Research

Dr. Lichter is Director of the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center at Cornell University, and also is a faculty member in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management.  He is chair-elect of the family section of the American Sociological Association (ASA). He is past chair of Sociology of Population section in ASA, and has served as editor of Demography and President of the Association of Population Centers.

Dr. Lichter has published widely on demographic topics related to the family and welfare policy, including studies of children's changing living arrangements and poverty, cohabitation and marriage among unwed mothers, and welfare incentive effects on the family.  He has been interested in patterns of marriage or dissolution among cohabiting women and in the rise in serial cohabitation (i.e., the cycling from relationship to relationship as an adaptation to economic hardship).  His recent papers have examined the implications of state marriage promotion policies, i.e., questions about whether low-income women face significant barriers to healthy marriages, whether they form marriages that last, and whether they marry men who can provide a route from poverty. His other research has focused on recent demographic trends among America’s new immigrant populations. For example, he has studied patterns of intermarriage between immigrants and native-born Americans.  Intermarriage with the native white population is often used a measure of social distance between groups, and as an indirect indicator of social and economic incorporation.  In addition, he has examined the new residential destinations of recent immigrants, including the geographic movement of Hispanics into less densely-settled rural areas. His recently published paper in Demography provides the first national estimates of residential segregation in small towns, and addresses questions of economic incorporation of racial minorities and new immigrants into their communities.

Selected Publications:

Parisi, D., D.T. Lichter, and M. Taquino.  (2011).  "Multi-Scale Residential Segregation: Black Exceptionalism and America's Changing Color Line."  Social Forces 89, forthcoming.

Lichter, D.T., R.N. Turner, and S. Sassler.  (2010).  "National Estimates of the Rise in Serial Cohabitation."  Social Science Research 38: forthcoming.

Johnson, K.M., and D.T. Lichter. (2010). "Growing Diversity among America"s Children and Youth: Spatial and Temporal Dimensions." Population and Development Review 36(March): 151-175.

Lichter, D.T., D. Parisi, M. Taquino, and S.M. Grice. (2010).  "Residential Segregation in New Hispanic Destinations: Cities, Suburbs, and Rural Communities Compared."  Social Science Research 39:215-230. [paper]

Lichter, D.T., and E. Wethington. (2009). "Chaos and the Diverging Fortunes of American Children: A Historical Perspective." Chapter 2 in Chaos and Its Influence on Children's Development: An Ecological Perspective (Eds., Gary W. Evans and Theodore D. Wachs). Washington, DC: American Psychological Assciation. [book]

Crowley, M., & D.T. Lichter.  (2009).   "Social Disorganization in New Latino Destinations?"  Rural Sociology 74(4): 573-604. [paper]

DeLeone, F.Y., D.T. Lichter, and R.M. Strawderman.  (2009).  "Decomposing Trends in Nonmarital Fertility Among Latinas."  Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 41(September):167-172. [paper]

Lichter, D.T., and K.M. Johnson.  (2009).  "Immigrant Gateways and Hispanic Migration to New Destinations."  International Migration Review 43:496-518. [paper]

Lichter, D.T., and J. H. Carmalt.  (2009).  "Religion and Marital Quality among Low-Income Couples."  Social Science Research 38:168-187. [paper]

Lichter, D.T., and W. Brown.  (2009).  "Race, Immigration, and the Future of Marriage."  In H. E. Peters and C.M.K. Dush (eds.), Marriage and Families: Complexities and Perspectives.  New York: Columbia University Press. [book]

Sassler, S., A. Cunningham, and D.T. Lichter.  (2009).  "Intergenerational Patterns of Union Formation and Relationship Quality."  Journal of Family Issues 30:757-786. [paper]

Lichter, D.T., and Z-C. Qian.  (2008).  "Serial Cohabitation and the Marital Life Course."  Journal of Marriage and Family 70:861-878. [abstract]

Giroux, S.C., P.M. Eloundou-Enyegue, and D.T. Lichter.  (2008).  "Reproductive Inequality in Sub-Sahran Africa:  Differentials versus Concentration."  Studies in Family Planning 39:187-198. [abstract]

Johnson, K.M., and D.T. Lichter.  (2008).  "Natural Increase:  A New Source of Population Growth in Emerging Hispanic Destinations."  Population and Development Review 34:327-346. [abstract]

Lichter, D.T., D. Parisi, M. Taquino, and B. Beaulieu.  (2008).  "Race and the Micro-Scale Concentration of Poverty."  Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 1:51-67. [abstract]

Graefe, D.R., and Lichter, D.T. (2008). "Marriage Patterns among Unwed Mothers:  Before and After PRWORA."  Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 28:479-49. [abstract]

Lichter, D.T., D. Parisi, S.M. Grice, and M. Taquino.  (2007).  "National Estimates of Racial Segregation in Rural and Small-Town America."  Demography 44: 563-581. [abstract]

Graefe, D.R., and Lichter, D.T. (2007). "When Unwed Mothers Marry: The Marital and Cohabiting Partners of Mid-Life Women." Journal of Family Issues 28:595-622. [abstract]

Lichter, D.T., Brown, J.B., Qian, Z-C., and Carmalt J. (2007). "Marital Assimilation Among Hispanics: Evidence of Declining Cultural and Economic Assimilation?" Social Science Quarterly 88(3): 745-765. [abstract]

Lichter, D.T., and Graefe, D.R. (2007). "Men and Marriage Promotion: Who Marries Unwed Mothers?" Social Service Review 81(3): 397-421.

Lichter, D.T., and Johnson, K.M. (2007). "The Changing Spatial Concentration of America's Rural Poor Population." Rural Sociology 72(3): 331-358. [abstract]

Lichter, D.T., Parisi, D., Grice, S.M., and Taquino, M. (2007). "Municipal Underbounding: Racial Exclusion in Small Southern Towns." Rural Sociology, 72:47-68.

Qian, Z-C, and Lichter, D.T. (2007). "Social Boundaries and Marital Assimilation: Evaluating Trends in Racial and Ethnic Intermarriage." American Sociological Review 72:68-94.[abstract]