Maureen Waller
Associate Professor
2009
PAMWeb Bio Page
Current Activities
Current Professional Activities
Fathering, Associate Editor
Current Research Activities
Maureen Waller's research has provided insight into the situations of men and women at the forefront of the transformation occurring in American families. In particular, it has documented how unmarried parents in low-income communities understand the meaning of fatherhood and marriage in their lives and how their interpretations guide decisions about parenting and intimate unions. This work has also considered how social policies addressing family change may conflict with parents’ ideas and experiences.
My Baby’s Father (Cornell University Press) drew on intensive interviews with unmarried men and women with children receiving welfare to examine they made sense of the decision to have a child outside of marriage, how they defined unmarried fathers’ obligation to their children, how they negotiated paternal involvement and support, and how these practices interacted with mandatory welfare and child support regulations. Among other things, this research showed how unmarried parents' ideas about paternal responsibility, their informal systems of paternal recognition and support, and their often dire economic circumstances conflicted with key assumptions and regulations of child support policy.
Subsequent research has drawn on longitudinal, qualitative interviews Waller conducted with a sub-sample of parents in the Fragile Families Study and the nationally representative survey data from this study to examine why some unmarried fathers are more successful than others at maintianing early ties to families. Recent papers have focused on issues such as the circumstances in which fathers become caregivers of young children, the implications of their incarceration, violence, and substance use for their parenting and romantic unions, and the link between couples' pregnancy intentions and men's early economic support of mothers. This work has also examined how unmarried couples' expectations about marriage, their fear of divorce, and their intepretations of relationship conflicts influence decisions to marry, cohabit, or separate. Funding for this research was provided by NICHD, the Public Policy Institute of California, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, USDA, and the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center at Cornell University.
Biography
Education
PhD in Sociology, Princeton University
Courses, Websites, Pubs
Courses Taught
PAM 2150: Research Methods
PAM 6040: Qualitative, Survey & Mixed Method Approaches to Policy Research
PAM 3350: Families, Poverty and Public Policy
Selected Publications
Book
Waller, Maureen R. (2002). My Baby's Father: Unmarried Parents and Paternal Responsibility. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. [book]
[Google book preview]
Articles
Waller, Maureen R. (Forthcoming, 2010). “Viewing Low-Income Fathers’ Ties to Families through a Cultural Lens: Insights for Research and Policy.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
Waller, Maureen R. (2009). “Family Man in the Other America: New Opportunities, Motivations, and Supports for Paternal Caregiving.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol 624, No. 1, 156-176 (2009) [abstract]
Waller, Maureen R. and H. Elizabeth Peters. (2008) “The Risk of Divorce as a Barrier to Marriage among Parents of Young Children.” Social Science Research 37(4): 1188-1199. [paper]
Waller, Maureen R. (2008). “How Do Disadvantaged Parents View Tensions in their Relationships? Insights for Relationship Longevity among At-Risk Couples." Family Relations 57(2): 128-143. [abstract]
Waller, Maureen R. and Marianne Bitler. (2008). “The Link between Couples’ Pregnancy Intentions and Behavior: Does It Matter Who Is Asked? Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 40(4): 194-201. [abstract]
Swisher, Raymond and Maureen Waller. (2008). “Confining Fatherhood: Incarceration and Paternal Involvement among Nonresident White, African-American and Latino Fathers.” Journal of Family Issues 29(8): 1067-1088. [abstract]
Crowley, Jocelyn E., Margaret Watson, and Maureen R. Waller. (2008). Understanding "Power Talk:" Language, Public Policy, and Democracy. Perspectives on Politics 6(1): 71-88. [abstract]
Waller, Maureen R. and Raymond Swisher. (2006). Fathers' Risk Factors in Fragile Families: Implications for "Healthy" Relationships and Father Involvement. Social Problems. 53 (3): 392-420. [paper]
Waller, Maureen R. and Sara S. McLanahan. (2005). “His” and “Her” Marriage Expectations: Determinants and Consequences. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67: 53-67. [abstract]
Waller, Maureen R. and Robert Plotnick. (2001). "Effective Child Support Policy for Low-Income Families: Evidence from Street Level Research". The Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 20(1): 89-110. [abstract]
Waller, Maureen R. (2001). "High Hopes: Unwed Parents' Expectations about Marriage." Children and Youth Services Review, 23(6/7): 457-484. [abstract]