W Bradford Wilcox
Biographic Data
| ID | 93345 |
|---|---|
| NAME | W Bradford Wilcox |
| GIVEN NAMES | W Bradford |
| FAMILY NAME | Wilcox |
| SIGNATURE | WILCOX W B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Virginia |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1490 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1948 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Bridge the marriage divide, don't accept it
There is no longer any question that men, women, children, and even communities are better off, on average, when marriage grounds and guides the context of family life (Kearney, 2023; Wilcox, 2024). In communities and households where marriage is the norm, for instance, the American Dream is stronger (Chetty et al. 2014; Wilcox, 2024), rates of child poverty are lower and college graduation higher (Kearney, 2023; Wilcox et al., 2015), and adult d…
The Marriage Paradox: Understanding and remedying the paradoxical place of marriage in America
Marriage has fallen upon hard times in the United States in the last 6 decades. Demographically, in the wake of the divorce revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, and the ongoing decline in the marriage rate, this social institution has lost significant ground as the anchor of adulthood and foundation of family life (Cherlin, 2009; Wilcox, 2024). Culturally, support for the values and virtues that sustain marriage have dropped in recent years, as few…
Family Structure and Economic Success Across the Life Course
This paper examines the role that family structure plays in long-run economic outcomes across the life course. Using nearly 30 years of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, we find that youths who grow up with both biological parents earn more income, work more hours each week and are more likely to be married themselves as adults, compared to children raised in single-parent families. Many of these differences continue to be…
The Social and Cultural Predictors of Generosity in Marriage: Gender Egalitarianism, Religiosity, and Familism
This study focuses on the social and cultural sources of an important dimension of solidarity in contemporary marriages: marital generosity. Marital generosity is defined here as freely giving to one's spouse by regularly engaging in small acts of service, forgiving one's spouse, and displaying high levels of affection and respect. Using recent data from a national sample, the Survey of Marital Generosity ( N = 1,368 couples), we explored the ass…
Religious Identity, Religious Attendance, and Parental Control
Using a national sample of adolescents aged 10-18 years and their parents ( N = 5,117), this article examines whether parental religious identity and religious participation are associated with the ways in which parents control their children. We hypothesize that both religious orthodoxy and weekly religious attendance are related to heightened levels of three elements of parental control: monitoring activities, normative regulations, and network…
Generosity and the Maintenance of Marital Quality
This study examined whether generosity in marriage was associated with marital quality. The authors conceptualized generosity as a type of relationship maintenance behavior and used data from the new Survey of Marital Generosity (a national survey of married couples, N = 1,365 couples and 2,730 total participants). They found that generosity-defined here as small acts of kindness, displays of respect and affection, and a willingness to forgive on…
Bonding alone: Familism, religion, and secular civic participation
Motherhood and Marriage: A Response
We are grateful for the thought‐provoking commentary and critique of our study of marriage and the transition to motherhood (Dew & Wilcox, 2011) provided by Milkie (2011); Clements, Martin, Cassil, and Soliman (2011); and Perry‐Jenkins and Claxton (2011). Indeed, we hope that their commentary will spur further research and reflection on this important topic
If Momma Ain't Happy: Explaining Declines in Marital Satisfaction Among New Mothers
This study tests competing explanations for the link between the transition to motherhood and declines in wives' marital satisfaction. Using data from the first and second waves of the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 569), we found that new mothers' marital satisfaction declines could be attributed to reductions in wives' quality time spent with their husbands and to increases in perceptions of unfairness in housework. Family role…
The Couple That Prays Together: Race and Ethnicity, Religion, and Relationship Quality Among Working-Age Adults
A substantial body of research has shown that relationship quality tends to be (a) lower among racial and ethnic minorities and (b) higher among more religious persons and among couples in which partners share common religious affiliations, practices, and beliefs. However, few studies have examined the interplay of race or ethnicity and religion in shaping relationship quality. Our study addresses this gap in the literature using data from the Na…
Is love a flimsy foundation? Soulmate versus institutional models of marriage
Risky Lessons: Sex Education and Social Inequality
The welfare costs of unreliable water service
Alone Together: How Marriage in America Is Changing ‐ by Paul R. Amato, Alan Booth, David R. Johnson, and Stacey J. Rogers
Happily Ever After? Religion, Marital Status, Gender and Relationship Quality in Urban Families
Journal Article Happily Ever After? Religion, Marital Status, Gender and Relationship Quality in Urban Families Get access Nicholas H. Wolfinger, Nicholas H. Wolfinger University of Utah Direct correspondence to Nicholas H. Wolfinger, Department of Family and Consumer Studies, 225 South 1400 East, AEB 228, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0080. E-mail: [email protected]. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Acade…
Living and loving 'decent: Religion and relationship quality among urban parents
Her” Marriage after the Revolutions
Recent social changes have made husbands’ emotional investments and wives’ perceptions of equity in the division of housework crucial for women's marital happiness. But wives are also happiest in their marriages when they share a strong normative commitment to lifelong marriage with their husbands and when their husbands take the lead in breadwinning. Thus our research suggests that elements of the new and the old promote marital happiness among …
Response to Wall
Journal Article Response to Wall Get access W. Bradford Wilcox W. Bradford Wilcox W. Bradford Wilcox, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Cabell Hall 539, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, [email protected]. He is a non-resident fellow at the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol…
Then comes marriage? Religion, race, and marriage in urban America
Special Reviewers
Focused on the Family? Religious Traditions, Family Discourse, and Pastoral Practice
The relationship between religion and the family has recently reemerged as an important object of sociological inquiry. However, research has largely overlooked the ways in which the family discourse produced by specific religious traditions is connected to family-focused pastoral practices of congregations. Using data from the National Congregations Study, we find that family discourse and pastoral practice are only 'loosely coupled' to one anot…
Family, Religion, and Social Change in Diverse Societies
INTRODUCTION Chapter 1 The Implications of the Religion - Family Linkage for Social Change I: SOCIETAL CONFLICT AND ACCOMODATION Chapter 2 Religion and Family in Modern American Culture Chapter 3 Social Change in Egypt: The Roles of Religion and Family Chapter 4 Family and Religion in Sweden Chapter 5 Religion and Family Formation in Taiwan: The Decline of Ancestral Authority II: DRAMATIC SOCIETAL TRANSFORMATION Chapter 6 Belarus on the Cusp of C…
Religion, Convention, and Paternal Involvement
Family scholarship has generally overlooked the influence that religion may have on paternal involvement. Accordingly, using longitudinal data taken from the National Survey of Families and Households, I examined the influence of religious affiliation and attendance on the involvement of residential fathers in one-on-one activities, dinner with their families, and youth activities and found religious effects for each of these three measures. Virt…
The Measure of American Religion: Toward Improving the State of the Art
Recently scholars have devoted renewed attention to the role of religion in American life. Thus, it is important that they use the most effective means available to categorize and study religious groups. However, the most widely used classification scheme in survey research (T.W. Smith 1990) does not capture essential differences between American religious traditions and overlooks significant new trends in religious affiliation. We critique this …
Conservative Protestant Child Discipline: The Case of Parental Yelling
Journal Article Conservative Protestant Child Discipline: The Case of Parental Yelling Get access John P. Bartkowski, John P. Bartkowski Mississippi State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar W. Bradford Wilcox W. Bradford Wilcox Princeton University Please direct correspondence to W. Bradford Wilcox, Center for Research on Child Well-being, 221 Wallace Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544…
The Measure of American Religion: Toward Improving the State of the Art
Recently scholars have devoted renewed attention to the role of religion in American life. Thus, it is important that they use the most effective means available to categorize and study religious groups. However, the most widely used classification scheme in survey research (T.W. Smith 1990) does not capture essential differences between American religious traditions and overlooks significant new trends in religious affiliation. We critique this …
Conservative Protestant Childrearing: Authoritarian or Authoritative
Recent research on conservative Protestantism suggests that religion has reemerged as an important predictor of childrearing attitudes and practices. This research has focused on the distinctive approach toward discipline among conservative Protestant parents. No study, however, has explored the links between conservative Protestantism and positive parental emotion work (physical and verbal expression of affection). I suggest, paradoxically, that…
Religion, Convention, and Paternal Involvement
Family scholarship has generally overlooked the influence that religion may have on paternal involvement. Accordingly, using longitudinal data taken from the National Survey of Families and Households, I examined the influence of religious affiliation and attendance on the involvement of residential fathers in one-on-one activities, dinner with their families, and youth activities and found religious effects for each of these three measures. Virt…
If Momma Ain't Happy: Explaining Declines in Marital Satisfaction Among New Mothers
This study tests competing explanations for the link between the transition to motherhood and declines in wives' marital satisfaction. Using data from the first and second waves of the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 569), we found that new mothers' marital satisfaction declines could be attributed to reductions in wives' quality time spent with their husbands and to increases in perceptions of unfairness in housework. Family role…
The Couple That Prays Together: Race and Ethnicity, Religion, and Relationship Quality Among Working-Age Adults
A substantial body of research has shown that relationship quality tends to be (a) lower among racial and ethnic minorities and (b) higher among more religious persons and among couples in which partners share common religious affiliations, practices, and beliefs. However, few studies have examined the interplay of race or ethnicity and religion in shaping relationship quality. Our study addresses this gap in the literature using data from the Na…
Happily Ever After? Religion, Marital Status, Gender and Relationship Quality in Urban Families
Journal Article Happily Ever After? Religion, Marital Status, Gender and Relationship Quality in Urban Families Get access Nicholas H. Wolfinger, Nicholas H. Wolfinger University of Utah Direct correspondence to Nicholas H. Wolfinger, Department of Family and Consumer Studies, 225 South 1400 East, AEB 228, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0080. E-mail: [email protected]. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Acade…
Then comes marriage? Religion, race, and marriage in urban America
Focused on the Family? Religious Traditions, Family Discourse, and Pastoral Practice
The relationship between religion and the family has recently reemerged as an important object of sociological inquiry. However, research has largely overlooked the ways in which the family discourse produced by specific religious traditions is connected to family-focused pastoral practices of congregations. Using data from the National Congregations Study, we find that family discourse and pastoral practice are only 'loosely coupled' to one anot…
Living and loving 'decent: Religion and relationship quality among urban parents
Is love a flimsy foundation? Soulmate versus institutional models of marriage
Conservative Protestant Child Discipline: The Case of Parental Yelling
Journal Article Conservative Protestant Child Discipline: The Case of Parental Yelling Get access John P. Bartkowski, John P. Bartkowski Mississippi State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar W. Bradford Wilcox W. Bradford Wilcox Princeton University Please direct correspondence to W. Bradford Wilcox, Center for Research on Child Well-being, 221 Wallace Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544…
The Social and Cultural Predictors of Generosity in Marriage: Gender Egalitarianism, Religiosity, and Familism
This study focuses on the social and cultural sources of an important dimension of solidarity in contemporary marriages: marital generosity. Marital generosity is defined here as freely giving to one's spouse by regularly engaging in small acts of service, forgiving one's spouse, and displaying high levels of affection and respect. Using recent data from a national sample, the Survey of Marital Generosity ( N = 1,368 couples), we explored the ass…
Generosity and the Maintenance of Marital Quality
This study examined whether generosity in marriage was associated with marital quality. The authors conceptualized generosity as a type of relationship maintenance behavior and used data from the new Survey of Marital Generosity (a national survey of married couples, N = 1,365 couples and 2,730 total participants). They found that generosity-defined here as small acts of kindness, displays of respect and affection, and a willingness to forgive on…
Her” Marriage after the Revolutions
Recent social changes have made husbands’ emotional investments and wives’ perceptions of equity in the division of housework crucial for women's marital happiness. But wives are also happiest in their marriages when they share a strong normative commitment to lifelong marriage with their husbands and when their husbands take the lead in breadwinning. Thus our research suggests that elements of the new and the old promote marital happiness among …
Bonding alone: Familism, religion, and secular civic participation
Religious Identity, Religious Attendance, and Parental Control
Using a national sample of adolescents aged 10-18 years and their parents ( N = 5,117), this article examines whether parental religious identity and religious participation are associated with the ways in which parents control their children. We hypothesize that both religious orthodoxy and weekly religious attendance are related to heightened levels of three elements of parental control: monitoring activities, normative regulations, and network…
Family Structure and Economic Success Across the Life Course
This paper examines the role that family structure plays in long-run economic outcomes across the life course. Using nearly 30 years of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, we find that youths who grow up with both biological parents earn more income, work more hours each week and are more likely to be married themselves as adults, compared to children raised in single-parent families. Many of these differences continue to be…
The Marriage Paradox: Understanding and remedying the paradoxical place of marriage in America
Marriage has fallen upon hard times in the United States in the last 6 decades. Demographically, in the wake of the divorce revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, and the ongoing decline in the marriage rate, this social institution has lost significant ground as the anchor of adulthood and foundation of family life (Cherlin, 2009; Wilcox, 2024). Culturally, support for the values and virtues that sustain marriage have dropped in recent years, as few…
The welfare costs of unreliable water service
General Gage in America: Being Principally a History of His Role in the American Revolution
General Gage in America: Being Principally a History of His Role in the American Revolution. By John Richard Alden. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1948. xi + 313 pp. Illustrations, bibliography, and index. $4.00.) William B. Wilcox William B. Wilcox University of Michigan Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 35, Issue 2, September 1948, Page 294, https://doi.…
Conservative Protestant Childrearing: Authoritarian or Authoritative
Recent research on conservative Protestantism suggests that religion has reemerged as an important predictor of childrearing attitudes and practices. This research has focused on the distinctive approach toward discipline among conservative Protestant parents. No study, however, has explored the links between conservative Protestantism and positive parental emotion work (physical and verbal expression of affection). I suggest, paradoxically, that…
Godly Women: Fundamentalism and Female Power
Fundamentalist women are often depicted as dedicated to furthering the goals and ideas of fundamentalist men and thus of ancillary importance to the movement as a whole. Godly Women, Brenda Brasher's groundbreaking ethnographic study, reveals the paradox that fundamentalist women can be powerful people in a religious cosmos generally understood to be organized around their disempowerment. Brasher spent six months as an active participant in two C…
American Evangelicalism: Embattled and Thriving
The Measure of American Religion: Toward Improving the State of the Art
Recently scholars have devoted renewed attention to the role of religion in American life. Thus, it is important that they use the most effective means available to categorize and study religious groups. However, the most widely used classification scheme in survey research (T.W. Smith 1990) does not capture essential differences between American religious traditions and overlooks significant new trends in religious affiliation. We critique this …
Conservative Protestant Child Discipline: The Case of Parental Yelling
Journal Article Conservative Protestant Child Discipline: The Case of Parental Yelling Get access John P. Bartkowski, John P. Bartkowski Mississippi State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar W. Bradford Wilcox W. Bradford Wilcox Princeton University Please direct correspondence to W. Bradford Wilcox, Center for Research on Child Well-being, 221 Wallace Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544…
Religion, Convention, and Paternal Involvement
Family scholarship has generally overlooked the influence that religion may have on paternal involvement. Accordingly, using longitudinal data taken from the National Survey of Families and Households, I examined the influence of religious affiliation and attendance on the involvement of residential fathers in one-on-one activities, dinner with their families, and youth activities and found religious effects for each of these three measures. Virt…
Family, Religion, and Social Change in Diverse Societies
INTRODUCTION Chapter 1 The Implications of the Religion - Family Linkage for Social Change I: SOCIETAL CONFLICT AND ACCOMODATION Chapter 2 Religion and Family in Modern American Culture Chapter 3 Social Change in Egypt: The Roles of Religion and Family Chapter 4 Family and Religion in Sweden Chapter 5 Religion and Family Formation in Taiwan: The Decline of Ancestral Authority II: DRAMATIC SOCIETAL TRANSFORMATION Chapter 6 Belarus on the Cusp of C…
Focused on the Family? Religious Traditions, Family Discourse, and Pastoral Practice
The relationship between religion and the family has recently reemerged as an important object of sociological inquiry. However, research has largely overlooked the ways in which the family discourse produced by specific religious traditions is connected to family-focused pastoral practices of congregations. Using data from the National Congregations Study, we find that family discourse and pastoral practice are only 'loosely coupled' to one anot…
Special Reviewers
Her” Marriage after the Revolutions
Recent social changes have made husbands’ emotional investments and wives’ perceptions of equity in the division of housework crucial for women's marital happiness. But wives are also happiest in their marriages when they share a strong normative commitment to lifelong marriage with their husbands and when their husbands take the lead in breadwinning. Thus our research suggests that elements of the new and the old promote marital happiness among …
Response to Wall
Journal Article Response to Wall Get access W. Bradford Wilcox W. Bradford Wilcox W. Bradford Wilcox, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Cabell Hall 539, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, [email protected]. He is a non-resident fellow at the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol…
Then comes marriage? Religion, race, and marriage in urban America
The welfare costs of unreliable water service
Alone Together: How Marriage in America Is Changing ‐ by Paul R. Amato, Alan Booth, David R. Johnson, and Stacey J. Rogers
Happily Ever After? Religion, Marital Status, Gender and Relationship Quality in Urban Families
Journal Article Happily Ever After? Religion, Marital Status, Gender and Relationship Quality in Urban Families Get access Nicholas H. Wolfinger, Nicholas H. Wolfinger University of Utah Direct correspondence to Nicholas H. Wolfinger, Department of Family and Consumer Studies, 225 South 1400 East, AEB 228, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0080. E-mail: [email protected]. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Acade…
Living and loving 'decent: Religion and relationship quality among urban parents
Risky Lessons: Sex Education and Social Inequality
The Couple That Prays Together: Race and Ethnicity, Religion, and Relationship Quality Among Working-Age Adults
A substantial body of research has shown that relationship quality tends to be (a) lower among racial and ethnic minorities and (b) higher among more religious persons and among couples in which partners share common religious affiliations, practices, and beliefs. However, few studies have examined the interplay of race or ethnicity and religion in shaping relationship quality. Our study addresses this gap in the literature using data from the Na…
Is love a flimsy foundation? Soulmate versus institutional models of marriage
Motherhood and Marriage: A Response
We are grateful for the thought‐provoking commentary and critique of our study of marriage and the transition to motherhood (Dew & Wilcox, 2011) provided by Milkie (2011); Clements, Martin, Cassil, and Soliman (2011); and Perry‐Jenkins and Claxton (2011). Indeed, we hope that their commentary will spur further research and reflection on this important topic
If Momma Ain't Happy: Explaining Declines in Marital Satisfaction Among New Mothers
This study tests competing explanations for the link between the transition to motherhood and declines in wives' marital satisfaction. Using data from the first and second waves of the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 569), we found that new mothers' marital satisfaction declines could be attributed to reductions in wives' quality time spent with their husbands and to increases in perceptions of unfairness in housework. Family role…
Generosity and the Maintenance of Marital Quality
This study examined whether generosity in marriage was associated with marital quality. The authors conceptualized generosity as a type of relationship maintenance behavior and used data from the new Survey of Marital Generosity (a national survey of married couples, N = 1,365 couples and 2,730 total participants). They found that generosity-defined here as small acts of kindness, displays of respect and affection, and a willingness to forgive on…
Bonding alone: Familism, religion, and secular civic participation
Religious Identity, Religious Attendance, and Parental Control
Using a national sample of adolescents aged 10-18 years and their parents ( N = 5,117), this article examines whether parental religious identity and religious participation are associated with the ways in which parents control their children. We hypothesize that both religious orthodoxy and weekly religious attendance are related to heightened levels of three elements of parental control: monitoring activities, normative regulations, and network…
Sociology (23 works) · Political science (17 works) · Psychology (12 works) · Religion and Society Interactions (12 works) · Social Psychology (11 works) · Family Dynamics and Relationships (9 works) · Gender Studies (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology (9 works) · Religion, Society, and Development (7 works)