Elena van Stee
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About Elena
Van Stee's research focuses on higher education, parenting, and young adulthood. Overarching themes in van Stee's writings include social class divides into young adults' college experiences, family relationships, and post-college trajectories. Van Stee also has extensive experience conducting interviews and focus groups in consulting roles for nonprofit organizations. Van Stee currently serves as Blog editor for Contexts, the public-facing magazine of the American Sociological Association.
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Summarizes recent research on parents' roles in young adult children's lives, focusing on social class divides. Elaborates in relation to five traditional young adult milestones: finishing school, finding a job, leaving the family home, getting married, and becoming a parent. Underscores that understanding the transition to adulthood requires understanding young adults' relationships with parents.
Discusses how universities support religiously diverse student populations through chaplaincy services and identify the implications for interfaith engagement. Finds that smaller institutions and those historically affiliated with a religious group tend to employ more staff chaplains. Reveals chaplaincy models affect how deeply chaplains and affiliates are involved on campus and the possibilities for interfaith engagement.
Shows how college students from different social class backgrounds navigate COVID-19 campus closings. Discusses interviews with undergraduates and their mothers revealed class divides into students' family resources and roles--with implications for educational inequalities during remote instruction. Reveals 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.