Research Group

Kinship Inequalities

At a Glance Projects Publications Team

Project

Modeling Kinship Structure: Demographic Projections and Population Heterogeneity

Sha Jiang, Saroja Adhikari, Diego Alburez-Gutierrez, Bettina Maria Hünteler, Elena Pojman

This project characterizes the structure and evolution of kinship networks by describing their size and composition by age, sex, type of kin, and other characteristics. It produces cross-national projections of kinship structure, emphasizing how kinship is shaped by demographic change and heterogeneity.  Detailed Description

Publications

Fernández Soto, M.; Escoto, A.; Alburez-Gutierrez, D.; Williams, I.:

The role of kinship networks in childcare at birth: evidence from three Latin American countries

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2026-012. (2026)    

Abrams, L. R.; Jiang, S.; Alburez-Gutierrez, D.; Acosta, E.; Zagheni, E.:

Adverse mortality trends have increased the number bereaved in the United States

SocArXiv papers. unpublished. (2025)    

Adhikari, S.; Alburez-Gutierrez, D.:

The future of grandparenthood in South Asia: the role of population aging and educational expansion

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2025-003. (2025)    

Alburez-Gutierrez, D.; Basellini, U.; Zagheni, E.:

When do mothers bury a child? Heterogeneity in the maternal age at offspring loss

Population Studies 79:1, 45–57. (2025)    

Hünteler, B. M.; Hank, K.; Alburez-Gutierrez, D.; Leopold, T.:

A typology of young adults' nuclear and extended family relations in the United States

Journal of Marriage and Family, 1–15. (2025)    

Hünteler, B. M.; Hank, K.; Alburez-Gutierrez, D.; Leopold, T.:

A typology of nuclear and extended family relations in the United States

SocArXiv papers. unpublished. (2025)    

Jiang, S.; Alburez-Gutierrez, D.; Chung, P. H.; Alexander, M. J.:

Measuring kinship dependency: a cross-national comparison across care regimes

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2025-024. (2025)    

Jiang, S.; Liang, H.; Alburez-Gutierrez, D.; Zagheni, E.:

Human capital investment helps mitigate family caregiving challenges in aging China

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2025-021. (2025)    

Jiang, S.; Zuo, W.; Guo, Z.; Tuljapurkar, S.:

Changing demographic rates reshape kinship networks

Demography 62:3, 899–922. (2025)    

van Damme, M.; Alburez-Gutierrez, D.; Castro Torres, A. F.:

Research note: estimating kinship size of older adults in Europe with models and surveys

Demography, 1–10. (2025)    

Hünteler, B. M.; Polizzi, A.; van Raalte, A. A.:

Changing kinship structures in East and West Germany before and after reunification

SocArXiv papers. unpublished. (2024)