Center for Family and Demographic Research

Raymond Swisher
rswishe@bgsu.edu
(419)372 -8054
Curriculum Vitae

Associate Professor of Sociology

Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1999

Dr. Swisher’s research employs a life course perspective to understanding risk factors in the lives of low income families and youth. A central theme emerging from this research is the role of violence in the lives of poor families. He has examined the detrimental effects of exposure to neighborhood violence on adolescent well-being (depression, survival expectations), how adolescents adapt to community violence with violence of their own, and the prevalence of domestic violence and other risk factors among unmarried parents. In more recent work (with Maureen Waller), he has studied the effects of father’s incarceration on relationship stability with mothers and involvement with non-residential children, as well as variations in these relationships across White, African-American, and Latino families. Most recently, he has begun a project (with Danielle Payne and Jorge Chavez) examining trajectories of violence in the transition to adulthood, and how these trajectories are related to changing neighborhood conditions and other life course transitions. This project utilizes newly available data that he produced as part of the Wave III Contextual Database of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.

Recent Publications:

Swisher, R. R., & Warner, T. D. (Forthcoming). If they grow up: The neighborhood context of adolescent and young adult survival expectations. Journal of Research on Adolescence.

Rocheleau, G., & Swisher, R. R. (Forthcoming). Adolescent work and substance use revisited: A fixed effects analysis of variations by race and family structure. Journal of Research on Adolescence.

Swisher, R. R., & Roettger, M. E. (Forthcoming). Associations between father’s incarceration and adolescent depression and serious delinquency: Variations by race, ethnicity, and gender. Journal of Research on Adolescence.

Roettger, M. E., & Swisher, R. R. (2011). Racial and ethnic differences in associations between father’s incarceration and son’s delinquency and arrest. Criminology, 49(4), 1109-1147.

Roettger, M. E., Swisher, R., Kuhl, D., & Chavez, J. M. (2011). Paternal incarceration and trajectories of marijuana and other illegal drug use from adolescence into young adulthood: Evidence from longitudinal panels of males and females in the United States. Addiction, 106, 121-132.. doi: 10.1111/j.1360-0443.2010.03110.x

Swisher, R. R., & Waller, M. R. (2008). Confining fatherhood: Incarceration and paternal involvement among nonresident white, African American, and Latino fathers. Journal of Family Issues, 29(8), 1067-1088.

Swisher, R. R., & Latzman, R. (2008). Youth violence as adaptation? Introduction to the special issue. Journal of Community Psychology, 36(8), 959-968.

Swisher, R. R. (2008). Neighborhoods and youth: How neighborhood demographics and social processes affect youth outcomes. Prevention Researcher, 15(2), 7-11.

Leblanc, L., Swisher, R. R., Tremblay, R., & Vitaro, F. (2008). Antisocial behavior and high school social climate: A 10 year longitudinal and multilevel study. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 18(3), 395-419.

LeBlanc, L., Swisher, R. R., Broidy, L., Nagin, D., Vitaro, F., & Tremblay, R. E. (2007). Predicting high school teacher’s perceptions of discipline problems: A longitudinal and multilevel study. Social Psychology of Education, 10(4), 429-442.