Andrew Cherlin is the Benjamin H. Griswold III Professor Emeritus of Public Policy at Johns Hopkins University. His research focuses on changes in American family life. Specifically, he studies trends in marriage and divorce, the effects of divorce on children, intergenerational relationships, family policy, and welfare policy. In 1999, Cherlin was President of the Population Association of America, a nonprofit organization promoting research on and improvement of issues related to the human population.
Cherlin’s published books include Labor’s Love Lost: The Rise and Fall of the Working-Class Family in America (Russell Sage Foundation 2014), in which he provides a compelling analysis of the historical dynamics and ramifications of the growing number of young adults disconnected from steady, decent-paying jobs and from marriage. In The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family Today (Knopf 2009), he analyzes the status of matrimony and partnership in the U.S. and why it differs from marriages in other Western countries. He describes why Americans are so eager to marry, yet divorce at such high rates. He considers the effect of family instability (re-marriages, live-in partners, short-term cohabitation) on children. As a policy analyst, Cherlin also examines the impact of public policies intended to support marriage. In Public and Private Families (McGraw-Hill 2009), Cherlin contrasts the intimate concerns of private family life with that of public family life in which we deal with broader social issues.
In addition to books, Cherlin’s articles hаνе appeared іn Thе Nеw York Times Magazine, Thе Nation, аnd οn thе op-ed pages οf Thе Nеw York Times, Thе Washington Post, аnd οthеr publications. In 2003, he received the Distinguished Career Award from the Family Section of the American Sociological Association; in 2005, he was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship; and in 2009, he received the Irene B. Taeuber Award from the Population Association of America.
Induction Remarks:
Andrew Cherlin: Changes in the American Family
