Elizabeth Thomson
Classes:
Soc 496 Topics in Sociology
4452 Sewell Social Sciences
(608) 262-6125
Fax: (608) 262-8400
thomson@ssc.wisc.edu
Office Hours: by appt. (F'08)
Curriculum Vitae
Selected Publications:
Thomson, Elizabeth. 2005. Partnership and Parenthood: Connections Between Cohabitation, Marriage and Childbearing. Pp. in Alan Booth and Nan Crouter (Eds.), The New Population Problem: Why Families in Developed Countries are Shrinking and What It Means. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Henz, Ursula, and Elizabeth Thomson. 2005. Union Stability and Stepfamily Fertility in Austria, Finland, France & West Germany. European Journal of Population 21: 3-29.
Vikat, Andres, Elizabeth Thomson and Alexia Prskawetz. 2004. Childrearing Responsibility and Stepfamily Fertility in Finland and Austria. European Journal of Population, 20:1-21.
Thomson, Elizabeth. 2004. Stepfamilies and Childbearing Intentions in Europe. Demographic Research S3-4 [www.demographic-research.org].
Thomson, Elizabeth. 2002. Motherhood, Fatherhood and Parental Values. In Ron Lesthaeghe (ed.), Meaning and Choice: Value Orientations and Life Course Decisions. NIDI Monograph Nr. 37. The Hague: Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute.
Education:
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Washington, 1979
Areas of Interest:
Aging, Life Course
Demography
Methods and Statistics
Sociology of Gender
Sociology of the Family
Affiliations:
Center for Demography and Ecology
Center for Demography of Health and Aging
Gender Program
Institute for Research on Poverty
Population Health Sciences
Sociology
Research Interest Statement:
Thomson is a family researcher with a joint appointment at the UW-Madison and Stockholm University, Sweden, where she directs the Demographic Unit (www.suda.su.se) and the Linnaeus Center for Social Policy and Family Dynamics in Europe (www.su.se/spade). Her research uses both large-scale comparative surveys and Nordic data registers. Current papers include studies on micro-simulation of the consequences of union instability for fertility in France; educational differences in the family life course in France, Sweden and the U.S.; educational variation and change in children’s experience of parental separation in Sweden; educational differences in family values and union formation among young Swedish adults; the validity of self-reported housing biographies in Sweden; and the relationship between partners’ relationship quality and childbearing in the Netherlands.