Objective: This article investigates for different cohorts how earnings inequalities evolve with the duration of cohabiting couples’ relationships and after childbirth. Background: Germany has undergone a paradigm shift in its family policies and so presents ideal contextual conditions to examine whether institutional change is reflected in a decrease in within-couple inequality overall and across cohorts. Method: Using a sample of 3161 couples from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) from 1992 to 2023 we estimate growth curve models and fixed-effects panel regression. We differentiate three cohorts and given continued differences in gender norms analyze East and West Germany separately. Results: Our findings suggest that children substantially increase earnings inequalities within couples, and that the gap does not return to pre-birth levels over time. We also find differences across cohorts: the impact of children on the partner earnings gap has notably reduced in West Germany over time with younger cohorts experiencing lower penalties than older ones, but the earnings gap still remains substantial. In East Germany we could not find a pattern of decreasing inequality across cohorts. Conclusion: While there is some evidence that earnings inequalities between couples have reduced in our West German sample, during a time marked by paradigmatic change in German family policy, the earnings gap in couples persists and remains strongly related to the birth of children.
Objective: The study investigates which distributive justice principles apply when allocating parental leave between mothers and fathers. Background: Despite policies promoting gender equality, parental leave uptake and duration in Germany remain unequally distributed and highly gendered. Existing research has primarily focused on the determinants of parental leave uptake, while less attention has been paid to perceptions of what constitutes a just allocation of parental leave between parents. Method: Using a multifactorial survey experiment, the study manipulated gender, income, job position, and job satisfaction in randomized vignettes of heterosexual dual-earner couples (N = 3,012 vignette evaluations). Respondents were asked to allocate 12 months of parental leave fairly between the parents. Results: Gender had only a modest effect on parental leave allocations, with respondents allocating 5.4 out of 12 months to fathers for the distribution to be perceived as just. Instead, respondents allocated substantially fewer parental leave months (4.4 out of 12 months) to fathers with stronger work attachments and income advantages (i.e., highly satisfied with their jobs, managers, and higher earners). However, these effects were not gender-specific and similarly applied to “female breadwinner” scenarios. Conclusion: The findings suggest that justice perceptions regarding parental leave are shaped less strongly by traditional gender roles than by occupational characteristics and income differences. At the same time, justice perceptions and actual parental leave behavior in Germany do not necessarily align due to structural and contextual constraints.
Objective: This study explores connections between (expectant) parents' narratives about fathers’ involvement in maternity care during the pandemic, and societal discourses regarding gendered roles and responsibilities in perinatal care and parenting. Background: Paternal involvement preceding, during, and following pregnancy and birth is increasingly underscored as important. However, when COVID-19 emerged, limiting fathers’ access to maternity care was among the first measures introduced. Method: We conducted 25 online, semi-structured interviews with 29 parents who received maternity care between March 13 and June 1, 2020, known as the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands. We combined a reflexive thematic analysis process of open and axial coding with a critical discourse analysis. Results: Measures limiting fathers’ involvement in maternity care were experienced as unpleasant but generally accepted and followed. We found that participants’ perceptions of pandemic uncertainty and risk: a) legitimized the overruling of relationality; b) reinforced inequality in parenting and paid work arrangements; c) accentuated cultural understandings of gender-based parental asymmetry. Both progressive and traditional discourses coexisted among and within participants’ accounts, yet more traditional role divisions were relatively often prioritized in parents’ and care professionals’ considerations and negotiations. Conclusion: Responses to early-stage pandemic uncertainty and risk tended to legitimize and reinforce gendered asymmetries in perinatal care and parenting, corroborating research showing that the pandemic magnified preexisting inequalities and systemic weaknesses.
Objective: This study examines how differences in romantic partners' gender and marriage beliefs affect whether and how individuals adapt their own beliefs over time. Background: To date, research on convergence of gender and marriage beliefs in couples is limited. Applying a life course perspective, we conceptualize beliefs as dynamic and new relationships as unique contexts, where partners’ exposure to each other’s beliefs, the need to build shared realities, and shared life course transitions such as cohabitation, marriage, and parenthood foster convergence. Method: Using nationally representative data from the German Family Panel pairfam, we provide a strong methodological approach by combining two-stage least squares fixed effects (2SLS-FE; n = 521 couples) and regular fixed effects (FE; n = 1732 couples) regression models. Beliefs are measured with five statements covering normative gender and marriage beliefs. For the 2SLS-FE models, we use information about the beliefs of the mother of one partner to create an instrumental variable. Results: Findings show strong evidence of convergence, particularly within 3-5 years of relationship duration, with moderate-to-large shifts towards more traditional or progressive positions depending on the item. Institutionalising transitions, particularly cohabitation, partly mediate the effects. We find no gender differences in who influences whom more. Conclusion: Romantic relationships are dynamic arenas of belief change, with early years of relationship institutionalisation, particularly cohabitation, representing key contexts of partner influence.
Objective: I examine whether the substantial decline in the marriage rate in Denmark following the Great Recession is equally distributed among sociodemographic groups. Background: Since the beginning of the second demographic transition, marriage rates have been declining in the Western world. While the European Union’s marriage rate stabilized during the late 1990s and the early 2000s, it declined again following the Great Recession. If this decline is driven by certain groups, existing inequalities in the benefits associated with marriage may be exacerbated. Method: Applying Das Gupta's (1993) rate decomposition method to Danish administrative data, I investigate compositional changes between the group who gets married prior to and after the onset of the decline across five sociodemographic covariates. To assess the nature of the decline, I investigate three transitions into union formation: i) single to cohabitation, ii) single to marriage, and iii) cohabitation to marriage. Results: I find that all groups across age, income, children, marriage history, and employment status contribute to the marriage rate decline and that these contributions reflect behavioral changes. Comparing the three transitions into union formation, I find that people continue to cohabit but become less inclined to marry. Conclusion: My findings suggest that the marriage decline following the Great Recession was largely equally distributed among groups and likely led to a perpetuation of existing inequalities in the benefits associated with marriage.
Objective: This research note reconstructs the historical demography of the multigenerational family from preindustrial colonial America (1700) up to the end of the Gilded Age (1910) in the territory of the present-day United States and selected European regions. Background: Knowledge of the demography of multigenerational family ties is limited to the 20th and 21st centuries. By contrast, little is known about the preceding demographic history of the multigenerational family, especially continuity and change in multigenerational co-survivorship and exposure. Method: Using retrospective family-tree data from FamiLinx, a genealogical dataset derived from a crowdsourced genealogy website, we estimate the supply of, and exposure to, multigenerational kin measured by the number of, and years of life shared with, parents and grandparents. Results: Multigenerational supply and exposure increased in the US and all European regions, but changes were modest compared to the surge that followed in the 20th century. Historically, multigenerational kin availability was consistently higher in the US than in all European regions, although differences diminished from 1850 onward. Conclusion: Substantial cross-continental differences marked the demographic-historical pathways leading to the modern multigenerational family, but these pathways had increasingly converged by the late 19th century.
Objective: This study examines partner-meeting channels and their association with patterns of endogamous and exogamous unions among male refugees from Syria and Afghanistan, as well as first-and second-generation men in Germany. Background: The substantial inflow of young, predominantly male refugees from Syria and Afghanistan to Germany has created markedly imbalanced partner markets, posing significant challenges for partnership formation. The question arises through which channels these male refugees are likely to find partners and how these compare to those of first-and second-generation migrants residing in Germany. Method: Using data from PARFORM and CILS4EU-DE (total N = 3,813) and weighted multinomial logistic regressions, we analyse individuals' propensity to form endogamous unions, partnerships with the German majority, and partnerships with other non-co-nationals. We focus on partner-meeting contexts, distinguishing between family, friends, main activities (work or study), neighbourhoods, leisure activities, and online dating spaces. Results: Refugees rely primarily on family, followed by friends, the internet, and daily activities, whereas MENA+ and other minority groups draw on a wider range of channels, including leisure settings alongside friendship networks. Among Syrians, meeting through family contacts is associated with stronger endogamy, while among first-and second-generation individuals of MENA+ origin, neighbourhood contacts support endogamy. By contrast, among Afghan refugees and first-and second-generation individuals from other origins, partnership endogamy and exogamy show little variation by meeting context. Conclusion: Family and neighbourhood contacts reinforce endogamy among Syrian refugees and first-and second-generation migrants of MENA+ origin, respectively, whereas leisure contexts-with some nuances-are associated with greater exogamy.
Objective: This research note has both substantive and methodological objectives. It presents an account of undertaking a surface thematic analysis of a data sub-set from a repurposed public engagement written postcard exercise, to consider: (i) the significant non-relationally framed (i.e. factual and not related to the quality of the sibling relationship) information that people across gender and generation think that researchers should know about their siblings, and (ii) the written postcard exercise as a potential research method in family research. Background: Much research on siblings is concerned with outcomes or everyday relational processes. There is less attention to what people themselves regard as significant features of their siblings' circumstances that is not shaped by researcher agendas and interactions. Method: The research note draws on electronic and hard copy written postcard data, submitted in response to the open prompt 'Please tell us about your brothers and sisters', submitted by 795 children and adults. The majority were aged 29-58 and were female. A surface thematic analysis was undertaken to identify the factual, non-relationally framed information provided by postcard writers in a data sub-set in order to identify the issues that they regarded as important. Results: Postcard writers providing factual information about their siblings' circumstances did so largely in the here-and-now of their siblings' lives. They addressed family form, geographical location, and age at which siblings left home, framing this non-relationally as information about their siblings. Conclusion: The analysis of sibling-provided information that is not relationally framed provides an alternative or additional perspective to both developmental outcomes research and studies of sibling perspectives. The postcard exercise offers possibilities as a data generation method that enables an initial co-production design.
Objective: This study examines how later-life parental divorce is associated with changes in adult sibling relationships, focusing on contact, emotional closeness, intimacy, and conflict. Background: Divorce is becoming increasingly common among older adults which is referred to as "gray divorce". Although couple dissolution has implications for broader family dynamics, less is known about how later-life parental divorce shapes relationships among adult children. Prior research on sibling relationships has primarily focused on childhood and adolescence and has often relied on cross-sectional designs. Understanding how later-life parental divorce relates to adult sibling ties is important, given the central role siblings play in providing emotional and practical support across the life course. Method: We use four waves of longitudinal data from the German Family Panel and employ fixed-effects models to examine within-individual changes in sibling contact, emotional closeness, intimacy, and conflict following later-life parental divorce. Results: The frequency of contact and emotional closeness between adult siblings decreases following later-life parental divorce. Additional analyses indicate that female-male and male-male sibling dyads are more likely to experience increased conflict after later-life parental divorce compared to female-female dyads. Conclusion: Later-life parental divorce is associated with meaningful changes in adult sibling relationships, suggesting that its consequences extend beyond the dissolving couple. Contrary to the assumption that divorce in later life has limited implications for adult children, our findings indicate that it may reshape sibling dynamics in complex ways.
Objective: Drawing on a life-course perspective that emphasises partnership-related processes, we examine how different mental health disorders relate to childlessness and whether these associations are explained by partnership status and partner's mental health. Background: Mental health problems are increasing, while childlessness is becoming more common. Method: We use Finnish total population register data and discrete-time event history models to estimate the annual likelihood of having a first child. Results: All types of mental health disorders are associated with a lower likelihood of first-time childbearing. In age-controlled models, the annual probability 0.8-1.3 %-points lower for women and 1.0- 1.8 %-points for men, with the strongest associations observed for severe mental disorders. Accounting for partner's mental health and partnerships attenuates these associations, particularly among men (for any mental health disorder, 13% for women and 36% for men compared with age-controlled models). Conclusion: Partnerships and partner's mental health are important in understanding the association between mental health disorders and childlessness across the life course, especially among men.
Objective: This study explores the prevalence of family complexity in Joint physical custody (JPC) versus sole physical custody (SPC) and investigates the relationship between custody arrangements and children's socioemotional problems, focusing on the moderating effect of parental repartnering. Background: JPC is increasingly common and shown to be beneficial for children. However, the rise in family complexity due to parental repartnering raises questions about JPC's benefits for children's wellbeing in stepfamily settings. Method: Three waves of the New Families in the Netherlands (NFN) survey, covering ten years after separation, are used. The sample consists of parents who divorced or separated in 2010. Children's socioemotional problems were measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Linear regression models were estimated separately for boys and girls aged 4-17. Results: Descriptive statistics indicate that about half of the children live with a stepparent, with those living in JPC more likely to do so. Moreover, children in JPC showed fewer socioemotional problems than those in SPC. We did not find evidence that JPC is less beneficial for children when either parent has a new partner. Conclusion: Joint physical custody is associated with better child outcomes, and its advantages persist in stepfamily settings, indicating that parental repartnering does not weaken the effects of JPC.
Objective: This study presents the "Post-Separation Family" (PSF) module within the panel study "Growing Up in Germany" (German title: Aufwachsen In Deutschland: Alltagswelten [AID:A]) and discusses its contribution to providing information on diverse post-separation family constellations in Germany. Background: Rates of separation and divorce are persistently high in Western societies, and post-separation families are increasingly diverse and complex. However, official statistics and large-scale surveys in Germany often lack detailed data on post-separation family constellations, particularly regarding nonresident parents. Method: The PSF module in AID:A collects comprehensive information on everyday practices, conflicts, and parental care involvement of a wide range of family constellations. It enables the classification of diverse family constellations, such as single parents and stepfamilies, and includes data on non-resident parents. Results: In 2019, about 23% of families with minors were post-separation families with a non-resident parent (i.e., 17% single-parents, 6% stepfamilies). About 12% of minors in post-separation families practiced a shared care arrangement according to the PSF module data. Key measures on post-separation care arrangements can be further linked to the broad spectrum of outcomes collected in AID:A (e.g., economic hardship, subjective well-being, and parental education). Conclusion: The PSF module represents a concise instrument for analyzing post-separation family diversity in Germany, which could lay the groundwork for national and international comparisons of diverse family constellations if adopted in other surveys.
Objective: This paper examines how mothers deal with their emotions related to their mothering practices in the early phase of motherhood, and analyzes which practices they use to work on their emotions. Background: Emotions and emotion work are regarded as integral and highly gendered parts of family work, which includes mothers as primary caregivers. However, the complex relation between mothers' emotions and their practices of mothering is yet to be fully understood. This study analyzes this relation by combining a social constructivist approach with a praxeological perspective. Method: The empirical results draw on an in-depth thematic and reconstructive sequential analysis of 23 semi-structured interviews with mothers in Austria whose youngest child was under the age of two. Results: Two bundles of practices of emotion work were identified: first, "changing conditions" (with practices of avoiding or preparing); and, second, "changing emotions" (with practices of suppressing, deep acting, and toning down guilt). Results explicate how mothers' emotions and practices of emotion work are centered around the fundamental feeling rule of achieving positivity. This fundamental feeling rule includes numerous emotions that mothers work for with the aim of ensuring their child's happiness and adequate development. Conclusion: Mothers' practices of emotion work mirror subjectivation and (gendered) responsibilization, and are therefore related to neoliberal ideals. Mothers act as invisible emotion workers to ensure the happiness and development of their child.
Objective: This study examines how siblings from families with two parents affected by mental illness negotiate their roles within the sibling group and which systemic-dynamic processes shape these negotiations. Background: While numerous studies have explored the experiences of children of parents with mental illness, little research has investigated how these experiences shape sibling relationships. This study addresses this research gap by analysing the conditions and systemic dynamics within sibling relationships under challenging life circumstances. Method: Biographical-narrative interviews were conducted with 11 young adults (aged 20-35) from four families in Germany and Austria who grew up in households with both parents affected by mental illness. Through interpretative-hermeneutic fine-structure analysis and systemic analysis, individual ascriptions of meaning and systemic-dynamic processes were reconstructed. Results: The analysis reveals that siblings in these families not only shape their own relationship but also assume an expanded set of responsibilities ("siblings+"). The parental impairment creates a role vacuum, which siblings compensate for among themselves. This results in an extended sibling role encompassing additional rights and obligations typically ascribed to parents. Conclusion: When parents are unable to fulfil their caregiving function and no external support is available, sibling relationships undergo fundamental transformations. Institutions that support such families should take these specific dynamics into account in order to meet the needs of those affected.
Objective: This study examines whether nonstandard work schedules (NSWS) improve or hinder work-life balance (WLB) for parents and non-parents in dual-earner households. Background: Previous research shows that NSWS can negatively affect workers' well-being. However, less is known about whether and to what extent these effects differ between parents and childless individuals. Method: Using data from the first wave of the German Family Demography Panel Study (FReDA), linear regression models are applied to assess whether the effect of NSWS on WLB is influenced by family circumstances. Results: Parenthood is generally associated with lower WLB. However, the negative association between NSWS and WLB is more pronounced among childless workers. Notably, mothers of young children (ages 0-5), as well as fathers of school-aged children (ages 6-12) working NSWS report higher WLB than their childless counterparts. Conclusion: Parents with NSWS in dual-earner households do not necessarily experience lower WLB than childless workers. In some cases, NSWS may even help parents better reconcile work and family responsibilities.
Objective: The study examines changes across cohorts in terms of the timing and frequency of the full spectrum of reproductive events and explores whether these reproductive trajectories reflect broader trends towards the destandardisation of family formation. Furthermore, the study assesses the quality and limitations of Czech health registry data by comparing them with official vital statistics. Background: Analysing fertility alone is insufficient with respect to understanding individual reproductive trajectories since reproductive experiences are interconnected across the lifespan and may be influenced by other reproductive events that affect both the tempo and the quantum-especially within the context of fertility postponement. Method: This study employs individual data obtained from the Czech National Health Information System (NHIS) that enable the holistic analysis of reproductive trajectories including live births, induced abortions, in vitro fertilisation, miscarriages and stillbirths across selected cohorts of women (1976-1991). Results: The younger cohorts experienced delayed and less frequent reproductive events. However, the lower incidence of adverse events partly reflected fewer conceptions due to the postponement of reproduction to older ages. The most common combination of event types involved live births with induced abortions or miscarriages. Reproductive trajectories were found to diversify with age but exhibited limited variation across the cohorts, and an early live birth remained linked to higher completed fertility. The NHIS data were largely in line with the vital statistics, with the moderate underestimation of live births and the under-reporting of early miscarriages and induced abortions. Conclusion: The findings highlight the potential and limitations of health registry data in terms of capturing the full spectrum of reproductive events. Forming a deeper understanding of women's reproductive trajectories and experiences, enabled via the use of linked health register data, is essential in terms of developing policies on reproductive health and rights in the context of declining fertility levels and the postponement of childbearing to later ages.
Objective: This study examines the cohabitation-marriage gap in income pooling across Europe and quantifies the relative importance of selection and commitment mechanisms for couples' decisions to share or separate economic resources. Background: Prior research has not effectively measured the relative importance of selection and commitment. We argue that, partly, this is because previous studies treated cohabiters and married couples as two homogeneous groups. We therefore distinguish four union types: directly married, married after cohabitation, cohabiters with and without marital intentions. Method: Using data from the Generation and Gender Survey Round 1 and logistic regression models with KHB decomposition, we analyze income pooling behaviors in 11 countries (n=34,061). Results: Findings reveal a gradient in income pooling in seven countries (Germany, France, Austria, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic and Sweden), with directly married couples being most likely to pool their incomes, followed by couples who married after cohabitation, cohabiters with and without marital intentions. Commitment-related variables explain more variation in income pooling between union types than selection-related ones, except when comparing directly married and married after cohabitation, where selection is more relevant. In Bulgaria, Russia, Georgia, and Romania, neither mechanism significantly impacts the minimal gap. Conclusion: Income pooling varies substantially between as well as within marriage and cohabitation. Commitment is generally more influential than selection for understanding couples' resource sharing, though institutional and cultural settings condition the strength of these patterns.
Objective: This study investigates the impact of family membership on redistribution. It addresses social inequality in terms of different rights over resources by clarifying how far public redistribution financially advantages or disadvantages families over individuals without recognised family members, as well as particular family forms over others. Background: Understanding redistribution has been a core issue in the social sciences since their very beginning. This study argues and shows that family-related redistribution has been largely neglected but is indispensable to refining our understanding of redistribution. Method: The research question was answered using a three-step procedure: first by focusing on whether family is a redistributive principle of European countries; second, by focusing on differences in redistributive logics by differentiating family forms; and third, by contrasting redistributive regulations and their implementation. The study leverages two techniques of regulation analysis, using regulation data from the European databases MISSOC and EUROMOD, and confronts these results with outcome data drawn from EU-SILC. It covers all relevant forms of public redistribution in relation to the family (i.e. taxes, benefits and financial obligations). Results: The most impactful finding is that, while countries differ in the degree of family-related redistribution (different from established country clusters), the redistributive logics are rather similar (i.e. the family forms that are more or less supported do not differ much among the European countries, here the EU plus the UK). Redistribution in part strongly varies with the family form one lives in, resulting in mostly more, sometimes fewer, resources for families in comparison to individuals without family. In addition, the study of the implementation of redistribution reflects a 'Matthew effect' that has not been found in redistribution as regulated. Conclusion: This study shows that when analysis of redistribution and its international variation is limited to the individual, neither redistribution nor country differences can be adequately understood. Consequently, it emphasises the need for more comprehensive analyses in redistribution studies and welfare state analysis.
Objective: We analyse poverty across different-sex partnership constellations, examining how risk factors - such as low education and weak labour market attachment - cluster differently across these constellations. We distinguish between men and women of non-migrant and migrant descent, as well as EU and non-EU migrants. Background: Previous studies have investigated the link between partnership constellations and poverty, often overlooking migration status despite migrants' heightened poverty risk. Moreover, gender differences and partnership patterns beyond the simple migrant-non-migrant divide received little attention. Method: Using 2019 German Microcensus data, we map the distribution of different-sex partnership constellations by gender, migration status, and poverty risk factors. We analyse poverty differences with linear probability models, exploring how risk factors vary across constellations and by gender. Results: We find the highest prevalence of poverty risk factors and poverty in partnerships between two non-EU migrants. Low education is a more important poverty risk factor than weak labour market attachment for most constellations. However, among partnerships involving non-EU migrants, non-employment contributes more strongly to poverty differences. Gender differences are particularly pronounced in partnerships between non-EU migrants and either non-migrants or individuals of migrant descent. Conclusion: We underscore the importance of considering gendered partnership constellations beyond the migrant/non-migrant dichotomy in poverty research. Furthermore, we highlight the need to account for multiple dimensions of homogamy to better understand the link between partnership constellations and poverty.
Objective: This paper studies the consequences of maternal unemployment in single-mother families on the mental health of adolescent children. Background: The impact of parental unemployment on the health and well-being of children has received increasing attention in recent years, but little is known about these cross-over effects in single-mother households-a particularly vulnerable family setting for maternal unemployment and child health. Method: We use data from a large, register-based panel of Finnish adolescents aged 15-21 years in 1996-2019 (n = 130,520), with repeated measures of prescribed psychotropic medication purchases in six-month periods. Event study difference-in-difference models-adjusting for time-invariant characteristics-are employed to investigate the association between maternal unemployment and adolescents' psychotropic medication purchases. Results: Maternal unemployment is associated with a small increase in psychotropic medication purchases, especially about two years after the transition to unemployment. While the point estimates are similar for both boys and girls, the estimates for girls remain non-significant. The observed patterns cannot be explained by changes in maternal income after job loss, and non-resident fathers' income did not clearly mitigate the negative effects of single mother unemployment on adolescent psychotropic medication purchases. Conclusion: Maternal unemployment in single-mother households is modestly associated with adolescent mental health, highlighting the need for targeted support for this vulnerable group.
