Profile

Yan Zhang, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Sociology

Department of Sociology, Texas State University

[email protected] Google Scholar

I study how family structure and family relationships influence older adults’ health and well-being, with a focus on risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. My work blends family demography, medical sociology, and gerontology from a life course perspective. Before joining Texas State, I served as an Assistant Professor at East Carolina University and a postdoctoral research scientist at the Center for Demography of Health and Aging at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I earned a Ph.D. in sociology at Michigan State University, an M.A. in sociology at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and a B.A. in sociology at China Agricultural University.

Family demographyPopulation healthAging & life courseQuantitative methodsComputational methods
Portrait of Yan Zhang
Research

Focus Areas

How family structures and relationships shape older adults’ health and care needs, using nationally representative longitudinal datasets.

Care needsLongitudinal dataFamily structure

Parenthood experience and fertility history linked to later-life dementia risk through a gendered life course perspective.

Dementia riskFertility historyGendered life course

Exploring computational approaches to study caregiving burden, especially among dementia caregivers.

Computational methodsLLMCaregiving burdenDementia caregivers
Scholarship

Publications

2026 The Journals of Gerontology: Series B Forthcoming

Family Structure and Transitions Into and Out of Homeboundness: Evidence from the National Health and Aging Trends Study, 2011–2024

Y Zhang

2025 The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Health, Illness, Behavior, and Society

Parenthood and Health

Y Zhang

Research funding

Funded Grants

2026 $33,655

Emerging Scholar Pilot Project

Center on Aging and Population Sciences, University of Texas–Austin

PI: Yan Zhang

2024 $10,733

Rapid Pilot Grant

Center for Demography of Health and Aging, University of Wisconsin–Madison

PI: Yan Zhang

Pipeline

Under review

In progress

Understanding Dementia Caregiving Experience: A Large Language Model Based Workflow Using Reddit Data

Yan Zhang, Mingfei Zhang

In progress

Parental Status, Family Complexity, and Unmet Care Needs in Later Life

Yan Zhang, Zhiyong Lin

In progress

Mapping Fertility Narratives at Scale Using Large Language Models

Yan Zhang, Mingfei Zhang

In progress

Health Insurance Coverage Gaps and Preventive Healthcare Use after Medicare Eligibility

Yan Zhang, Jada Morris, Dmitry Tumin

In progress

State Policy, Immigrant Status, and Disability among Midlife Asian Americans

Haowei Wang, Catherine Garcia, Yan Zhang, Jeung Hyun Kim, Marc A Garcia

In progress

Beyond Aggregated Advantage: Heterogeneous Age Patterns of Disability Across Pan-ethnic Asian Americans

Haowei Wang, Catherine Garcia, Yan Zhang, Jeung Hyun Kim, Marc A Garcia

In progress

Bidirectional relationship between cognitive function and pain in a longitudinal study of older adults

Michael Kovasala, Em Long-Mills, Yan Zhang, Dmitry Tumin

Contact

Let’s collaborate

Email Yan

Based in San Marcos, TX.