Mónica L. Caudillo

I am an Associate Professor in the Sociology Department at the University of Maryland, College Park. I hold a PhD in Sociology from New York University and specialize in domestic and international research in family demography, reproductive, maternal, and infant health, mortality, and aging.

A large part of my work focuses on the demographic and health consequences of disruptions to social contexts in the United States and Mexico. One of my lines of research investigates the relationship between the opioid epidemic and fertility, family formation, and family structures in the United States. Another set of projects assesses the effect of community violence on health and family formation and stability in Mexico. My projects in this area of work focus on how outcomes such as union formation and dissolution, suicide, and reproductive and maternal health change during violent periods in that country. In addition, I am currently conducting work on how exposure to community violence shapes different dimensions of aging, such as cognitive decline and reproductive aging, and the latter’s implications for broader demographic trends in Mexico and the United States.