Bio


I am a social demographer who studies race, ethnicity, and family structure, the family's effect on children, and the history of the family. I am interested in mate selection as a social as well as a personal process.

Academic Appointments


  • Professor, Sociology

Administrative Appointments


  • Director of the Sociology Coterminal Masters Program, Stanford University (2002 - 2004)
  • Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of Sociology, Stanford University (2009 - Present)
  • Director of Urban Studies, Stanford University (2010 - 2011)
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Stanford University (2000 - 2008)
  • Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Stanford University (2008 - Present)

Honors & Awards


  • Winner of the Stanford University Phi Beta Kappa teaching award, Stanford University Phi Beta Kappa (2012)
  • Winner of the Teaching Award, Stanford Urban Studies (2009)
  • Winner of the 2007-2008 Stanford University Dean’s Award, Stanford University (2008)
  • Winner of Roger V. Gould memorial prize, American Journal of Sociology (2006)
  • Hellman Faculty Scholar, Hellman Faculty (2002-2003)
  • Nominated for a Phi Beta Kappa Northern California Association Excellence in Teaching Award, Phi Beta Kappa Northern California Association (2003)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations


  • Consulting Editor, Social Forces (2009 - 2011)
  • Consulting Editor, American Journal of Sociology (2006 - 2008)
  • Senior Research Associate, Council on Contemporary Families
  • Reviewer, American Journal of Sociology
  • Reviewer, American Sociological Review
  • Reviewer, Social Problems
  • Reviewer, International Migration Review
  • Reviewer, Journal of Marriage and the Family
  • Reviewer, Journal of Family Issues
  • Reviewer, Demography
  • Reviewer, Social Science Quarterly
  • Reviewer, Higher Education
  • Reviewer, Social Forces

Program Affiliations


  • Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Professional Education


  • Bachelor of Arts, Brown University, Mathematics (1989)
  • Master of Arts, University of Chicago, Latin American Studies (1991)
  • Ph.D., University of Chicago, Sociology (2000)

2024-25 Courses


Stanford Advisees


All Publications


  • Stability and change in predictors of marital dissolution in the US 1950-2017 JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY Rosenfeld, M. J., Roesler, K. 2023

    View details for DOI 10.1111/jomf.12932

    View details for Web of Science ID 001048544200001

  • The Dating Divide: Race and Desire in the Era of Online Romance (Book Review) SOCIAL FORCES Book Review Authored by: Rosenfeld, M. J. 2022; 100 (3)

    View details for DOI 10.1093/sf/soab097

    View details for Web of Science ID 000748376500007

  • Premarital Cohabitation and Marital Dissolution: A Reply to Manning, Smock, and Kuperberg JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY Rosenfeld, M. J., Roesler, K. 2020

    View details for DOI 10.1111/jomf.12744

    View details for Web of Science ID 000603120400001

  • Disintermediating your friends: How online dating in the United States displaces other ways of meeting. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Rosenfeld, M. J., Thomas, R. J., Hausen, S. 2019

    Abstract

    We present data from a nationally representative 2017 survey of American adults. For heterosexual couples in the United States, meeting online has become the most popular way couples meet, eclipsing meeting through friends for the first time around 2013. Moreover, among the couples who meet online, the proportion who have met through the mediation of third persons has declined over time. We find that Internet meeting is displacing the roles that family and friends once played in bringing couples together.

    View details for DOI 10.1073/pnas.1908630116

    View details for PubMedID 31431531

  • Cohabitation Experience and Cohabitation's Association With Marital Dissolution JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY Rosenfeld, M. J., Roesler, K. 2019; 81 (1): 42–58

    View details for DOI 10.1111/jomf.12530

    View details for Web of Science ID 000455117100003

  • Commitment Timing in Same-Sex and Different-Sex Relationships POPULATION REVIEW Orth, T., Rosenfeld, M. 2018; 57 (1): 1–19
  • Marriage, Choice, and Couplehood in the Age of the Internet SOCIOLOGICAL SCIENCE Rosenfeld, M. J. 2017; 4: 490-510

    View details for DOI 10.15195/v4.a20

    View details for Web of Science ID 000411668000001

  • Revisiting the Data from the New Family Structure Study: Taking Family Instability into Account SOCIOLOGICAL SCIENCE Rosenfeld, M. J. 2015; 2: 478-501

    View details for DOI 10.15195/v2.a23

    View details for Web of Science ID 000436987000021

  • Couple Longevity in the Era of Same-Sex Marriage in the United States JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY Rosenfeld, M. J. 2014; 76 (5): 905-918

    View details for DOI 10.1111/jomf.12141

    View details for Web of Science ID 000342678400002

  • Unhitched: Love, Marriage and Family Values from West Hollywood to Western China (Book Review) SOCIAL FORCES Book Review Authored by: Rosenfeld, M. J. 2014; 93 (1)

    View details for DOI 10.1093/sf/sos104

    View details for Web of Science ID 000342988400023

  • Nontraditional Families and Childhood Progress Through School: A Comment on Rosenfeld Reply DEMOGRAPHY Rosenfeld, M. J. 2013; 50 (3): 963-969

    Abstract

    Allen et al.'s results depend on their inclusion of children whose family at the time of their grade retention is unknown, plus adopted and foster children whose selection process into families is unknown. Children whose family has been through upheavals or transitions are less likely to make good progress in school than children from stable families. Children raised by stable same-sex couples do remarkably well in school.

    View details for DOI 10.1007/s13524-012-0170-4

    View details for Web of Science ID 000318815500009

    View details for PubMedID 23161455

  • Reply to Allen Demography Rosenfeld, M. 2013; 50 (3): 963-969
  • Searching for a Mate: The Rise of the Internet as a Social Intermediary AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW Rosenfeld, M. J., Thomas, R. J. 2012; 77 (4): 523-547
  • Review of Unhitched: Love, Marriage, and Family Values from West HOllywood to Western China - Judith Stacey Social Forces Rosenfeld, M. 2012
  • NONTRADITIONAL FAMILIES AND CHILDHOOD PROGRESS THROUGH SCHOOL DEMOGRAPHY Rosenfeld, M. J. 2010; 47 (3): 755-775

    Abstract

    luse U.S. census data to perform the first large-sample, nationally representative tests of outcomes for children raised by same-sex couples. The results show that children of same-sex couples are as likely to make normal progress through school as the children of most other family structures. Heterosexual married couples are the family type whose children have the lowest rates of grade retention, but the advantage of heterosexual married couples is mostly due to their higher socioeconomic status. Children ofallfamily types (including children ofsame-sex couples) are far more likely to make normal progress through school than are children living in group quarters (such as orphanages and shelters).

    View details for Web of Science ID 000280894900013

    View details for PubMedID 20879687

  • The Independence of Young Adults in Historical Perspective Family Therapy Rosenfeld, M. 2010; 9 (3): 17-19
  • STILL WEAK SUPPORT FOR STATUS-CASTE EXCHANGE: A REPLY TO CRITICS AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY Rosenfeld, M. J. 2010; 115 (4): 1264-1276
  • Racial, Educational and Religious Endogamy in the United States: A Comparative Historical Perspective SOCIAL FORCES Rosenfeld, M. J. 2008; 87 (1): 1-31
  • Intermarriage Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society Rosenfeld, M. edited by Schaefer, R. T. Sage Press. 2008: 736–739
  • Young adulthood as a factor in social change in the United States POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW Rosenfeld, M. J. 2006; 32 (1): 27-?
  • The independence of young adults and the rise of interracial and same-sex unions 98th Annual Meeting of the American-Sociological-Association Rosenfeld, M. J., Kim, B. S. AMER SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOC. 2005: 541–62
  • A critique of exchange theory in mate selection AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY Rosenfeld, M. J. 2005; 110 (5): 1284-1325
  • Measures of assimilation in the marriage market: Mexican Americans 1970-1990 JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY Rosenfeld, M. J. 2002; 64 (1): 152-162
  • The salience of pan-national Hispanic and Asian identities in US marriage markets DEMOGRAPHY Rosenfeld, M. J. 2001; 38 (2): 161-175

    Abstract

    In this paper I test whether "Hispanic" and "Asian" identities are salient in the U.S. marriage market. That is, I determine whether the different Asian and Hispanic national groups intermarry often enough to suggest that Asian and Hispanic pan-national identities are important. Analysis of census data from 1980 and 1990 suggests that both Hispanic and Asian pan-national identities are significant forces. Variations in the strength of pan-national Hispanic and Asian associations by region, education, and nativity are discussed.

    View details for Web of Science ID 000168802600003

    View details for PubMedID 11392905

  • Mexican Immigration, Occupational Niches and Labor Market Competition: Evidence from Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta, 1970-1990 Immigration and Opportunity: Race, Ethnicity and Employment in the United States Rosenfeld, M., Tienda, M. edited by Bean, F. D., Bell-Rose, S. New York: Russell Sage. 1999
  • Crossings: Mexican Immigration in Interdisciplinary Perspectives Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Rosenfeld, M. 1999; 25 (3): 545-546
  • Immigrant America: A portrait. (Book Review) ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE Book Review Authored by: Rosenfeld, M. J. 1998; 557: 186-186
  • Mexican Immigrants and Mexican American Political Assimilation Migration Between Mexico and the United States: Binational Study Rosenfeld, M. 1998: 1117-1132
  • Celebration, politics, selective looting and riots: A micro level study of the Bulls riot of 1992 in Chicago Rosenfeld, M. J. OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC. 1997: 483-502
  • Labor Market Implications of Mexican Migration: Economies of Scale, Innovation and Entrepreneurship At the Crossroads: Mexican Migration and U.S. Policy Rosenfeld, M., Tienda, M. edited by Bean, F. D. Rowman and Littlefield. 1997: 177–200
  • Celebration, Politics, Looting and Riots: A Micro Level Analysis of the Bulls Riot of 1992 in Chicago Social Problems Rosenfeld, M. 1997; 44: 483-502