About

William G. Axinn is a professor affiliated with the University of Michigan's Department of Sociology. His research interests include Family, Life Course, and Society; Demography; International Sociology; Mixed Methods; Social Psychology and Interaction; and Sociology Education. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1990. Axinn has contributed to the understanding of union formation, particularly focusing on marriage and cohabitation, examining why people marry at certain times and why some couples choose to cohabit. His work situates these questions within the broader context of the Western world's 500-year history of marriage, providing insights into the factors that influence union formation and stability.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Sociology
• Medicine
• Psychiatry
• Clinical psychology
• Environmental health
• Developmental psychology
• Political Science
• Economics
• Geography
• Computer Science
• Mathematics
• Social psychology
• Operations management
• Law
• Demography
• Gerontology
• Engineering
• Demographic economics
• Medical emergency
• Applied psychology
• Gender studies
• Statistics

Selected publications

• Bias in hair cortisol measures for psychological stress: Self vs. professional collection

  Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026-01-31

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Prevalence, persistence, and severity of 12-month and 30-day DSM-5 disorders in the World Mental Health Hong Kong Study

  The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific · 2025-11-26

  articleOpen access

  Background: The World Mental Health Hong Kong (WMHHK) Study aims to estimate 12-month and 30-day prevalence, persistence, severity, and correlates of DSM-5 anxiety, mood, and externalising disorders in Hong Kong, a densely populated city impacted by consecutive population-level stressors, including social unrest and the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Face-to-face interviews, either in-person or video-based online, were conducted from November 2022 to March 2024 with a population-representative sample of 3053 adults aged 18 years and above. Diagnostic assessment utilised the World Mental Health Composite International Diagnostic Interview for DSM-5 (CIDI-5), evaluating ten mental disorders: anxiety (panic disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive and related disorders), mood (major depressive disorder, persistent depressive disorder, bipolar spectrum disorders), and externalising (intermittent explosive disorder, alcohol use disorder, substance use disorder) disorders. Persistence was defined as 12-month prevalence among lifetime cases and 30-day prevalence among 12-month cases. Sociodemographic correlates were analysed using multivariable logistic regression. Findings: Twelve-month and 30-day prevalence of any DSM-5 mental disorder were 10.6% (95% CI: 9.5-11.8) and 7.8% (95% CI: 6.7-8.9), respectively. Twelve-month prevalence was highest for anxiety disorders (8.0%, 95% CI: 7.1-8.9), followed by mood (4.3%, 95% CI: 3.4-5.2) and externalising (1.7%, 95% CI: 0.9-2.4) disorders. Twelve-month persistence among lifetime cases was 49.0%, overall and higher for anxiety (55.6%) than mood (39.0%) or externalising (35.3%) disorders. Younger and middle-aged adults, and who were not currently married, had elevated risks, while lower education was associated with greater disorder severity. Comorbidity was associated with increased persistence and severity across disorders. Interpretation: This study shows a substantial mental health burden in Hong Kong during the post-pandemic period, highlighting the need for tailored public mental health programmes to address urban stressors in this unique context. Funding: WYNG Foundation, Hong Kong; State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China; Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The unexpected death of a loved one and risk for onset of PTSD and depression in the Nepal Chitwan Valley Family Study

  Journal of Affective Disorders · 2025-10-28

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  PublisherDOI

• Parental depression and their children's marriage timing: The long-term consequences of parental mental disorders

  Social Science & Medicine · 2024-03-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Early-life risk factors for depression among young adults in the United States general population: Attributable risks and gender differences

  Journal of Affective Disorders · 2024-07-25 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Pandemic changes in U.S. contraceptive use: National survey estimates reveal significant differences by demographic subgroups

  Contraception · 2024-10-04 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• W98. GENETIC ARCHITECTURE AND POLYGENIC PREDICTION OF ALCOHOL USE DISORDER IN NEPAL

  European Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024-10-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Genetic architecture and socio-environmental risk factors for major depressive disorder in Nepal

  Psychological Medicine · 2024-08-01 · 7 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is the leading cause of disability globally, with moderate heritability and well-established socio-environmental risk factors. Genetic studies have been mostly restricted to European settings, with polygenic scores (PGS) demonstrating low portability across diverse global populations. METHODS: This study examines genetic architecture, polygenic prediction, and socio-environmental correlates of MDD in a family-based sample of 10 032 individuals from Nepal with array genotyping data. We used genome-based restricted maximum likelihood to estimate heritability, applied S-LDXR to estimate the cross-ancestry genetic correlation between Nepalese and European samples, and modeled PGS trained on a GWAS meta-analysis of European and East Asian ancestry samples. RESULTS: ). Our analysis was underpowered to estimate the cross-ancestry genetic correlation (rg = 0.26, 95% CI -0.29 to 0.81). MDD risk was associated with higher age (beta = 0.071, 95% CI 0.06-0.08), female sex (beta = 0.160, 95% CI 0.15-0.17), and childhood exposure to potentially traumatic events (beta = 0.050, 95% CI 0.03-0.07), while neither the depression PGS (beta = 0.004, 95% CI -0.004 to 0.01) or its interaction with childhood trauma (beta = 0.007, 95% CI -0.01 to 0.03) were strongly associated with MDD. CONCLUSIONS: Estimates of lifetime MDD heritability in this Nepalese sample were similar to previous European ancestry samples, but PGS trained on European data did not predict MDD in this sample. This may be due to differences in ancestry-linked causal variants, differences in depression phenotyping between the training and target data, or setting-specific environmental factors that modulate genetic effects. Additional research among under-represented global populations will ensure equitable translation of genomic findings.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Intergenerational associations of maternal depression with daughters' family formation

  Journal of Marriage and the Family · 2024-08-15

  articleOpen access

  Objective: This work investigates the potential associations between maternal major depressive disorder (MDD) and daughters' family formation behaviors, specifically the timing of marriage and first birth. Background: Family and life course research has established the importance of intergenerational ties and linked lives for children's health, education, social life, and transition to adulthood more broadly. However, mothers' MDD has remained a relatively understudied factor shaping young people's family formation behaviors. Method: The analyses used a sample of 1,127 linked mother-father-daughter triads from the Chitwan Valley Family Study (CVFS) in Nepal. Discrete-time event-history models at the month-level were run to assess whether daughters' differential exposure to maternal MDD was prospectively associated with entry into marital unions and parenthood. Results: Although there was no relationship between maternal lifetime MDD and daughters' family formation, results showed that being first exposed to maternal MDD during childhood, specifically between the ages of 0 and 10, increased the monthly odds of transitioning to parenthood by more than 80%. Additional findings showed that an increased pace of getting married was a primary determinant of accelerated childbearing. Conclusion: Daughters' exposure to mothers' depression was associated with daughters' family formation transitions. The timing of exposure, however, was a particularly important driver of that association. We argue that the study of parents' mental ill-health provides untapped opportunity for future intergenerational research.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Toward a New Approach to Creating Population-Representative Data for Demographic Research

  Demography · 2024-12-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  The evaluation of innovative web-based data collection methods that are convenient for the general public and that yield high-quality scientific information for demographic researchers has become critical. Web-based methods are crucial for researchers with nationally representative research objectives but without the resources of larger organizations. The web mode is appealing because it is inexpensive relative to in-person and telephone modes, and it affords a high level of privacy. We evaluate a sequential mixed-mode web/mail data collection, conducted with a national probability sample of U.S. adults from 2020 to 2022. The survey topics focus on reproductive health and family formation. We compare estimates from this survey to those obtained from a face-to-face national survey of population reproductive health: the 2017-2019 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG). This comparison allows for maximum design complexity, including a complex household screening operation (to identify households with persons aged 18-49). We evaluate the ability of this national web/mail data collection approach to (1) recruit a representative sample of U.S. persons aged 18-49; (2) replicate key survey estimates based on the NSFG, considering expected effects of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and the alternative modes on the estimates; (3) reduce complex sample design effects relative to the NSFG; and (4) reduce the costs per completed survey.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01HD032912

  NIH · $5.3M · 2013

• NIH Grant R01HD033551

  NIH · $4.9M · 2012

• PIRE Collaborative Research and Training in Social Context, Population Processes, and Environmental Change

  NSF · $2.5M · 2007–2014

• Understanding the Connections among Genes, Environment, Family Processes, and Mental Health

  NIH · $3.5M · 2017–2023

• NIH Grant R21DA024186

  NIH · $1.2M · 2012

Frequent coauthors

• Dirgha J. Ghimire

  66 shared

• Arland Thornton

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  37 shared

• Jordan W. Smoller

  Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research

  24 shared

• Jennifer S. Barber

  Indiana University Bloomington

  21 shared

• Brady T. West

  Joe Andruzzi Foundation

  20 shared

• Lisa D. Pearce

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  16 shared

• Karmel W. Choi

  Massachusetts General Hospital

  16 shared

• James Wagner

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  16 shared