I am a sociologist who uses qualitative and quantitative methods to study romantic relationships and low-income families’ finances, as well as government policies directed at both of these areas.
My current research includes longitudinally following how mothers who are low income when their child is born experience a program that provides them with monthly unconditional cash gifts; understanding the lives of prime-age men who are out of the labor force (neither working nor seeking a formal job); and studying the role of relationship churning — on-again/off-again relationships — in the lives of parents and their children.
Selected Publications
Halpern-Meekin, S. (2020). Social Poverty and Relational Resources. Contexts, 19(2), 40-45. https://doi.org/10.1177/1536504220920195
Turney, K., & Halpern-Meekin, S. (2020). Parental Relationship Churning and Adolescent Well-Being: Examining Instability Within Families. Journal of Marriage and Family, 82(3), 965-980. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12665
Halpern-Meekin, S., Costanzo, M., Ehrenthal, D., & Rhoades, G. (2019). Intimate Partner Violence Screening in the Prenatal Period: Variation by State, Insurance, and Patient Characteristics. Maternal and Child Health Review, 23(6), 756–767. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-018-2692-x
Tach, L., Halpern-Meekin, S., Edin, K., & Amorim, M. (2019). “As Good as Money in the Bank”: Building a Personal Safety Net with the Earned Income Tax Credit. Social Problems, 66(2), 274-293. https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spy001
Halpern-Meekin, S., & Turney, K. (2018). Relationship Churning and Desistance From Intimate Abuse. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(11-12), 5685–5708. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260518807214
For a full list of publications, see Halpern-Meekin’s CV.
Featured Media
- 1050 Bascom, Poverty and the pandemic with Prof. Sarah Halpern-Meekin,
- The New York Times, A gloomy prediction on how much poverty could rise
- Poverty Research & Policy Podcast, UW–Madison Institute for Research on Poverty, Sarah Halpern-Meekin on “social poverty”
- Channel 3000, The rise of the only child: What’s behind the rising number of single-child families
- Wisconsin Public Radio, How social ties affect poverty
See Also
- Op-ed
- The Cap Times, The crisis to come: Poverty after the pandemic
Department
- Human Development & Family Studies
Degree Program
- MS Human Ecology
- PhD Human Ecology: Human Development & Family Studies
Affiliations
- La Follette School of Public Affairs
- Department of Sociology
- Health Disparities Research Scholars (HDRS) Program
- Center for Financial Security
- Institute for Research on Poverty
- Center for Demography and Ecology
- Retirement & Disability Research Center
Education
- Postdoctoral fellow, National Center for Family & Marriage Research, Bowling Green State University
- PhD, Sociology and Social Policy, Harvard University
- BA, Politics, Brandeis University
Contact
Office: 4107 Nancy Nicholas Hall
Phone: 608-263-4691
Email: sarah.halpernmeekin@wisc.edu
Websites: