Divorce research to be topic of BGSU forum

BOWLING GREEN, O.—Family demographer Dr. Jay Teachman of Western Washington University will be the first speaker in Bowling Green State University’s College of Arts and Sciences 2009 forum series.

His talk, "Demographic Contours of Divorce: What We Know and What We Need to Know," will begin at 12:30 p.m. Sept. 28 in 308 Bowen-Thompson Student Union following a noon luncheon. The talk is free and open to the public.

Co-sponsored by the college and the National Center for Family and Marriage Research at BGSU, Teachman’s talk will outline the factors associated with divorce. He focuses on the most important variables that are predictive of divorce, including social, family, personal and historic indicators. Teachman also asks why certain predictors of divorce should change over time and examines the empirical evidence for such change. Finally, he asks what we should know about the predictors of divorce but do not yet know.

Teachman is a professor in the sociology department at Western Washington. Before moving to WWU in 1998, he was a professor and founding chair of the Department of Human Development at Washington State University, from 1993-98.

As a family demographer, Teachman has a longstanding interest in studying the well-being of families and children, with particular focus on relationship statuses and transitions. He is a Fellow of the National Council on Family Relations and chair-elect of the Family Section of the American Sociological Association.

He received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago in 1978 and is the author of two books and numerous book chapters and refereed journal articles, with 18 externally funded grants.

The noon lunch is $7.75 (plus tax) payable by cash or check (made payable to BGSU). Reservations are due by Sept. 22, to Mary Hitt at 419-372-2340 or mjhitt@bgsu.edu. Those wishing to come at 12:30 p.m. for the lecture only are welcome.

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Image caption: Dr. Jay Teachman