Thoroddur Bjarnason
Thoroddur Bjarnason is an Icelandic sociologist and professor at the University of Akureyri. He is most well known for his international comparative survey research on adolescents and their living and custody arrangements, alcohol consumption and substance abuse. Education and career. Bjarnason studied sociology at the University of Iceland obtaining his BA degree in 1991. In 1995, he received an MA degree in social science data analysis from the University of Essex in England, followed by a PhD in sociology from the University of Notre Dame in 2000. After four years as an assistant professor at the University at  Albany, SUNY, he returned to Iceland in 2004 for a faculty position at the University of Akureyri. Scientific research. Alcohol use and substance abuse. Bjarnasson has studied adolescent alcohol use and substance abuse, comparing different European countries. Child custody and living arrangements. In a 2005/06 international comparison of 36 western countries, Bjarnasson studied the proportion of 11-15 year old children living in different child custody arrangements. The percent of children living in intact families with both their mother and father was highest in Macedonia (93%), Turkey (89%), Croatia (89%) and Italy (89%), while it was lowest in the United  States (60%), Romania (60%), Estonia (66%) and Latvia (67%). Among the children who did not live with both their parents, the percent in a shared parenting versus sole custody arrangement was highest in Sweden (17%), Iceland (11%), Belgium (11%), Denmark (10%), Italy (9%) and Norway (9%), while it was lowest in Ukraine, Poland, Croatia, Turkey, the Netherlands and Romania, all with 2% or less.