Professor Springer’s research interests center on health and aging in the context of gender relations and families.  She is particularly interested in examining health as a fundamental and sensitive indicator of gender inequality.  Her work emphasizes understanding possible causal mechanisms, both proximate and distal, that link social and structural factors to health inequalities.  Professor Springer is also dedicated to choosing methodological techniques, qualitative or quantitative, that best fit specific research questions.

Her most recent research examines the impact of wives’ employment on husbands’ health by contrasting existing socioeconomic and labor specialization arguments with gendered theories.  Professor Springer is also completing a project exploring the social, behavior, emotional, and cognitive life course pathways that connect childhood physical abuse with adult physical health.  Both of these projects have won best graduate student paper awards and are currently under review for publication.

Professor Springer has published research on HIV/AIDS, drug use, methodology (qualitative and quantitative), psychological well-being, childhood abuse, and the impact of welfare state structure on infant mortality.  She currently has two manuscripts forthcoming in Social Science Research and has published in multiple peer-reviewed journals including the American Journal of Sociology, Journal of General Internal Medicine, American Journal of Public Health, and Research in Social Stratification and Mobility.