Identifying and Qualifying Deviant Cases in Clusters of Sequences: The Why and The How.

Sequence analysis is employed in different fields-e.g., demography, sociology, and political sciences-to describe longitudinal processes represented as sequences of categorical states. In many applications, sequences are clustered to identify relevant types, which reflect the different empirical realisations of the temporal process under study. We explore criteria to inspect internal cluster composition and to detect deviant sequences, that is, cases characterised by rare patterns or outliers that might compromise cluster homogeneity. We also introduce tools to visualise and distinguish the features of regular and deviant cases. Our proposals offer a more accurate and granular description of the data structure, by identifying-besides the most typical types-peculiar sequences that might be interesting from a substantive and theoretical point of view. This analysis could be very useful in applications where-under the assumption of within homogeneity-clusters are used as outcome or explanatory variables in regressions. We demonstrate the added value of our proposal in a motivating application from life-course socio-demography, focusing on Italian women's employment trajectories and on their link with their mothers' participation in the labour market across geographical areas.

My Wealth, (Y)Our Life Satisfaction? Sole and Joint Wealth Ownership and Life Satisfaction in Marriage.

This study examines the money-subjective well-being nexus by studying the link between changes in jointly and solely (i.e. respondents' own and their partner's own) held gross wealth and changes in married individuals' subjective well-being. Joint assets reflect norms of sharing responsibilities and resources. Solely held assets, in contrast, offer individual economic independence. Using wealth data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP; 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017), we estimate individual fixed effects regressions. Although coefficients for all three wealth measures are positive, our results highlight that only increases in jointly held wealth are associated with statistically significant increases in spouses' life satisfaction in Germany. Despite expectations about a stronger relevance of joint wealth for men compared to women in line with men's role as a financial provider for the family, we do not find substantial gender differences in the positive association between increases in joint wealth and life satisfaction. In light of the individualisation of marriages, our results highlight that the personal benefits associated with marital sharing of wealth seem to trump those of economic independence and financial autonomy. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10680-022-09630-7.

Wealth in Couples: Introduction to the Special Issue.

The assumption that economic resources are equally shared within households has been found to be untenable for income but is still often upheld for wealth. In this introduction to the special issue "Wealth in Couples", we argue that within-household inequality in wealth is a pertinent and under-researched area that is ripe for development. To this end, we outline the relevance of wealth for demographic research, making the distinction between individual and household wealth. Drawing on a life-course perspective, we discuss individual wealth accumulation within couples and its links to family-demographic processes, the institutional context, and norms on pooling and sharing. We conclude with a brief summary of the main findings from the special issue and highlight implications for demographic research and for future research in this field.

Sequence analysis: Its past, present, and future.

This article marks the occasion of Social Science Research's 50th anniversary by reflecting on the progress of sequence analysis (SA) since its introduction into the social sciences four decades ago, with focuses on the developments of SA thus far in the social sciences and on its potential future directions. The application of SA in the social sciences, especially in life course research, has mushroomed in the last decade and a half. Using a life course analogy, we examined the birth of SA in the social sciences and its childhood (the first wave), its adolescence and young adulthood (the second wave), and its future mature adulthood in the paper. The paper provides a summary of (1) the important SA research and the historical contexts in which SA was developed by Andrew Abbott, (2) a thorough review of the many methodological developments in visualization, complexity measures, dissimilarity measures, group analysis of dissimilarities, cluster analysis of dissimilarities, multidomain/multichannel SA, dyadic/polyadic SA, Markov chain SA, sequence life course analysis, sequence network analysis, SA in other social science research, and software for SA, and (3) reflections on some future directions of SA including how SA can benefit and inform theory-making in the social sciences, the methods currently being developed, and some remaining challenges facing SA for which we do not yet have any solutions. It is our hope that the reader will take up the challenges and help us improve and grow SA into maturity.

Family demographic processes and in-work poverty: A systematic review.

This article reviews ever published quantitative evidence on in-work poverty and family demographic processes in OECD and EU-28 countries. Despite the increasing attention to in-work poverty in Europe and beyond, a comprehensive and critical review on how family demographic processes shape in-work poverty risks is still missing. In this systematic review, we first provide a quantitative review of results from analyses that estimated the association between in-work poverty and parental home leaving, union formation, marriage, parenthood, and dissolution of non-marital and marital unions. This allows us to formulate tentative conclusions about whether and in which direction family demographic processes are associated with in-work poverty. Second, we discuss in detail conceptual and methodological advances in in-work poverty research, such as longitudinal analytical designs or attempts to make in-work poverty research more sensitive to policy context, gender, and the life course. Our review highlights theoretical and methodological challenges for future studies linking in-work poverty and family demography.

Is Parental Divorce Homogamy Associated With a Higher Risk of Separation From Cohabitation and Marriage?

Numerous studies have shown that parental divorce is associated with an increase in adult children's divorce risk. We extend this literature by assessing how parental divorce on both sides of a couple is related to their partnership dynamics, specifically, whether there is parental divorce homogamy and whether a history of parental divorce for both partners is associated with increased dissolution risks for cohabiting and married unions. We use Finnish Census Panel data on 28,021 cohabiting and marital partnerships to conduct event-history models that follow individuals between ages 18 and 45. Findings show substantial parental divorce homogamy. Children with experience of parental divorce have 13% greater odds of cohabiting with and 17% greater odds of marrying a fellow child of divorcees, compared with those whose parents have not divorced. Moreover, contrary to evidence from the United States and Norway, our findings for Finland support an additive-rather than multiplicative-association between parental divorce homogamy and union dissolution. Parental divorce homogamy increases offspring's union dissolution risk by 20% for cohabitation and 70% for marriage, compared with couples for whom neither partner's parents are divorced. In Finland, the sizes of these associations are notably weaker than in the United States and Norway, likely because cohabitation and separation are more widespread and socially accepted in Finland, and an expansive welfare state buffers the socioeconomic consequences of divorce.

Gender and race differences in pathways out of in-work poverty in the US.

Research on in-work poverty has focused on the probability of being employed while living in an impoverished household, but no studies have investigated pathways of labor market attachment and economic vulnerability following in-work poverty. We use the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to establish a typology of employment pathways out of in-work poverty and to estimate differences by gender and race. By using the Sequence Analysis Multistate Model procedure, we identify five distinct pathways characterized by varying degrees of labor market attachment, economic vulnerability, and volatility. White men are most likely exit in-work poverty into stable employment outside of poverty, while Black men and women often experience recurrent spells of in-work poverty. Gender and race differences persist even after controlling for labor market and family demographic characteristics. Our results indicate that work-related anti-poverty strategies must be coupled with adequately high wages and employment protection legislation to effectively raise working households out of poverty.

Limited detraditionalization of intimacy: Growing socioeconomic differences in contraceptive use at first intercourse in Italy.

This paper investigates links between social inequality and reproductive behavior. It complements the extensive research on the stratification of young adults' life chances in education and the labor market by considering changes over time in the stratification of contraceptive use at first intercourse by parental background. We seek to understand detraditionalization trends in young people's sexually intimate behavior by investigating whether these trends were driven by particular social groups and how they were supported by policy initiatives. We study Italy from 1950 to 2006, which shows strong regional and socioeconomic disparities, and comparatively slow changes in religiosity and gender norms. Data from the "Survey on Italians' Sexual Behavior" (2006) and macro indicators on family planning centers are used. The findings show a steep increase in contraceptive use at first sexual intercourse over time, stratified by parental background, but only for condom use. We did not find that family planning centers intervened in these relationships.

The Heterogeneity of Partnership Trajectories to Childlessness in Germany.

In recent decades, childlessness has increased across many European countries. In addition to socioeconomic characteristics, having a partner is considered a prerequisite in most fertility studies. Yet, still little is known about the partnership biographies of childless women and men. We assess the heterogeneity in the partnership trajectories of childless persons in Germany and explore compositional differences of partnership trajectories by gender and education. We use data from the German Family Panel to reconstruct partnership biographies reflecting the occurrence and frequency of different partnership states (singleness, living apart together, cohabitation, marriage). The sample comprises women and men born 1971-1973 whose life courses are observed from age 18-40. Applying sequence and cluster analysis, we identify five patterns of partnership trajectories: (1) 'Marriage' (14.6%); (2) 'Long-term cohabitation' (11.8%) with one partner; (3) 'Serial cohabitation' (15.6%); (4) 'LAT' (18.8%), long-term/multiple living-apart-together relationships; and (5) 'Single' (39.3%), long-term singleness. Men are overrepresented in the 'Single' cluster, especially if highly educated. Women are more often married and more likely to experience long-lasting singleness or multiple LAT episodes when being highly educated. We speculate that theories predicting high levels of childlessness in contexts where gender norms and work-family policies do not account for the increasing gender equality in education and labor force participation might also explain differences in the pathways leading to childlessness. Generally, our findings point at a more elaborate conceptualization of childlessness that moves away from a binary cross-sectional indicator and set the ground for future cross-national comparisons.

Pushed or pulled? Girls and boys facing early school leaving risk in Italy.

Compared to girls, boys are more at risk of early school leaving. However, it is unclear whether gender differences are driven by push factors, which alienate students from the school system, or pull factors, which attract them out of it. This paper examines gender differences in early school leaving, assessing the role of previous scholastic performance, parental education, and differential employment opportunities. By analyzing two nationally representative datasets, we focus on Italy, a country with high rates of early school leaving and pronounced gender inequalities in the labor market. Our results show that gender effects are partially mediated by scholastic performance, a crucial push factor, and are stronger among low-achieving students, pointing to a higher resilience of girls to academic failure; parental education is highly protective, especially for boys. Yet, boys' higher propensity to drop out is also, at least partly, explained by better employment opportunities in the formal and informal labor market.