Kathleen Harris
University of North Carolina
Kathleen Mullan Harris is Professor of Sociology and a Fellow at the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Harris brings expertise in both the substantive topic and the data proposed for analysis in this project. She has been a Co-PI on the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) since its first program project in 1994, and is now the Director of Add Health. Harris designed the Add Health Wave III instrument that collects data on male (and female) fertility. Those data include a complete relationship and pregnancy history for men and women in which pregnancies and pregnancy outcomes are recorded in the context of relationships, enhancing the quality of fertility data, especially for men.
A central theme of Harris’ research has been the study of adolescent sexual behavior, contraceptive use, and childbearing, using longitudinal data and focusing on the interrelationships with other life course domains. A second strand of her research has studied the patterns, determinants, and consequences of father involvement. Her recent work in Add Health has examined adolescent sexual behavior and pregnancy events and patterns and determinants of father involvement among both resident and nonresident fathers.
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