Arland Thornton

Affiliated Programs:

Developmental Idealism Studies

Funded Research:

Documenting Distribution and Trends of Developmental Idealism in Nepali Textbooks (PSC Initiatives Fund)

Demography, Family, and Developmental Idealism in the World’s Textbooks (Freedman)

Television and International Family Change: A Randomized Experiment (NICHD)

Innovative Methods for Obtaining Survey Data from Migrants (NICHD)

Migrants to the Gulf Cooperation Countries: Values, Behaviors, and Plans (Georgetown University)

Cross-national Variations and Trends in Islamic Fundamentalism (ONR)

Ideational Influences on Marriage and Childbearing (NICHD)

Intergenerational Influences on Family Formation in a Changing Social Context (NICHD)

Determinants of Marriage and Childbearing Attitudes (NICHD)

Ph.D., University of Michigan

Arland Thornton is Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan, where he is also a Research Professor at the Population Studies Center and Survey Research Center. He is a social demographer who has served as president of the Population Association of America and currently holds a MERIT award from the National Institutes of Health. For much of his career, Thornton has focused on the study of family and demographic issues, with a particular emphasis on marriage, cohabitation, divorce, childbearing, intergenerational relations, and gender roles. He has received four awards for his books as well as a distinguished career award from the American Sociological Association. During the past decade Thornton has devoted considerable time and energy studying developmental idealism and its influence in many areas of the world. His 2001 presidential address to the Population Association of America focused on this topic, as does his award-winning book entitled Reading History Sideways: the Fallacy and Enduring Impact of the Developmental Paradigm on Family Life. Of particular importance for Thornton’s current work are the ways in which values, beliefs, and people have been and are being distributed around the world. His work (in collaboration with others) has involved conceptualization, measurement, and analysis of data from several countries, including Albania, Argentina, Bulgaria, China, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Malawi, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, the U.S., and Vietnam.

Recent Publications

Books

Jayakody, Rukmalie, Arland Thornton, and William Axinn. (Eds). 2008. International Family Change: Ideational Perspectives. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum. Abstract.

Thornton, Arland, William Axinn, and Yu Xie. 2007. Marriage and Cohabitation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Abstract.

Thornton, Arland. 2005. Reading History Sideways: the Fallacy and Enduring Impact of the Developmental Paradigm on Family Life. Chicago, IL : University of Chicago Press. Abstract.

Journal Articles

Thornton, Arland, Georgina Binstock, Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, Dirgha Ghimire, Arjan Gjonca, Attila Melegh, Colter Mitchell, Mansoor Moaddel, Yu Xie, Li-Shou Yang, Linda Young-DeMarco, and Kathryn Yount. 2012. "Knowledge and Beliefs about National Development and Developmental Hierarchies: the Viewpoints of Ordinary People in Thirteen Countries." Social Science Research, 41(5): 1053-1068. PMCID: PMC3462366. DOI. Abstract.

Thornton, Arland, Dirgha Ghimire, and Colter Mitchell. 2012. "The measurement and prevalence of an ideational model of family and economic development in Nepal." Population Studies, 66(3): 329-345. PMCID: PMC3505987. DOI. Abstract.

Xie, Yu, Arland Thornton, Guangzhou Wang, and Qing Lai. 2012. "Societal Projection: Beliefs Concerning the Relationship between Development and Inequality in China." Social Science Research, 41(5): 1069-1084. PMCID: PMC3461180. DOI.

Abbasi-Shavazi, Mohammad Jalal, Abbas Askari-Nodoushan, and Arland Thornton. 2012. "Family Life and Developmental Idealism in Yazd, Iran." Demographic Research, 26: 207-238. PMCID: PMC3430141.

Thornton, Arland, Georgina Binstock, Kathryn M. Yount, Mohammad Abbasi-Shavazi, Dirgha Ghimire, and Yu Xie. 2012. "International Fertility Change: New Data and Insights from the Developmental Idealism Framework." Demography, 49(2): 677-698. PMCID: PMC3328099. DOI. Abstract.

Melegh, Attila, Arland Thornton, Dimiter Philipov, and Linda Young-DeMarco. 2012. "Perceptions of societal developmental hierarchies in Europe and beyond: A Bulgarian Perspective." European Sociological Review, Online Access. NIHMSID: NIHMS351012. DOI. Abstract.

Thornton, Arland. 2009. "Framework for Interpreting Long-Term Trends in Values and Beliefs Concerning Single-Parent Families." Journal of Marriage and Family, 71(2): 230-234. DOI. Abstract.

View additional select publications of Arland Thornton