About

Julia R. Henly is the Samuel Deutsch Professor and Deputy Dean for Research and Faculty Development at the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. Her scholarship aims to advance understanding of the economic and caregiving strategies of low-income families to inform the design and effectiveness of work-family policies and public benefits, with a particular focus on child care policy. Her ongoing projects, funded by agencies such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and others, investigate issues including equity in child care subsidy access, the impact of recent policy changes on program demographics and participation, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on child care centers and home-based programs, child care financing mechanisms, and the consequences of precarious work schedules on workers and their children. Henly employs experimental, quasi-experimental, and participatory research methods, collaborating with government agencies and community organizations, analyzing administrative, survey, and qualitative data. She is recognized as a Fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare and the Society for Social Work and Research, and has served as a Fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Interdisciplinary Research Leadership program and as a Distinguished Fellow of the William T. Grant Foundation. Her academic background includes a B.A. with honors from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and M.S.W. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Economics
• Psychology
• Economic growth
• Business
• Sociology
• Labour economics
• Developmental psychology
• Geography
• Medicine
• Law
• Market economy
• Public economics
• Nursing
• Marketing
• Demographic economics

Selected publications

• Precarious work schedules and flexibility: implications for work-caregiving conflict and parenting stress

  Social Forces · 2026-04-25

  articleSenior author

  Abstract Although there is growing recognition that unstable and unpredictable work schedules create challenges for working parents, research is scarce on whether access to flexibility from different resources can attenuate problems created by scheduling instability. Guided by Emlen’s conceptualization of flexibility and the Job Demands-Resource Model, we examine the buffering effects of flexibility resources—from work, child care, and family—on work-caregiving conflict and parental stress in the context of work schedule instability. We first assessed the direct relationship between schedule instability and these outcomes and found it was associated with a higher level of work-caregiving conflict but not parenting stress. We then considered the direct and moderating role of flexibility resources and found that work schedule input and provider flexibility buffered the relationship between schedule instability and work-caregiving conflict. Policy implications to ameliorate work schedule instability and strengthen flexibility resources are discussed.

  PublisherDOI

• Aligning Work and Care in a 24/7 Economy: The Childcare Arrangements of Low-Income Families Working Nontraditional Hours

  RSF The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences · 2026-05-01

  articleOpen access

  Given changing employment conditions and childcare policy investments since <i>Making Ends Meet</i>, Kathryn Edin and Laura Lein’s 1997 book, this study explores the childcare arrangements of low-income parents of young children working nontraditional hours and unpredictable work schedules. Using a 2019 nationally representative sample of low-income parents with young children, we analyze nontraditional hour (NTH) childcare usage patterns by family structure, race and ethnicity, and immigration status. Our findings show that fewer than half of the children use NTH childcare, with unpaid family care being the most common arrangement. Family structure significantly influences NTH childcare utilization, and care patterns by race and ethnicity align with those seen in daytime care. Additionally, we found that childcare subsidy use is low overall among parents working NTH; but subsidy generosity is associated with higher rates of NTH paid family childcare. These results underscore the need to expand childcare options during nontraditional hours and increase access to subsidized NTH care for families with low incomes.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• How Work Hour Variability Matters for Work-to-Family Conflict

  Work Employment and Society · 2024-01-09 · 10 citations

  articleSenior author

  Variable work hours are an understudied source of work-to-family conflict (WFC). We examine the relationships between the magnitude and direction of work hour variability and WFC and whether work hour control and schedule predictability moderate these relationships. We estimate a series of linear regressions using the 2016 US General Social Survey, examining women and men workers separately and together. Findings indicate that as the magnitude of work hour variability increases, so does WFC, controlling for the usual number of hours worked. Work hour control helps to protect workers, especially women, from WFC when work hour variability is high and hours surge. Although schedule predictability tempers the relationship between work hour variability and WFC, its potency diminishes as variability increases. Our study emphasizes the potential benefit to workers and families of government policies and employer practices that promote work hour stability, schedule predictability, and equity in employee work hour control.

  PublisherDOI

• The Longitudinal Impact of Family, Religious, and School Support on the Mental Health of Filipino and Korean American Youth Across Adolescence

  Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities · 2024-10-16 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Asian Americans, currently the most rapidly expanding racial group in the USA, are experiencing persistent mental health inequities. These inequities are particularly pronounced during adolescence, highlighting the critical need for dedicated focus on this demographic. Social support is a key shield against mental distress among these adolescents, yet little research has examined the collective impact of multiple sources of support over time, across developmental stages, and for different ethnic subgroups. Drawing on the integrated conceptual framework, this longitudinal study is the first to our knowledge to examine how support from families, religious organizations, and schools together predicts mental health over time across adolescents’ developmental stages. We further examined how these relationships may be moderated by age groups, distinguishing between the early adolescence cohort and the middle adolescence cohort. Data were from the Midwest Longitudinal Study of Asian American Families (MLSAAF) project that survey-interviewed 378 Filipino American and 408 Korean American adolescents ( M age = 15 years). Findings reveal that family support consistently buffers against mental distress throughout adolescence for both groups. Religious support distinctly aids Filipino American early adolescents, while school support notably benefits early adolescents regardless of ethnicity. These findings emphasize the universal protective effects of social support, while also highlighting the nuanced ways that developmental stage and ethnicity may influence how different sources of support impact mental health. This underscores the need for developmentally and culturally sensitive mental health strategies for Asian American adolescents.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Reducing childcare subsidy instability through eligibility period extensions: Equity impacts of 12-month recertification requirements

  Early Childhood Research Quarterly · 2024-12-30 · 3 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Advancing research on equitable access to early care and education in the United States

  Early Childhood Research Quarterly · 2024-12-30 · 3 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Impact of Perceived Racial Discrimination on Depressive Symptoms and School Outcomes Among Asian American Youth

  Journal of Social Service Research · 2024-06-10

  articleOpen access

  =220), Cambodian American(CA) youth (n=164), and Vietnamese American(VA) youth (n=163). Using Structural Equation Modeling, the results revealed perceived discrimination was positively associated with depressive symptoms for KA and VA youths, but school misbehavior only for CA youth. Among KA youth, perceived discrimination was positively associated with ethnic identity, in turn positively related to social support, thereby reducing depressive symptoms. Among CA and VA youths, perceived discrimination was not associated with ethnic identity, but ethnic identity was related to social support, which in turn was associated with lower depressive symptoms, less school misbehaviors and better grades. This study offers insights into the way in which perceived racial discrimination may exert an impact on children's mental health and school outcomes and how the mechanisms that explain this relationship vary across AA subgroups. The findings of this study highlight the need for sustained research in the future to advance research and practice for AA groups.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Reducing Extreme Economic Inequality

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2022-05-19

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  While the United States economy continues to generate increasing amounts of wealth, deep economic disparities concentrate income and capital among those who are already wealthy. This economic inequality leads to material hardship, household instability, gaps in health insurance and healthcare, and inequalities in access to education and other opportunities. Market forces and public policies contribute to and exacerbate inequality in multiple ways. However, new policies, some under current debate and supported by social workers, promise approaches that can support raising income among the poor, building household stability, and increasing access to wealth. Such policies can reverse the mechanisms and impacts that concentrate wealth among a small segment of the population, and leave much of the population with little access to wealth, and stagnating levels of income.

  PublisherDOI

• How Is Instability in Child-Care Subsidy Use Associated with Instability in Child-Care Arrangements?

  Social Service Review · 2022-10-27 · 6 citations

  article

  Federal child-care subsidies through the Child Care and Development Fund support low-income parents’ employment and their children’s development. However, unstable patterns of subsidy use may be associated with instability in care arrangements and with potential negative consequences for parental employment and child well-being. Using a unique data set that links longitudinal administrative subsidy records to survey and child-care calendar data, we examine associations between multiple measures of subsidy instability and child-care instability. Results from survival analyses show that children who have an early subsidy exit are at higher risk of leaving their first subsidized child-care provider. Multiple measures of instability in subsidy use—an early subsidy exit, subsidy spell length, and multiple subsidy spells—are each also associated with children experiencing more total provider changes (both subsidized and unsubsidized). Our findings suggest that recent policy efforts have the potential to promote child-care stability for children receiving subsidies.

  PublisherDOI

• Making Sense of Childcare Instability Among Families with Low Incomes: (Un)desired and (Un)planned Reasons for Changing Childcare Arrangements

  RSF The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences · 2022 · 23 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Business
  • Demographic economics

  Childcare instability can negatively affect family well-being. Yet not all childcare changes are bad for families. This qualitative study (N = 85) examines work, family, provider, and subsidy-related factors contributing to childcare changes among families with low incomes. We focus on the desirability—the extent to which parents wanted to leave their provider—and the planned nature of childcare changes—the extent to which parents anticipated the change and had time to plan. We find that although nearly all desired changes were planned, undesired changes were both planned and unplanned. Planning was important but not enough for finding care that aligned with family needs, and undesired changes, especially sudden changes, were often driven by the loss of a childcare subsidy, sometimes accompanied by a job loss. We discuss how these findings can help researchers and policymakers understand the implications of complex childcare trajectories for family well-being and early care and education policy.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Susan J. Lambert

  University of Chicago

  17 shared

• Lonnie Golden

  9 shared

• Carolyn Barnes

  University of Chicago

  5 shared

• Laura Lein

  4 shared

• Sandra K. Danziger

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  4 shared

• Jennifer L. Romich

  4 shared

• Juliet Bromer

  Erikson Institute

  3 shared

• Michael Sherraden

  3 shared

Awards & honors

• Faculty Award for Educational Leadership in Doctoral Educati…
• William Pollak Award for Excellence in Teaching
• Award For Excellence in Doctoral Student Mentoring at Crown…
• 2022 Fellows