family); 2) investigating the relationship between family dynamics and child outcomes and the extent to which it differs by social location; and 3) examining within-group heterogeneity in family processes among major racial/ethnic groups.