Meet our faculty: Deadric Williams
Deadric Williams joined the Department of Sociology as an assistant professor during Fall 2016. He completed his Ph.D. in Sociology at UNL in 2014, and then was a postdoctoral research associated as part of the Minority Health Disparities Initiative from 2014-2016, as well as a visiting scholar at the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2016.
Dr. Williams is an expert in family, race, and health. His work examines the reciprocal influence that partners in families have on each other, their health, and relationship outcomes. He is also examining how racial stratification persists and influences health and relationships among African American couples. Dr. Williams’ recent innovative data collection examines physiological measurements and salivary biomarkers from African American couples over 14 consecutive days. This project will provide new and important insights into how discrimination and other stressors get “under the skin.” Since starting as an assistant professor, his research has appeared in journals including Family Relations and Society and Mental Health.
Recent important findings by Dr. Williams show, using longitudinal data, (a) parents’ depression is associated with decreased coparenting perceptions for both mothers and fathers, and the effects endure over time; (b) fathers’ depression was also associated with mothers’ perceptions of cooperative coparenting over the later years; and (c) differences between mothers and fathers emerged only during the early years, with the effect of depression on coparenting being larger for fathers than mothers. The results not only highlight the importance of both parents’ mental health on coparenting but also the added role fathers’ depression plays in shaping their own and their partners’ perceptions of the coparenting relationship.
Dr. Williams regularly teaches Introduction to Sociology (SOCI 101) to the William H. Thompson Scholars Learning Community, Family Diversity (SOCI 448/848), Social Problems (SOCI 201) and graduate level seminars in his areas of expertise.
We are so glad to have Dr. Deadric Williams as part of UNL Sociology!
