Matthew Andersson

Education

Ph.D. Sociology, The University of Iowa, 2014
M.A. Sociology. The University of Iowa, 2011
B.A. Chemistry, Knox College, Summa Cum Laude, 2008
B.A. Psychology. Knox College, Summa Cum Laude, 2008

Biography

Dr. Matthew Andersson joined the Baylor faculty in 2016 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University and a Presidential Graduate Research Fellowship at The University of Iowa. He researches health inequalities across the life course through a social-psychological lens. His work has appeared in numerous social science and population health journals. In The Science of Dignity (with Steven Hitlin; Oxford University Press, 2023),  he integrates classic and contemporary treatments of dignity and uses them to position dignity as a public health concern affected by resources and stressors, drawing on multiple years of recent data collected by Gallup that offer innovative measurement of subjective dignity and its relationship to well-being. 

His current and past editorial board positions include Social Science Research, Social Science & Medicine, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, Society and Mental Health, and Journal of Health and Social Behavior.  In 2008, his poetry manuscript was a finalist for the First Book Award at Tupelo Press. He enjoys reading and revising across disciplines and believes in the power of movement and exercise.

Recent Publications

Froese, Paul, Rebecca Bonhag, Jeremy Uecker, Matthew A. Andersson, and Laura Upenieks. Forthcoming. “Prayer and Mental Well-Being in the United States: An Overview of Original and Comprehensive Prayer Data.” Journal of Religion and Health.

Andersson, Matthew A., Renae Wilkinson, and Vida Maralani. 2024. “Revisiting Health Disparities Linked to ‘Some College’: Incorporating Gender and High School Differences.” Social Currents 11:159-180.

Coleman, Max E. and Matthew A. Andersson. 2024. “Hurt on Both Sides: Political Differences in Health and Well-Being during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 65:94-109.

Andersson, Matthew A., Paul Froese, and Boróka Bó. 2024. “Out of Time, Out of Mind: Multifaceted Time Perceptions and Mental Well-Being during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Time and Society 33:69-94.

Andersson, Matthew A., and Laura Upenieks. 2023. “How I Was Brought Up? Parental SES and Adult Work Conflict, Stress, and Satisfaction.” Sociological Spectrum 43:53-71

Andersson, Matthew A., Lindsay R. Wilkinson and Markus H. Schafer. 2023. “The Long Arm of Childhood: Does It Vary According to Healthcare System Quality?” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 64:79- 97.

Andersson, Matthew A., and Steven Hitlin. 2023. “Measuring and Explaining a College Dignity Divide in America.” Socius 9:1-14.

Andersson, Matthew A. and Steven Hitlin. 2022. “Subjective Dignity and Self-Reported Health: Results from the United States before and during the Covid-19 Pandemic.” Social Science & Medicine – Mental Health 2:100113-100121. 

Andersson, Matthew A. 2022. “Seeing Class in Ladders: An Integrated Approach to Subjective Status and Self-Rated Health.” Sociological Perspectives 65:608-629. 

Andersson, Matthew A., Vida Maralani and Renae Wilkinson. 2022. “Origins and Destinations, but How Much and When? Educational Disparities in Smoking and Drinking across Adolescence and Young Adulthood.” Population Research and Policy Review 41:521-558. 

Books

Hitlin, Steven, and Matthew A. Andersson. 2023. The Science of Dignity: Measuring Personhood and WellBeing in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press

• “This wide-ranging and important book brings careful empirics to the crucial topic of dignity, including by showing its impact on health. The authors move our understanding of dignity to a whole new level, with a focus on the impact of resources on dignity, and more. I learned tons from them and so will you. “
  •  - Michèle Lamont, Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies, Harvard University Author of Seeing Others: How Recognition Works — and How it can Heal a Divided World 
• “Hitlin and Andersson’s book is a tour de force exploration of dignity – what it is, how and why it varies in populations, and why it is so important for human well-being and health.”
  • - Bruce Link, Professor of Public Policy, University of California Riverside and Professor Emeritus, Columbia University