Intersectional Inequalities in the Transition to Grandparenthood and Cognitive Functioning: A Longitudinal Multilevel Analysis of Individual Heterogeneity and Discriminatory Accuracy.

OBJECTIVES: In aging societies, more people become vulnerable to experiencing cognitive decline. Simultaneously, the role of grandparenthood is central for older adults and their families. Our study investigates inequalities in the level and trajectories of cognitive functioning among older adults, focusing on possible intersectional effects of social determinants and grandparenthood as a life course transition that may contribute to delaying cognitive decline. METHODS: Using longitudinal data from the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe, we analyzed a sample of 19,953 individuals aged 50-85 without grandchildren at baseline. We applied multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy to investigate variation in cognitive functioning across 48 intersectional strata, defined by sex/gender, migration, education, and occupation. We allowed the impact of becoming a grandparent on cognitive functioning trajectories to vary across strata by including random slopes. RESULTS: Intersectional strata accounted for 17.43% of the overall variance in cognitive functioning, with most of the stratum-level variation explained by additive effects of the stratum-defining characteristics. Transition to grandparenthood was associated with higher cognitive functioning, showing a stronger effect for women. Stratum-level variation in the grandparenthood effect was modest, especially after accounting for interactions between grandparenthood and the stratum-defining variables. DISCUSSION: This study highlights the importance of social determinants for understanding heterogeneities in older adults' level of cognitive functioning and its association with the transition to grandparenthood. Cumulative disadvantages negatively affect cognitive functioning, hence adopting an intersectional lens is useful to decompose inequalities and derive tailored interventions to promote equal healthy aging.

Intersectional inequalities in the transition to grandparenthood and cognitive functioning: A longitudinal Multilevel Analysis of Individual Heterogeneity and Discriminatory Accuracy (MAIHDA).

Objectives: With aging societies, more people become vulnerable to experiencing cognitive decline. While normal aging is associated with a deterioration in certain cognitive abilities, little is known about how social determinants intersect to create late-life cognitive functioning inequalities. Simultaneously, the role of grandparenthood is central for older adults and their families. There are indications that social determinants intersect to modulate the effect of the transition to grandparenthood, but further evidence is needed. Our study investigates the relation of transition to grandparenthood with cognitive functioning and explores differences across intersectional strata. Methods: Using longitudinal data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, we analyzed a sample of 19,953 individuals aged 50-85 without grandchildren at the baseline. We applied Multilevel Analysis of Individual Heterogeneity and Discriminatory Accuracy to investigate cognitive functioning differences across 48 intersectional strata, defined by sex/gender, migration, education, and occupation. We allowed the impact of becoming a grandparent to vary across strata by including random slopes. Results: Intersectional strata accounted for 17.43% of the overall variance in cognitive functioning, with most of the stratum-level variation explained by additive effects of the stratum-defining characteristics. Transition to grandparenthood was associated with higher cognitive functioning, with a stronger effect for women. Stratum-level variation in the grandparenthood effect was modest. Discussion: This study highlights the importance of social determinants for understanding heterogeneities in the association of transition to grandparenthood with cognitive functioning. Adopting an intersectional lens is useful to decompose inequalities and derive tailored interventions to promote equal healthy aging.

Second Birth Fertility in Germany: Social Class, Gender, and the Role of Economic Uncertainty.

Building on a thick strand of the literature on the determinants of higher-order births, this study uses a gender and class perspective to analyse second birth progression rates in Germany. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel from 1990 to 2020, individuals are classified based on their occupation into: upper service, lower service, skilled manual/higher-grade routine nonmanual, and semi-/unskilled manual/lower-grade routine nonmanual classes. Results highlight the "economic advantage" of men and women in service classes who experience strongly elevated second birth rates. Finally, we demonstrate that upward career mobility post-first birth is associated with higher second birth rates, particularly among men.

Family Structure and Family Climate in Relation to Health and Socioeconomic Status for Older Adults: A Longitudinal Moderated Mediation Analysis.

Family characteristics are associated with individuals' health and wellbeing. However, the link between family structure (e.g., operationalized via marital status) and health outcomes is ambiguous, and whether family climate mediates the relationship is unclear. This study uses the Biobehavioral Family Model (BBFM) to investigate the association of older adults' family structure with later health, the mediating role of family climate and mental health and how these links vary by socioeconomic status (SES). Using data from n = 29,457 respondents aged over 50 in Waves 4, 5 and 6 (2011, 2013 and 2015) of the Survey of Health, Retirement and Ageing in Europe (SHARE), the BBFM was applied in a longitudinal mediation analysis of family structure and health, including both indicators of mental and physical health. Structural equation modeling was applied, and a multigroup analysis was performed to test the role of SES in a moderated mediation. Family climate and mental health mediated the relationship between family structure and subsequent physical health. Good levels of family climate were found to be consistently associated with improved mental and physical health. These relationships were significantly moderated by SES, showing that the association of family climate and health was weaker for those in low SES positions. Family climate and mental health should be considered as potential mechanisms linking family structure to later physical health outcomes across time; however, these associations are diminished for those with low SES.

Educational Differences in Cohort Fertility Across Sub-national Regions in Europe.

Educational differences in female cohort fertility vary strongly across high-income countries and over time, but knowledge about how educational fertility differentials play out at the sub-national regional level is limited. Examining these sub-national regional patterns might improve our understanding of national patterns, as regionally varying contextual conditions may affect fertility. This study provides for the first time for a large number of European countries a comprehensive account of educational differences in the cohort fertility rate (CFR) at the sub-national regional level. We harmonise data from population registers, censuses, and large-sample surveys for 15 countries to measure women's completed fertility by educational level and region of residence at the end of the reproductive lifespan. In order to explore associations between educational differences in CFRs and levels of economic development, we link our data to regional GDP per capita. Empirical Bayesian estimation is used to reduce uncertainty in the regional fertility estimates. We document an overall negative gradient between the CFR and level of education, and notable regional variation in the gradient. The steepness of the gradient is inversely related to the economic development level. It is steepest in the least developed regions and close to zero in the most developed regions. This tendency is observed within countries as well as across all regions of all countries. Our findings underline the variability of educational gradients in women's fertility, suggest that higher levels of development may be associated with less negative gradients, and call for more in-depth sub-national-level fertility analyses by education.

Job Displacement and First Birth Over the Business Cycle.

In this article, we investigate the impact of job displacement on women's first-birth rates as well as the variation in this effect over the business cycle. We use mass layoffs to estimate the causal effects of involuntary job loss on fertility in the short and medium term, up to five years after displacement. Our analysis is based on rich administrative data from Germany, with an observation period spanning more than 20 years. We apply inverse probability weighting (IPW) to flexibly control for the observed differences between women who were and were not displaced. To account for the differences in the composition of the women who were displaced in a downturn and the women who were displaced in an upswing, we use a double weighting estimator. Results show that the extent to which job displacement has adverse effects on fertility depends on the business cycle. The first-birth rates were much lower for women who were displaced in an economic downturn than for those who lost a job in an economic upturn. This result cannot be explained by changes in the observed characteristics of the displaced women over the business cycle.

Gendered Authorship and Demographic Research: An Analysis of 50 Years of Demography.

Demography, the official journal of the Population Association of America, has been given the highest rating among demographic journals by the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). Our aim here is to investigate the development of research subfields and female authorship in Demography over the last 50 years. We find that female authorship in Demography has risen considerably since the 1980s and that currently a woman is about as likely as a man to be the sole or the first author of a paper published in the journal. However, we find some differences by subfield. Women seem to be overrepresented in the "family and household" research subfield but underrepresented in the "mortality and health" and "data and methods" categories.

Socioeconomic differences in the unemployment and fertility nexus: Evidence from Denmark and Germany.

Studies that have investigated the role of unemployment in childbearing decisions have often shown no or only barely significant results. We argue that many of these "non-findings" may be attributed to a neglect of group-specific differences in behavior. In this study, we examine how the association of unemployment and fertility varies by socio-demographic subgroups using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) and from Danish population registers. We find that male unemployment is related to a postponement of first and second childbearing in both countries. The role of female unemployment is less clear at these two parities. Both male and female unemployment is positively correlated with third birth risks. More importantly, our results show that there are strong educational gradients in the unemployment and fertility nexus, and that the relationship between unemployment and fertility varies by socioeconomic group. Fertility tends to be lower during periods of unemployment among highly educated women and men, but not among their less educated counterparts.

Changes in union status during the transition to parenthood in eleven European countries, 1970s to early 2000s.

Couples who have children are increasingly likely to have lived together without being married at some point in their relationship. Some couples begin their unions with cohabitation and marry before first conception, some marry during pregnancy or directly after the first birth, while others remain unmarried 3 years after the first birth. Using union and fertility histories since the 1970s for eleven countries, we examine whether women who have children in unions marry, and if so, at what stage in family formation. We also examine whether women who conceive when cohabiting are more likely to marry or separate. We find that patterns of union formation and childbearing develop along different trajectories across countries. In all countries, however, less than 40 per cent of women remained in cohabitation up to 3 years after the first birth, suggesting that marriage remains the predominant institution for raising children.

Has East Germany overtaken West Germany? Recent trends in order-specific fertility.

Some 20 years after reunification, the contrast between East and West Germany offers a natural experiment for studying the degree of persistence of Communist-era family patterns, the effects of economic change, and fertility postponement. After reunification, period fertility rates plummeted in the former East Germany to record low levels. Since the mid-1990s, however, period fertility rates have been rising in East Germany, in contrast to the nearly constant rates seen in the West. By 2008, the TFR of East Germany had overtaken that of the West. We explore why fertility in East Germany is higher than in West Germany, despite unfavorable economic circumstances in the East. We address this and related questions by (a) presenting an account of the persisting East/West differences in attitudes toward and constraints on childbearing, (b) conducting an order-specific fertility analysis of recent fertility trends, and (c) projecting completed fertility for the recent East and west German cohorts. In addition to using the Human Fertility Database, perinatal statistics allow us to calculate a tempo-corrected TFR for East and West Germany.

The educational gradient of childbearing within cohabitation in Europe.

Nearly every European Country has experienced some increase in nonmarital childbearing, largely due to increasing births within cohabitation. Relatively few studies in Europe, however, investigate the educational gradient of childbearing within cohabitation or how it changed over time. Using retrospective union and fertility histories, we employ competing risk hazard models to examine the educational gradient of childbearing in cohabitation in eight countries across europe. In all countries studied, birth risks within cohabitation demonstrated a negative educational gradient. When directly comparing cohabiting fertility with marital fertility, the negative educational gradient persists in all countries except Italy, although differences were not significant in Austria, France, and West Germany. To explain these findings, we present an alternative explanation for the increase in childbearing within cohabitation that goes beyond the explanation of the Second Demographic Transition and provides a new interpretation of the underlying mechanisms that may influence childbearing within cohabitation.