Families in an Era of Increasing Inequality

Paul Amato, Ph.D., is the Arnold and Bette Hoffman Professor of Family Sociology and Demography at The Pennsylvania State University. He has received the Distinguished Career Award from the Family Section of the American Sociological Association, the Stanley Cohen Distinguished Research Award from the American Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, the Ernest Burgess Distinguished Career Award from the National Council on Family Relations, and the Distinction in the Social Sciences Award from Pennsylvania State University. Alan Booth, Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Demography, and Human Development & Family Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. He has been a senior scientist in Penn State's Population Research Institute since 1991. Dr. Booth has co-organized the university's National Symposium of Family Issues since its inception in 1993. He is the author of more than 100 scholarly articles, four books, and editor of 16 volumes. He was editor of Journal of Marriage and The Family from 1985-1991. Susan McHale, Ph.D., is Director of the Social Science Research Institute and The Children, Youth, and Family Consortium and Professor of Human Development at The Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on children's and adolescents' family roles, relationships, and daily experiences and how these family dynamics are linked to youth development and adjustment. Jennifer Van Hook, Ph.D., is Professor of Sociology and Demography and Director of the Population Research Institute at The Pennsylvania State University. Her work spans a variety of family-related topics, including extended family living arrangements, family poverty, cohabitation, inter-racial marriage, and fertility patterns, and has appeared in major journals such as the Journal of Marriage and the Family, International Migration Review, Social Forces, and Demography.