December 09, 2020 | News | Prize for Excellent Paper

Daniela Negraia Granted the Jan Hoem Paper Award

Research scientist Daniela Negraia presents the certificate of the Jan Hoem Paper Award 2020. © MPIDR/Wilhelm

A paper on parental well-being in the U.S. by Daniela Negraia and a colleague was granted the newly established award in the name of former MPIDR director Jan Hoem.

Daniela Negraia, who was a research scientist at the MPIDR until November 2020, and her colleague Jennifer Augustine from the University of South Carolina published the winning paper, which explored the different dimensions of parental well-being in the U.S. As part of the study, they used rich survey data on time use and the expressed well-being of parents. This highlighted that being a parent is associated with more intense positive, as well as negative expressions of emotions and well-being.

The authors broke down these different emotions and categorized them into different contexts and life-course dynamics to produce very meaningful patterns of outcomes. Recognizing the value of this information, Gunnar Andersson, Head of the Award Committee, wrote in his evaluation, “A study that could risk producing yet another set of ‘ambiguous findings’ brings clarity in a way that truly makes it a reference for future research in this field of study.”

In addition, the award committee recognized Negraia and Augustine’s advanced work with very complex, yet high-quality data. Ultimately, their work enables the potential to make this data infrastructure better available to a wider pool of sociologists and demographers.

The Jan Hoem Paper Award was presented during a virtual ceremony at the Annual Academy, a part of the doctoral program IMPRS-PHDS in early December. The annual prize was awarded for the first time in 2020. It was established to reward a junior researcher at the MPIDR for a paper that exhibits the quality, innovation, originality, and scientific merit exemplified by the work of Jan M. Hoem.

Original Publication

Negraia, D., Augustine, J.: Unpacking the Parental Well-Being Gap: the Role of Dynamic Features of Daily Life across broader Social Contexts. Social Psychology Quarterly. (2020). DOI: 10.1177/0190272520902453

This paper was also awarded with the IPUMS Research Award. It is a winner of the Time Use Award: ipums.org/impact/ipums-research-award

Related Press Release

For Better or Worse: Parents Experience More Emotions in Everyday Life, Compared to Non-parents