I am an Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of New Hampshire. My research focuses broadly on family and gender issues, particularly family formation, gender and class stratification, and the role of relationships and family in the life course. I am particularly interested in the uncommon and changing ways individuals form families, and what that might mean for them. This includes older adult singlehood and repartnering; the structure and meaning of kinship, including cousins; and decision-making processes of and on behalf of adolescents. I take a qualitative approach to these topics, primarily using interviews to gather primary accounts of meanings and behaviors.
I completed a PhD in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2022. My dissertation explored the experiences and processes of singlehood, dating, and (re)partnering among older adults. As the single older adult population grows – due to longer lifespans, widowhood, and growing divorce rates – little is known about how older adults adapt to changing dating scripts and how a different position in the life course impacts meanings and attitudes toward singlehood. To investigate these issues, I interviewed 100 women and men ages 60-83, recruiting from various online dating websites. Respondents spoke to such topics as gender roles, online dating use, adult children, age and sexuality, and COVID-19.
This work has expanded to cover the impact of performing family carework on one’s opportunities and preferences on the dating market (Harris, 2023). I find that single older women are penalized on the dating market for caring for families (caring for aging parents, looking out for adult children, babysitting grandchildren), as older men are looking for a woman with the freedom to be more flexible and to make him a top priority. Men, on the other hand, are rewarded on the market for caring for their family since women see caregiving as an attractive quality in a man.
In studying single older adult dating behavior during COVID-19, I find that single older adults experienced heightened isolation and loneliness because they were single. Many turned to online dating because there was no other way to meet people and they agreed to meet in person for dates with the intent to have a “COVID-safe” date (Harris, 2024). This research illustrates the deep meaning and importance to having a romantic partner, as older adults were willing to seek a partner and meet in person during a time where that was very risky to their health.
In my kinship research, my co-authors and I investigate the construction of kinship in nonstandard family forms. We clustered family formation into distinct groups: variations on formal marriage or its absence, alterations to the reproduction process, and formation of voluntary bonds. We found a growing acceptance of non-standard family forms and a borrowing of vocabulary and scripts from standard family forms (Furstenberg, Harris, Pesando, and Reed 2020). In another study (Reed, Li, Pesando, Harris, Furstenberg, and Teitler, 2023), we explore the impact of COVID-19 on the communication among kin. We find that many demographic groups increased communication with non-resident kin, including extended kin, during this time of crisis.
In an earlier work, I highlighted the experience of cohabitation and its relationship to marriage and family formation. Using interviews with each member of 23 partnered couples, I explored the commonality of cohabitation. I showed how even committed, middle-class couples who cohabit as a precursor to marriage are experiencing rising requirements to marriage. These couples were not testing their relationship or cohabiting. While prior work had found a rising bar to marriage for low-income couples, this research finds the surprising link between cohabitation and marriage requirements for middle-class couples intending to marry (Harris 2021).
Prior to earning a PhD, I worked as a Survey Specialist at Mathematica Policy Research, focusing on survey design and data collection for social program evaluations. During that time, I earned an MA in Applied Sociology and graduate certificate in Survey Research from the University of Massachusetts at Boston.
Lauren E. Harris, PhD 