Alex Sheridan
I am currently a student of the European Doctoral School of Demography (EDSD), hosted by Institut National d’Études Démographiques (INED). I’m sponsored by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research.
I’m mainly interested in inequalities in childhood. I’ve participated in cross-country projects investigating possible factors that influence disparities in child development, including, but not limited to: parental socioeconomic status, tracking at school, family structure, parenting styles, gender.
Most often, I adopt a longitudinal approach with survey data. Datasets I’m most familiar with include Étude Longitudinale Française depuis l’Enfance (Elfe), Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), Direction de l’évaluation, de la prospective et de la performance (DEPP), European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), and Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).
Publications
2024
Dräger, J., Washbrook, E., Schneider, T., Akabayashi, H., Keizer, R., Solaz, A., Waldfogel, J., de la Rie, S., Kameyama, Y., Kwon, S. J., Nozaki, K., Perinetti Casoni, V., Sano, S., Sheridan A. & Shikishima, C. (2024). “Cross-national differences in socioeconomic achievement inequality in early primary school: The role of parental education and income in six countries.” AERA Open. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584241299794
Solaz A., Panico L., Sheridan A., Dräger J., Schneider T., Olczyk M., Washbrook E., Perinetti Casoni V., Kwon S., & Waldfogel J. (2024). “Does Family Structure Account for Child Achievement Gaps by Parental Education? Findings for England, France, Germany and the United States.” Population and Development Review. https://doi.org/10.1111/padr.12623
Berger, L., Panico L., Sheridan A., Thévenon O. (2024). “Parental emotional support and adolescent well-being: A cross-national examination of socio-economic and gender gaps based on PISA 2018 surveys”, OECD Papers on Well-being and Inequalities, No. 20, OECD Publishing, Paris. https://doi.org/10.1787/2b7a2ac6-en
2023
Dräger, J., Schneider, T., Olczyk, M., Solaz, A., Sheridan, A., Washbrook, E., Perinetti Casoni, V, Kwon S. J., & Waldfogel, J. (2023). “The relevance of tracking and social school composition for growing achievement gaps by parental education in lower secondary school: a longitudinal analysis in France, Germany, the United States, and England.” European Sociological Review. https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcad076
Presentations
2025
Population Association of America 2025 Annual Meeting, Washington DC, April 2025. Poster. “Covid-19 and Health-Related Behaviours: How Did Contextual and Individual Experiences of Deprivation Affect Health-Related Behaviours During the Covid-19 Pandemic in England?
16th Conference of Young Demographers, Prague, February 2025. Poster. “Do Parents Parent Boys and Girls Differently? On the Way to Understanding Gender Gaps in Child Development in the UK, the US, France, and Germany.”
2024
Early Career Scholars’ Master Class on Families and Child Development and Well-being, Edinburgh, June 2024. Oral presentation. “Sex Differentials in Early Childhood Hygiene: A Comparative Study of France and of the UK.”
European Population Conference, Edinburgh, June 2024. Poster. “Sex Differentials in Early Childhood Hygiene: A Comparative Study of France and of the UK.”
Séminaire Jeunes Chercheurs, Ined, March 2024. Oral presentation. “Sex Differentials in Early Childhood Hygiene: A Comparative Study of France and of the UK.”
2023
Policy Evaluation and Research Unit lunch seminar, Manchester, November 2023. Oral presentation. “Comparative work on toilet training in France and in the UK: gender and social variations.”
Children of the noughties: a conference to celebrate 21 years of the Millennium Cohort Study, London, June 2023. Oral presentation. “Parental care during the first year of life: gender and social variations in practices and tastes.”
Books and research
