Feinian Chen received her PhD in sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2001 and was trained in social demography at the Carolina Population Center. Before joining Johns Hopkins University, she was on the Sociology faculty at University of Maryland, College Park for twelve years.

Her research crosscuts a range of areas in demography, family sociology, gender, aging, and quantitative methodology. Her main research interests include intergenerational relations, women's work and family, population aging and health. Her work has been published in Annual Review of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Demography, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Journal of Marriage and Family, and Sociological Methods and Research. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Hewlett Foundation. She is actively engaged in research in family transitions, gender dynamics, and their health implications in the diverse contexts of China, India, the Philippines, and the U.S.

Family Demography (undergraduate)

Selected Publications in the past five years:
Desai, Sonalde, Feinian Chen, Shilpa Reddy, and Amy McLaughlin. 2022. “Measuring
Women’s Empowerment in the Global South.” Annual Review of Sociology 48: 507-527.

Luo, Weixiang and Feinian Chen. 2021. “The Salience of Religion under an Atheist
State: Implications for Subjective Well-Being in Contemporary China.” Social Forces 100 (2): 852-878.

Chen, Feinian, Ke Shen, and Hangqing Ruan. 2021. “The Mixed Blessing of Living
Together or Close by: Parent-child Relationship Quality and Life Satisfaction of Older Adults in China.” Demographic Research 44: 563-594.

Lin, Zhiyong, Sonalde Desai, and Feinian Chen. 2020. “The Emergence of Educational
Hypogamy in India.” Demography 57(4) 1215-1240.

Ye, Jing, and Feinian Chen. 2020. "Better A Friend Nearby than A Brother Far away?
The Health Implications of Foreign Domestic Workers’ Family and Friendship Networks." American Behavioral Scientist 64(6):765-783.

Chen, Feinian, Zhiyong Lin, Luoman Bao, Zachary Zimmer, Socorro Gultiano, Judith
B. Borja. 2019. “Time-use Profiles, Chronic Role Overload, and Women’s Body Weight Trajectories from Middle to Later Life in the Philippines.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 60:119-136.

Tong, Yuying, Feinian Chen and Wenyang Su. 2019. “Living Arrangements and Older
Adults' Labor Force Participation in Hong Kong, 1986-2016.” Social Science and Medicine 229 (May 2019): 50-59.

Kriti Vikram, Feinian Chen, and Sonalde Desai. 2018. “Mothers’ Work Patterns and
Children’s Cognitive Skills: Evidence from the India Human Development Survey.” Social Science Research 72: 207-224.

Chen, Feinian, Luoman Bao, Zachery Zimmer, Zhiyong Lin, Socorro Gultiano, Judith B. Borja. 2018. “Double Burden for Women in Mid and Later Life: Evidence from Time Use Profiles in Cebu, Philippines.” Ageing and Society 38 (11): 2325-2355.