Kelly Raley
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin–Madison
Professor, Christie and Stanley E. Adams, Jr. Centennial Professorship in Liberal Arts

Contact
- E-mail: kelly.raley@mail.utexas.edu
- Phone: 512-232-6333
- Office: RLP 2.702E
- Office Hours: TTH 10:30-12:00
- Campus Mail Code: G1800
Interests
Demography, Family, Race and Ethnic Relations, Education, Work Occupations and Organizations, Gender
Biography
R. Kelly Raley is Christine and Stanley E. Adams, Jr. Centennial Professor of Liberal Arts in the Department of Sociology and Faculty Research Associate in Population Research Center. She is also editor of the Journal of Marriage and Family. Her research investigates family trends, the social determinants of family formation, and the impact of family change on social stratification. As part of a larger agenda examining the economic, social, and cultural contributors to marriage disparities in the United States, she has recently completed a project investigating the influence of occupational characteristics on the transition into marriage in early adulthood. Much of her work in this area has addressed racial and ethnic differences in marriage and cohabitation, but her current line of inquiry focuses on educational variation in family formation.
Courses
SOC 327M • Social Research Methods-Wb
44780 • Spring 2021
Meets TTH 9:30AM-10:30AM
Internet; Synchronous
IIQRWr
SOC 389K • Gen Approach To Study Of Pop
44425 • Spring 2019
Meets T 3:30PM-6:30PM RLP 3.106
SOC 317M • Intro To Social Research
44910 • Spring 2018
Meets TTH 12:30PM-1:30PM JES A216A
IIQRWr
SOC 317M • Intro To Social Research
45350 • Fall 2017
Meets TTH 9:30AM-10:30AM CLA 0.118
IIQRWr
SOC 317M • Intro To Social Research
45400 • Spring 2017
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:00PM CLA 0.118
IIQRWr
WGS 393 • Family & Household Demography
47103 • Fall 2016
Meets TH 3:00PM-6:00PM CLA 1.302F
SOC 317M • Intro To Social Research
44570 • Fall 2015
Meets TTH 9:30AM-10:30AM CLA 0.118
IIQRWr
SOC 317M • Intro To Social Research
44965 • Spring 2015
Meets TTH 9:30AM-10:30AM GDC 5.302
IIQRWr
SOC 389K • Family And Household Demog
46585 • Spring 2014
Meets TH 12:00PM-3:00PM CLA 1.302F
SOC 389K • Gen Approach To Study Of Pop
45710 • Spring 2012
Meets T 3:00PM-6:00PM BUR 480
UGS 302 • Trends In Us: A Populatn Persp
63875 • Fall 2011
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM MAI 220B
Wr
SOC 317M • Intro To Social Research
46060 • Spring 2011
Meets MW 10:00AM-11:00AM GAR 0.120
SB
SOC 389K • Gen Approach To Study Of Pop
46270 • Spring 2011
Meets T 3:00PM-6:00PM BUR 480
SOC 389K • Gen Approach To Study Of Pop
46545 • Spring 2010
Meets M 12:00PM-3:00PM BUR 480
SOC 389K • Training Smnr In Demography
46555 • Spring 2010
Meets F 10:30AM-1:30PM BUR 214
WGS 393 • Family & Household Demography
48085 • Spring 2009
Meets T 3:00PM-6:00PM BUR 214
WGS 393 • Family & Household Demography
46327 • Spring 2005
Meets T 1:00PM-4:00PM BUR 231
WGS 393 • Family & Household Demography
45701 • Fall 2002
Meets T 4:00PM-7:00PM BUR 339
Publications
Sullivan, M. Kate, R. Kelly Raley, Robert A. Hummer, and Emily Schiefelbein. Forthcoming. The Potential Contribution of Marital-Cohabitation Status to Racial, Ethnic, and Nativity Differentials in Birth Outcomes in Texas.” Maternal and Child Health Journal.
Raley, R. Kelly. 2011. In Booth et al (Eds). “I just want your kiss? Sexual Relationships in Young Adulthood” Early Adulthood in a Family Context. New York. Springer
Raley, R. Kelly. 2011. “Family and Household Composition of the Population”. In M. Anderson, C. Citro, and J. Salvo (Eds) Encyclopedia of the U.S. Census: Second Edition. Washington D.C.: CQ Press.
Raley, R. Kelly and Charles E. Stokes. 2010. Kin Connection: Kin Involvement While Growing Up and Marriage in Adulthood. Social Science Research
Raley, R. Kelly and M. Kate Sullivan. 2010. Social-Contextual influences on Adolescent Romantic and Sexual Activity. Sociological Spectrum, 30: 65-89.
Raley, R. Kelly and Megan M. Sweeney. 2009. Explaining race and ethnic variation in marriage: Directions for future research. Race and Social Problems, 1:132-142.
Choi, Kate H., R. Kelly Raley, Chandra Muller, and Catherine Riegle-Crumb. 2008. “A Longitudinal Analysis of Exposure to Peers with College Educated Parents and Student’s College Enrollment.” Social Science Quarterly, 89: 846-866
Cavanagh, Shannon, Sarah Crissey, and Kelly Raley. 2008. Family Structure and Adolescent Opposite Sex Relationships. Journal of Marriage and Family. 70: 698-714.
Raley, R. Kelly, Sarah Crissey, & Chandra Muller. 2007. “Of Sex and Romance: Adolescent relationships in the transition to adulthood.” Journal of Marriage and Family 69: 1210-1226.
Wildsmith, Elizabeth and R. Kelly Raley. 2006. “Race-Ethnic Differences in Nonmarital Fertility: A Focus on Mexican American Women.” Journal of Marriage and Family. 68: 491-508
Raley, R. Kelly, Michelle Frisco, & Elizabeth Wildsmith. 2005. “Maternal Cohabitation and Educational Success” Sociology of Education. 78: 144-164.
Woo, Hyeyoung & and R. Kelly Raley. 2005. A Small Extension to “Costs and Rewards of Children: The Effects of Becoming a Parent on Adults’ Lives.” Journal of Marriage and Family 67: 216–221
Raley, R. Kelly, T. Elizabeth Durden, & Elizabeth Wildsmith. 2004. “Understanding Mexican American Marriage Patterns Using a Life Course Approach” Social Science Quarterly. 85 (4): 872-890.
Raley, R. Kelly and Jenifer Bratter. 2004."Not Even if You Were the Last Person on Earth! How Marital Search Constraints Affect the Likelihood of Marriage.” Journal of Family Issues. 25: 167-181.
Raley, R. Kelly and Wildsmith, Elizabeth. 2004. “Cohabitation and Children’s Family Instability” Journal of Marriage and the Family. 66:210-219
Unpublished Resources
Using an Occupational Database to Describe Job Characteristics
R. Kelly Raley University of Texas-Austin
Robert Reynolds University of Texas-Austin
Jaira San Jose University of Texas-Austin
Kate C. Prickett University of Chicago
Rob Crosnoe University of Texas-Austin
Abstract
Many social theories link characteristics of work to other life domains such as family and health. Most large social science datasets collect data on employment status, occupation, work hours, and income, but autonomy, stress, support, and work activities likely also matter. In the absence of direct measures of these factors at the individual level, databases of occupational characteristics, like the Occupational Information Network (ONET), can be a useful source of information. This study considers the potential benefits and limitations of using the ONET to test theories about how work environments affect well-being. A particular concern is that variability in work environments might not be strongly related to occupation. Thus, in addition to describing the variables available in the O*NET, we also document variation in occupational characteristics within broad occupational groups (22 categories) and, where possible, within detailed occupational categories. Analyses show that there is substantial variation in some theoretically relevant characteristics of work across occupation and occupation group.
This working paper has links to Stata and SAS data files with measures from O*NET version 20.
Race-Ethnic Differences in the Non-marital Fertility Rates in 2006-2010
Research in the 1980s pointed to the lower marriage rates of blacks as an important factor contributing to race differences in non-marital fertility. Our analyses update and extend this prior work to investigate whether cohabitation has become an important contributor to this variation. We use data from the 2006–2010 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) to decompose race-ethnic differences in non-marital fertility rates into three types of factors based on relationship status, pregnancy rates by relationship status, and marriage following a non-marital pregnancy. We find that the pregnancy rate among single (not cohabiting) women is the biggest contributor to racial-ethnic variation the non-marital fertility rate and that higher proportions of women using no method of contraception among racial minorities explains the majority of the race-ethnic differences in pregnancy rates.
- Files Attached
- Paper
ONET data file with censcodes
We merged O*NET (version 15) datafiles to the NLSY. The NLSY uses Census 2002 occupation codes and the O*NET has a different coding system (soccodes). Thus, a first step in this project was to merge O*NET variables to census codes, so that we could merge these variables onto the work-histories available in the NLSY.
In the linked archive below, there is a sas data file (census_onewkvl) with O*NET work values variables attached to censcodes. I've included the sas program that creates this file (Merge_ONET_Census.sas) which you can adapt to make similar files with different O*NET variables.