Since completing her master’s degree (Analysis and Policy in Economics) at Paris School of Economics, Alex has been based at Ined, working with different teams in furthering our understanding the formation of inequalities in childhood. In 2024-2024, Alex took part in the European Doctoral School of Demography, the flagship training 1-year programme of the European Association for Population Studies, and gained access to the doctoral programme at Sciences Po, with a doctoral contract from Ined. Her co-directors are Lidia Panico (Sciences Po CNRS) and Anne Solaz (Ined).

This thesis seeks to quantify how much gendered parenting (expectations and attitudes, parental role modelling, and children’s access and exposure to family resources) shapes the development of gender gaps in early childhood, particularly in academic achievement and socio-emotional skills. It makes four main contributions: 1. it takes a holistic approach to parenting with structural equation models; 2. it combines methods more typical in demography and economics with theories from sociology and psychology in an interdisciplinary approach; 3. it contributes comparative evidence outside of the US, for France and for the UK using longitudinal birth cohorts (Elfe and MCS respectively); 4. it employs a quasi-experiment method (RDD) to better understand effects of income shocks on parenting, with potential to offer policy recommendations. This project sheds light on the intersection of gender and social class in the development of young children, little explored in current literature.

What role do parents play in shaping gender inequalities in childhood? A comparative study of France and the United Kingdom. (provisional title)

In 2023, COORDINATE Transnational Access Visits grant, in support of the preparatory phase of Europe’s first cross-national accelerated birth cohort survey of child well-being Growing Up in Digital Europe  (GUIDE).

• Alexandra Sheridan, Olivia Samuel. Sex Differentials in Toilet Training: A Comparative Study of France and of the UK. European Population Conference, Jun 2024, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. ⟨hal-05166101⟩
• Anne Solaz, Lidia Panico, Alexandra Sheridan, Thorsten Schneider, Jascha Dräger, et al.. Does Family Structure Account for Child Achievement Gaps by Parental Education? Findings for England, France, Germany and the United States. Population and Development Review, 2024, ⟨10.1111/padr.12623⟩. ⟨hal-04555371⟩
• Alexandra Sheridan, Olivia Samuel, Yoann Demoli, Christine Hamelin. Parental care during the first year of life: gender and social variations in tastes and practices Étude Longitudinale Française depuis l’Enfance (ELFE). Children of the noughties – a conference to celebrate 21 years of the Millennium Cohort Study, Jun 2023, Londre, United Kingdom. ⟨hal-05165493⟩