Department of Sociology

Karen Benjamin Guzzo received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of North Carolina in 2003 and did postdoctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania.  She joined the faculty at Bowling Green in fall 2011.  Trained as a family demographer and sociologist, most of her work examines what are considered "nontraditional" family behaviors.  One line of research examines unintended fertility, looking at trends over time as well as the antecedents and consequences of unplanned births.  A related line of work looks at nonmarital childbearing and multipartnered fertility, where individuals have children by different partners.  Dr. Guzzo also studies trends in cohabitation, which has become increasingly common in the United States but decreasingly likely to lead to marriage even as more cohabiting couples are raising children.  Finally, she is interested in parenting attitudes and behaviors, particularly among fathers.  In all her work, she pays close attention to variation by gender, race/ethnicity/nativity, and socioeconomic status to better understand the "diverging destinies" of today's families.