JULIA McQUILLAN, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Sociology
706 Oldfather Hall
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0324
(402) 472-6616

Biography

Dr. McQuillan is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Director of the Bureau of Sociological Research. She is also Acting Director, 2005-2007, of the Survey Research, Statistics and Psychometrics Core Facility. She earned her PhD at the University of Connecticut in 1998. While there she worked as a Research Assistant, primarily on a longitudinal Rheumatoid Arthritis project, and as Assistant to the Director of Research for Family Medicine. Prior to leaving that position they were working on a project to improve the care of Asthma among children in low-income families. While in graduate school she started a project with another graduate student, Sue Williams. They interviewed 24 girls who had just finished 8th grade. At the time they were interested in how the girls learned to be women (we called this "trying on gender/femininity"), if they had eating issues, how they thought about political issues, and their sense of self esteem.

Dr. McQuillan's dissertation research focused on two-earner couples; specifically she analyzed relationships between couple power relations, the division of household labor, perceptions of equity, and psychological distress. Most of her publications have been gender and/or health related. Since coming to Nebraska she has started a new research program focusing on the social and behavioral consequences of infertility. She enjoys collaborative work and recently finished a project with Dr. Connie Chapple comparing the fit of the general theory of crime to boys 'and girls' data. She is part of a team of researchers who submitted an NICHD grant to collect longitudinal data on infertility. Dr. McQuillan teaches courses on family (Marriage and Family, Family seminar, Family diversity), and in the areas central to her training (social psychology, sociology of women, gender seminar, research methods, and advanced research methods).

Recent Publications

Journal Articles

Jacob, M. C., McQuillan, J., & Griel, A. L. (2007). Psychological distress by type of fertility barrier. Human Reproduction, 22, 885-894.

McQuillan, J., Griel, A. L., & Torres Stone, R. A. (2007). Infertility and life satisfaction among women. Journal of Family Issues, 28, 955-981.

Stone, R. T., & McQuillan, J. (2006). Beyond Hispanic/Latino: The importance of ethnicity-specific earnings analyses. Social Science Research.

White, L, & McQuillan, J. (2006). No longer intending: The relationship between relinquished fertility intentions and distress. Journal of Marriage and Family, 68, 478-490.

White, L., McQuillan, J., & Greil, A. L. (2006). Explaining disparities in infertility. Fertility & Sterility, 85, 853-857.

White, L., McQuillan, J., Greil, A. L., & Johnson, D. R. (2006). Infertility: Testing a helpseeking model. Social Science & Medicine, 62, 1031-1041.

McGinnis, L., McQuillan, J., & Chapple, C. (2005). I just want to play: Women and golf. Sociology of Sport & Social Issues, 29, 313-337.

Fifield, J., McQuillan, J., Armelli, S., Tennan, H., Reisine, S., & Affleck, G. (2005). Strain, daily work stress and pain in workers with rheumatoid arthritis: Do job characteristics make a bad day worse? Work & Stress, 18, 275-291.

Chapple, C., McQuillan, J., & Berdahl, T. (2005). Gender, social bonds and delinquency: A comparison of boys' and girls' models. Social Science Research, 35, 357-383.

Greil, A. L., & McQuillan, J. (2004). Help-seeking patterns among U.S. women. The Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 22, 305-319.

McQuillan, J., Greil, A. L., White, L., & Jacob, M. C. (2003). Frustrated fertility: Infertility and psychological distress among women. Journal of Marriage and Family, 65, 1007-1018.

Research Projects