Sarah Brauner-Otto

Dr. Brauner-Otto is a social demographer studying global family change with a focus on the relationship between social context (e.g. schools, community organizations) and demographic behaviors over the life course. She is particularly interested in which dimensions of social context (e.g. characteristics of schools or health services) matter the most and how context influences the individual. Her research program has three axes: social influences on global family change, macro-level perspectives on social organizations and fertility, and methodological tools for studying global family change. Previously published papers examine the relationship between specific services offered by a community organization, type of religious practices, and the specific kinds of natural resources available and fertility and marriage behavior in Nepal and institutional influences on fertility in low fertility settings.

Brauner-Otto's research in the coming years will focus on labor markets as a key dimension of social context influencing global family change. This work is partly funded by an NIH grant to use the Chitwan Valley Family Study to investigate the relationship between female labor force participation and child outcomes in Nepal, a poor country where participation in paid, non-family labor has only recently become widespread. Using data from low fertility settings where women's labor force participation is well established, she will investigate how specific dimensions of work (e.g. job autonomy and security) may influence a wide array of family dynamics including child care, child wellbeing, fertility intentions and behavior.