The Childbearing Biography Project is a National Institute of Aging funded project that investigates how the pathways to parenthood, being childfree, and relationships with adult kids shape midlife health, including cognition.

Recent Publications

1. Thomeer, M. B., & Williams, C. E. (2025). Distributions of adverse childbearing experiences across racial and ethnic groups: A research note. Demography, 62(6), 1821–1834.

2. Reczek, R., Thomeer, M. B., & Bijou, C. (2025). How intergenerational estrangement matters for maternal and adult children’s health. Journal of Marriage and Family, 87(1), 92–113.

3. Stacey, L., Reczek, R., Williams, K., Hays, J., & Thomeer, M. B. (2025). An unbreakable bond? Maternal adverse childhood experiences and mothers’ relationships with adult children. Social Forces, 104(1), 224–249.

4. Thomeer, M. B., Reczek, R., Cao, R., & Ferguson, D. (2025). Dynamics of adult child-mother relationships in emerging adulthood by gender and race. Social Psychology Quarterly, 88(3), 398–420.

5. Cao, R., Reczek, R., & Thomeer, M. B. (2025). Intergenerational coresidence with children and grandchildren and maternal sleep duration at midlife. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B, 80(6), gbaf034.

6. Thomeer, M. B., Ferguson, D., Crutchfield, C., & Reczek, R. (2025). Motherhood biographies and health over the life course. Sociology Compass, 19(3), e70036.

7. Thomeer, M., Reczek, R., Wolfe, J., Ferguson, D., & Cao, R. (2025). Childbearing histories and midlife cognition: Accounting for early life factors. Innovation in Aging, 9(Suppl. 2), igaf122.425. [Conference abstract]

8. Thomeer, M. B., Wolfe, J. D., Ferguson, D., Reczek, R., & Cao, R. (2024). Childbearing histories and midlife cognition: Accounting for early life factors. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B, 79(12), gbae177.

9. Thomeer, M. B., Ross, C., Reczek, R., & Hossain, M. (2024). Women’s childbearing histories and their alcohol use at midlife. Journal of Women & Aging, 36(2), 123–138.

10. Wolfe, J. D., Thomeer, M. B., & Reczek, R. (2023). Age at first birth and women’s midlife health: Cohort and race differences across the 20th century. Social Science & Medicine, 331, 116097.

11. Reczek, R., Stacey, L., & Thomeer, M. B. (2023). Parent–adult child estrangement in the United States by gender, race/ethnicity, and sexuality. Journal of Marriage and Family, 85(2), 494–517.

12. Thomeer, M. B., Reczek, R., Ross, C., & Bijou, C. (2023). Sequencing of births by wantedness: Implications for changes in mid-life health among aging NLSY79 women. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B, 78(11), 1881–1891.

13. Brantley, M. (2023). Burdens of the what-if: Vicarious anti-Black racism and stress for Black mothers. Journal of Marriage and Family.

14. Brantley, M. (2023). Black feminist theory in maternal health research: A review of concepts and future directions. Sociology Compass.

15. Thomeer, M. B., Ross, C., Reczek, R., & Bijou, C. (2022). Sequencing of planned and unplanned births and implications for mid- and later-life health among NLSY79 women. Innovation in Aging, 6(Suppl. 1), 316–317. [Conference abstract]

16. Thomeer, M. B., Reczek, R., & Ross, C. (2022). Childbearing biographies and midlife women’s health. Journal of Aging and Health, 34(6-8), 870–882.

17. Thomeer, M. B., Reczek, R., & Stacey, L. (2022). Childbearing biographies as a method to examine diversity and clustering of childbearing experiences: A research brief. Population Research and Policy Review, 41(4), 1405–1415.