Yiwen Wang
Dissertation Research
My dissertation explores how gender, stress, and relationship dynamics unfold to affect sexual minorities’ health over time. Although the United States has witnessed significant social, legal, and demographic changes concerning sexual minority families over the past several decades, critical gaps remain in our understanding of relationship dynamics and well-being of sexual minority families. How does sexual minorities’ health change over time? How do gender, stress, and relationship dynamics shape the process? To answer these questions, I draw on three longitudinal datasets (SIPP; Add Health; HARP) to investigate 1) same-sex union and health changes; 2) relationship biographies and health changes among sexual minorities; and 3) stress, marital dynamics, and cognitive health in midlife same-sex and different-sex couples.
Publications
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters
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Wang, Yiwen, Hye Won Chai, Debra Umberson, and Sara Mernitz. 2025. “The Gendered Sexual Experiences and Marital Quality of Middle-Aged Same-Sex and Different-Sex Couples.” Archives of Sexual Behavior.
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Coffey, Diane, Yiwen Wang, and Aashish Gupta. 2025. “A Gender Gap in Happiness: Documenting a Puzzle from Indian Survey Data.” Asian Population Studies.
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Wang, Yiwen. 2024. “Who’s Worried? Memory, Worries About Dementia, and Marital Strain in Midlife Same- and Different-Sex Marriages: A Dyadic Perspective.” The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 79(8).
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Wang, Yiwen, and Hui Liu. 2024. “A National Longitudinal Study of Same-Sex Partnership and Self-Rated Health Trajectories.” Annals of LGBTQ Public and Population Health.
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Wang, Yiwen and Debra Umberson. 2023. “Dyadic Coping and Marital Quality in Same-Sex and Different-Sex Marriages.” Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.
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Wang, Yiwen. 2022. “Marital Stress, Childhood Adversity, and Emotion Work in Same-Sex and Different-Sex Marriages.” Journal of Family Studies.
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Wang, Yiwen. 2022. “Self-Rated Health Changes of Individuals in Same-Sex Compared to Different-Sex Relationships: A Longitudinal Study.” BMC Public Health 22(1).
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Wang, Yiwen, and Hui Liu. Forthcoming. “Sexual Orientation and Health Behavior.” In Handbook of Social Epidemiology, edited by Terrence D. Hill, Tarani Chandola, and Ginny Garcia-Alexander.
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Chai, Hye Won, Yiwen Wang, and Debra Umberson. Forthcoming. “Health-Related Correlates of Longitudinal Changes in Sexual Experiences Among Midlife Same-sex and Different-sex Couples.” In International Handbook on the Demography of Sexuality, edited by Amanda K. Baumle and Zelma Oyarvide Tuthill.
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Wang, Yiwen, and Debra Umberson. 2024. “Long-Term Same-Sex Couples.” In The Sage Encyclopedia of LGBTQ+ STUDIES, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc., 2024.
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Wang, Yiwen, and Daniel A. Powers. 2020. "Conditional Logit Model." In Sage Research Methods Foundations, edited by Paul Atkinson, Sara Delamont, Alexandru Cernat, Joseph W. Sakshaug, and Richard A. Williams. London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2020.