Education

• Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Maryland, 2007.
• Masters in Sociology from the University of Maryland, 2002
• B.S. in Religious Studies (with honors) and Psychology (double-major) from the University of Oregon in the year 1994
• Specialty Areas: Religion, Family, Health, Aging and the Life Course, Social Psychology, Quantitative Methods

Courses Taught

• SOC 364:  Social Statistics

Selected Publications and Presentations

Bierman, Alex and Melissa Milkie.  2008.  “Intergenerational Stress Proliferation between Adult Children and Parents: Contingencies by Functional Timing and Parent’s Gender.”  Forthcoming in Advances in Life Course Research.

Milkie, Melissa, Alex Bierman, and Scott Schieman.  2008.  “How Adult Children Influence Older Parents’ Mental Health:  Race and Gender Variations.”  Forthcoming in Social Psychology Quarterly.

Bierman, Alex.  2006.  “Does Religion Buffer the Effects of Discrimination on Mental Health?  Differing Effects by Race.”  Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 45:551-565.

Bierman, Alex, Elena M. Fazio, and Melissa A. Milkie.  2006.  “A Multifaceted Approach to the Mental Health Advantage of the Married:  Assessing How Explanations Vary by Outcome Measure and Unmarried Group”  Journal of Family Issues 27:554-582

Research and Interests

I am interested in examining the intersection of religion, family and health from a social-psychological perspective using advanced quantitative methods.  Much of this research involves the integration of stress process and life course perspectives, with a special focus on life course influences on stress and health in late life.