Dr. Sampson Lee Blair is a family sociologist and demographer at The State University of New York (Buffalo). He received his BS and MS degrees from Virginia Tech, and his PhD from Penn State. Much of his research focuses upon parent-child relationships, with particular emphasis on child and adolescent development. In 2010, he received the Fulbright Scholar Award from the U.S. Department of State, wherein he conducted research on parental involvement and children’s educational attainment in the Philippines. He has examined a wide variety of relationship dynamics within families. He has published 22 books, in addition to numerous journal articles and book chapters, and has presented over 150 research papers at conferences in the U.S. and abroad, and has served as keynote speaker on numerous occasions. His recent research has focused upon marriage and fertility patterns in China.  In 2022, he published Mate Selection in China: Causes and Consequences in the Search for a Spouse (with Timothy J. Madigan and Fang Fang).

He has served as Chair of the Children and Youth research section of the American Sociological Association, as senior editor of Sociological Inquiry, Guest Editor of Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, and on the editorial boards of Asian Women, Journal of Applied Youth Studies, Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, Journal of Family Issues, Marriage and Family Review, Social Justice Research, Sociological Inquiry, International Journal of Criminology and Sociology, and Sociological Viewpoints. He also serves on the international advisory board of Tambara, at Ateneo de Davao University, in the Philippines. In 2023, he was re-elected as Vice-President (North America) of the Research Committee on Youth (RC34), in the International Sociological Association. Since 2011, he has served as the editor of Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research.

He is a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.  Abroad, he has served as a visiting professor at the University of Santo Tomas (Manila) and Xavier University (Ateneo de Cagayan) in the Philippines.  In China, he has been a visiting professor at East China Normal University (华东师范大学), Qingdao University (青岛大学) , Shanghai International Studies University (上海外国语大学), and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (上海财经大学). In 2020, he was initiated into the NCFR Legacy Circle of the National Council on Family Relations. In 2021, he received the Distinguished Career Service Award from the American Sociological Association’s research section on Children and Youth.  

Awards and Honors

Honorary Faculty Member (2007)
Golden Key International Honor Society

SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (2008) 
The State University of New York

Fulbright Scholar Award (2010)
U.S. Department of State, for teaching/research at Xavier University (Ateneo de Cagayan), Cagayan de Oro, Philippines

NCFR Legacy Circle (2020) 
National Council on Family Relations

Distinguished Career Service Award (2021) 
American Sociological Association, Section on Children and Youth

• PhD, The Pennsylvania State University, 1991
• MS, Virginia Tech, 1987
• BS, Virginia Tech, 1985