Publications

2016
Clair M, Daniel C, Lamont M. Destigmatization and Health: Cultural Constructions and the Long-Term Reduction of Stigma. Social Science and Medicine. 2016;165 :223–232. Publisher's Version
Economic Constraints on Taste Formation and the True Cost of Healthy Eating. Social Science & Medicine. 2016;148 :34-41. Publisher's VersionAbstract

This article shows how an interaction between economic constraints and children's taste preferences shapes low-income families' food decisions. According to studies of eating behavior, children often refuse unfamiliar foods 8 to 15 times before accepting them. Using 80 interviews and 41 grocery-shopping observations with 73 primary caregivers in the Boston area in 2013–2015, I find that many low-income respondents minimize the risk of food waste by purchasing what their children like—often calorie-dense, nutrient-poor foods. High-income study participants, who have greater resources to withstand the cost of uneaten food, are more likely to repeatedly introduce foods that their children initially refuse. Several conditions moderate the relationship between children's taste aversion and respondents' risk aversion, including household-level food preferences, respondents' conceptions of adult authority, and children's experiences outside of the home. Low-income participants' risk aversion may affect children's taste acquisition and eating habits, with implications for socioeconomic disparities in diet quality. This article proposes that the cost of providing children a healthy diet may include the possible cost of foods that children waste as they acquire new tastes.

2015
Changing Childrearing Beliefs Among Indigenous Rural-to-Urban Migrants in El Alto, Bolivia. Sociological Forum. 2015;30 (4) :949-970. Publisher's VersionAbstract

Sociologists have long noted that childrearing shapes young people’s life chances. Worldwide, rural-to-urban migration is growing, yet we know little about whether or how migrants adopt new childrearing beliefs during this rapid social transformation. Using interviews with 63 parents and ethnographic observation at a public school, I examine how rural-to-urban migration affects the childrearing beliefs of indigenous peasants who move to the city of El Alto, Bolivia. Many migrants reject rural childrearing’s reliance on corporal punishment and limited verbal communication, instead embracing more open communication, limited physical punishment, and parentchild trust. Urban organizations and social ties expose parents to a new childrearing model, and parents find this model credible when they observe that it buffers children from urban dangers that threaten young people’s mobility chances. Adopting urban childrearing ultimately entails accepting an underlying model of children’s agency, wherein children need internal motivation instead of external impulsion. This case shows that individuals’ childrearing beliefs are more malleable than previous sociological studies suggest. I close with policy implications for parental education and child well-being initiatives. 

2011
Daniel C, Arzoglou E, Lamont M. European Workers: Meaning-Making Beings. Research in the Sociology of Work. 2011;22 :287–312. Publisher's Version
Stuber J, Klugman J, Daniel C. Gender, Social Class, and Exclusion: Collegiate Peer Cultures and Social Reproduction. Sociological Perspectives. 2011;54 :431–451. Publisher's Version