Elena G van Stee
Hello! I’m a PhD Candidate in Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and a visiting scholar at Harvard University. I’m also the blog editor for Contexts, the American Sociological Association’s public-facing magazine.
I study how parents and children understand their roles and how cultural and structural factors shape these understandings. My dissertation, recipient of the Eastern Sociological Society’s 2024 Coser Dissertation Proposal Award, analyzes how U.S. college graduates in their late 20s and early 30s negotiate financial relationships with their parents. Drawing on 140+ interviews with young adults and parents, I examine the moral meanings both generations attach to financial (in)dependence. This project expands on insights from two previous studies examining young adult help-seeking amidst COVID-19 educational disruptions. The first, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, reveals how social class divides in college students’ expectations for parents’ roles gave rise to divergent coping strategies I termed “privileged dependence” and “precarious autonomy.” The second, published in Socius with collaborators Arielle Kuperberg and Joan Maya Mazelis, considers this issue from a life course perspective, revealing how young adults’ primary “safety net” shifts from parents to romantic partners over time. This research has been supported by the Institute of Education Sciences and the Russell Sage Foundation.
In other projects, I’ve explored inequality, morality, and meaning-making through the lens of race/ethnicity and religion. My article in the Annual Review of Sociology with Wendy Roth and Alejandra Regla-Vargas examines how people understand racial categories and why these interpretations matter. An article forthcoming in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (with Melissa Wilde and Tessa Huttenlocher) documents historical wealth disparities among U.S. religious groups, and another forthcoming in Socius (with Alanna Gillis) uncovers the racially disparate consequences of color-blind university policies. An ongoing project with Evan Stewart examines racial differences in religious influences on vaccine hesitancy. My earlier work examined multifaith chaplaincy on elite college campuses (with Wendy Cadge) and interfaith dialogue following the 2016 presidential election (with Roman Williams).
Supervisors: Wendy Roth, Hyunjoon Park, Emily Hannum, and Michèle Lamont
I study how parents and children understand their roles and how cultural and structural factors shape these understandings. My dissertation, recipient of the Eastern Sociological Society’s 2024 Coser Dissertation Proposal Award, analyzes how U.S. college graduates in their late 20s and early 30s negotiate financial relationships with their parents. Drawing on 140+ interviews with young adults and parents, I examine the moral meanings both generations attach to financial (in)dependence. This project expands on insights from two previous studies examining young adult help-seeking amidst COVID-19 educational disruptions. The first, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, reveals how social class divides in college students’ expectations for parents’ roles gave rise to divergent coping strategies I termed “privileged dependence” and “precarious autonomy.” The second, published in Socius with collaborators Arielle Kuperberg and Joan Maya Mazelis, considers this issue from a life course perspective, revealing how young adults’ primary “safety net” shifts from parents to romantic partners over time. This research has been supported by the Institute of Education Sciences and the Russell Sage Foundation.
In other projects, I’ve explored inequality, morality, and meaning-making through the lens of race/ethnicity and religion. My article in the Annual Review of Sociology with Wendy Roth and Alejandra Regla-Vargas examines how people understand racial categories and why these interpretations matter. An article forthcoming in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (with Melissa Wilde and Tessa Huttenlocher) documents historical wealth disparities among U.S. religious groups, and another forthcoming in Socius (with Alanna Gillis) uncovers the racially disparate consequences of color-blind university policies. An ongoing project with Evan Stewart examines racial differences in religious influences on vaccine hesitancy. My earlier work examined multifaith chaplaincy on elite college campuses (with Wendy Cadge) and interfaith dialogue following the 2016 presidential election (with Roman Williams).
Supervisors: Wendy Roth, Hyunjoon Park, Emily Hannum, and Michèle Lamont
less
InterestsView All (6)
Uploads
Articles by Elena G van Stee
Background: The mechanisms through which parents transmit class advantages to children are often hidden from view and therefore remain imperfectly understood. This study uses the case of the COVID-19 pandemic to examine how young adults from different social class backgrounds expect, negotiate, and attach meaning to parental support.
Method: This study draws from in-depth interviews with 48 Black and White upper-middle and working-class undergraduates from a single elite university, along with 10 of their mothers.
Results: Facing pandemic-related disruptions, upper-middle-class students typically sought substantial direction and material assistance from parents. In contrast, working-class students typically assumed more responsibility for their own—and sometimes other family members’—well-being. These classed patterns of “privileged dependence” and “precarious autonomy” were shaped by students’ understandings of family members’ authority, needs, and responsibilities.
Conclusion: Upper-middle-class students’ greater dependence on parents functioned as a protective force, enabling them to benefit from parents’ material and academic support during the transition to remote instruction. These short-term protections may yield long-term payoffs denied their working-class peers. Beyond the immediate context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the concepts of “privileged dependence” and “precarious autonomy” offer scholars a set of theoretical tools for understanding class inequality in other young adult contexts.
Book Chapters by Elena G van Stee
Book Reviews by Elena G van Stee
Background: The mechanisms through which parents transmit class advantages to children are often hidden from view and therefore remain imperfectly understood. This study uses the case of the COVID-19 pandemic to examine how young adults from different social class backgrounds expect, negotiate, and attach meaning to parental support.
Method: This study draws from in-depth interviews with 48 Black and White upper-middle and working-class undergraduates from a single elite university, along with 10 of their mothers.
Results: Facing pandemic-related disruptions, upper-middle-class students typically sought substantial direction and material assistance from parents. In contrast, working-class students typically assumed more responsibility for their own—and sometimes other family members’—well-being. These classed patterns of “privileged dependence” and “precarious autonomy” were shaped by students’ understandings of family members’ authority, needs, and responsibilities.
Conclusion: Upper-middle-class students’ greater dependence on parents functioned as a protective force, enabling them to benefit from parents’ material and academic support during the transition to remote instruction. These short-term protections may yield long-term payoffs denied their working-class peers. Beyond the immediate context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the concepts of “privileged dependence” and “precarious autonomy” offer scholars a set of theoretical tools for understanding class inequality in other young adult contexts.