Reassessing Chronic Strain: A Research Note on Women's Income Dynamics After Divorce and Separation.

The economic consequences of divorce and separation for women are commonly associated with the chronic strain model, according to which women's losses are large and persistent. This research note shifts the focus to a crisis model highlighting women's potential of, and routes to, recovery from initial losses. Drawing on German Socio-Economic Panel data (1984-2021) on women in marital and cohabiting unions (N ∼ 27,000 women, N ∼ 3,400 divorces and separations), we use fixed-effects regression models and event-history models to analyze changes in equivalized monthly household income and poverty risk across the process of divorce and separation. Results show that most women recovered from their initial economic declines. Although initial losses were common and often sizable, large fractions of women eventually returned to or exceeded the household income expected in the absence of divorce and separation. Recovery was facilitated by the "traditional" route of repartnering and the "modern" route of women mobilizing their productive skills. Both routes appeared more important than the absence of barriers, such as children in the household. We conclude that for the majority of women, the economic consequences of divorce and separation are better described as a temporary crisis than as a chronic strain.

Family size and economic wellbeing following divorce: The United States in comparative perspective.

Studies have documented the negative association between divorce and women's economic wellbeing in several countries. Less is known about whether the effects of divorce on women's economic wellbeing, and their persistency, vary by family size. We present the first comprehensive assessment of how the short-term and medium-term economic consequences of divorce vary by family size. Using data from the US (PSID) and between-within random-effects models, we estimate changes in women's gross household income up to six years following divorce, stratified by the number of children in the household in the year of divorce. We add a comparative perspective using a harmonized set of socio-economic panel surveys from Australia (HILDA), Germany (GSOEP), and the UK (BHPS). Our findings demonstrate that the household incomes of women with three or more children decrease most drastically in the US, Germany, and the UK. In these countries, divorce widens the economic gap between child-rich households and those with no or few children. While childless women's incomes do not recover in the medium-term, incomes of mothers in Germany, the UK, and to a lesser extent the US partially recuperate. We demonstrate that differences in labor market attachment, and not remarriage, partially account for the family size differences we observe.

Explaining cross-national differences in leaving home.

There are large cross-national differences in the age of leaving home. The literature offers cultural, economic, and institutional explanations for these differences but has not examined all three explanations in one study. We examine these three explanations using data of the European Social Survey (ESS) from 2002 to 2016, supplemented with year-specific macro-level indicators from other data sources. We use a dynamic pseudo-panel design, allowing us to track the home-leaving behaviour of cohorts born between 1970 and 1999 in 22 European countries. Our findings show that the three sets of explanations are additive rather than competing, each explaining some of the cross-national differences in leaving home. The cultural context forms the most important explanation for the cross-national variation. In total, we explain 80% of cross-national variation in leaving home. Important predictors are religiosity, individualistic family values, change in youth unemployment, GDP and the net replacement rate.

Educational Reproduction in Germany: A Prospective Study Based on Retrospective Data.

This study examines educational reproduction of East and West German men and women born between 1930 and 1950. In a prospective design, we study the importance of mobility and fertility pathways of reproduction, considering not only the social reproduction of education as an attribute but also the demographic reproduction of individuals who carry this attribute. Using data from NEPS and SOEP, we introduce a method that estimates prospective models based on retrospective data commonly available in surveys. The analysis offers new estimates of the expected number of high- and low-educated children born to men and women of different levels of education. Findings show that the importance of the fertility pathway of educational reproduction was higher in West than in East Germany, higher for women than for men, and higher for earlier than for later cohorts. For West German women of earlier cohorts, the fertility pathway tempered educational reproduction among the high-educated and reinforced it among the low-educated. Population renewal models show that differential fertility slightly lowered educational attainment and slightly increased inequality in educational attainment in the offspring generation. Across cohorts, the fertility pathway declined in importance, a result of fertility convergence between education groups and educational expansion in postwar Germany. We conclude that prospective designs advance our understanding of educational reproduction. The method that we introduce substantially reduces the data requirements of prospective analysis, facilitating future prospective research on social stratification.

Family, Firms, and Fertility: A Study of Social Interaction Effects.

Research has indicated that fertility spreads through social networks and attributed this phenomenon to social interaction effects. It remains unclear, however, whether the findings of previous studies reflect the direct influence of network partners or contextual and selection factors, such as shared environment and common background characteristics. The present study uses instrumental variables to improve the identification of social interaction effects on fertility. Using data from the System of social statistical data sets (SSD) of Statistics Netherlands, we identify two networks-the network of colleagues at the workplace and the network of siblings in the family-to examine the influence of network partners on individual fertility decisions. Discrete-time event-history models with random effects provide evidence for social interaction effects, showing that colleagues' and siblings' fertility have direct consequences for an individual's fertility. Moreover, colleague effects are concentrated in female-female interactions, and women are more strongly influenced by their siblings, regardless of siblings' gender. These results are the first to demonstrate spillover effects across network boundaries, suggesting that fertility effects accumulate through social ties not only within but also across different domains of interaction.

Gender Differences in the Consequences of Divorce: A Study of Multiple Outcomes.

In this study, I examined gender differences in the consequences of divorce by tracing annual change in 20 outcome measures covering four domains: economic, housing and domestic, health and well-being, and social. I used data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) and fixed-effects panel regression models on a sample of N = 18,030 individuals initially observed in a marital union, N = 1,220 of whom divorced across the observation period (1984-2015). Three main findings emerged from the analysis. First, men were more vulnerable to short-term consequences of divorce for subjective measures of well-being, but postdivorce adaptation alleviated gender differences in these outcomes. Second, a medium-term view on multiple outcomes showed more similarity than differences between women and men. The medium-term consequences of divorce were similar in terms of subjective economic well-being; mental health, physical health, and psychological well-being; residential moves, homeownership, and satisfaction with housework; and chances of repartnering, social integration with friends and relatives, and feelings of loneliness. Third, the key domain in which large and persistent gender differences emerged were women's disproportionate losses in household income and associated increases in their risk of poverty and single parenting. Taken together, these findings suggest that men's disproportionate strain of divorce is transient, whereas women's is chronic.

Family Structure and Early Home Leaving: A Mediation Analysis.

An ample body of research has shown that young adults from non-intact families are more likely to leave the parental home at an early age than young adults from intact families. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying this relationship. We drew on prospective longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) to examine why young adults from non-intact families are more likely to leave home early. Based on the feathered nest hypothesis, it was expected that young adults from non-intact families are pushed out of the parental home because of a lack in economic, social, and community resources. Moreover, it was expected that young adults from non-intact families are pulled toward independent living at a younger age because they have a partner and are employed earlier in life. We employed discrete-time event history models and used the KHB method to test relative weights of the mediators. The mediators explained 16% (women) and 22% (men) of the effect of living in a stepfamily, and 50% (women) and 37% (men) of the effect of living in a single-mother family. Economic resources were the main mediator for the effect of living in a single-mother family on early home leaving. For women, mother's life satisfaction and housing conditions significantly explained differences in early home leaving between single-mother and intact families. For men, residential mobility significantly mediated the effect of family structure on early home leaving.

Do Immigrants Suffer More From Job Loss? Unemployment and Subjective Well-being in Germany.

This study asks whether immigrants suffer more from unemployment than German natives. Differences between these groups in pre-unemployment characteristics, the type of the transition into unemployment, and the consequences of this transition suggest that factors intensifying the negative impact of unemployment on subjective well-being are more concentrated in immigrants than in natives. Based on longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (1990-2014; N = 34,767 persons aged 20 to 64; N = 210,930 person-years), we used fixed-effects models to trace within-person change in subjective well-being across the transition from employment into unemployment and over several years of continued unemployment. Results showed that immigrants' average declines in subjective well-being exceeded those of natives. Further analyses revealed gender interactions. Among women, declines were smaller and similar among immigrants and natives. Among men, declines were larger and differed between immigrants and natives. Immigrant men showed the largest declines, amounting to one standard deviation of within-person change over time in subjective well-being. Normative, social, and economic factors did not explain these disproportionate declines. We discuss alternative explanations for why immigrant men are most vulnerable to the adverse effects of unemployment in Germany.

Is Divorce More Painful When Couples Have Children? Evidence From Long-Term Panel Data on Multiple Domains of Well-being.

Theoretical models of the divorce process suggest that marital breakup is more painful in the presence of children, yet little is known about the role of children as a moderator of divorce effects on adult well-being. The present study addresses this gap of research based on long-term panel data from Germany (SOEP). Following individuals over several years before and after divorce, we investigated whether the impact of divorce on multiple measures of well-being varied by the presence and age of children before marital breakup. Three central findings emerged from the analysis. First, declines in well-being were sharper in the presence of children, and these moderator effects were larger if children were younger. Second, domain-specific measures of well-being revealed gender differences in the moderating role of children. Mothers sustained deeper drops in economic well-being than did fathers; the reverse was true for family well-being. Third, most of these disproportionate declines in the well-being of divorced parents did not persist in the long term given that higher rates of adaptation leveled out the gaps compared with childless divorcees.

Parent-Child Relationships Following Gray Divorce: Stronger Ties With Mothers, Weaker Ties With Fathers.

OBJECTIVES: With rising gray divorce rates, older individuals face heightened risk of social isolation, highlighting the significance of adult children as a vital source of solidarity in the absence of a spouse. Simultaneously, gray divorce may undermine parent-adult child relationships and weaken the core of the family safety net of older persons. This study examined the consequences of gray divorce for parent-child relationships. METHODS: We used longitudinal data from the German Family Panel (Pairfam), a large-scale panel study collecting detailed information about family relationships and family structure. We focused on adult children aged 18-49 (n = 9,092) whose parents were married at first observation. During an observation period spanning up to 13 years (2008-2020), 606 individuals experienced parental divorce. Using fixed-effects models, we estimated changes in contact frequency, emotional closeness, and instrumental and emotional support provided to parents. RESULTS: Consequences of gray divorce varied strongly between mothers and fathers. Adult-child solidarity intensified for mothers but eroded for fathers. This impact was strongest for changes in contact frequency, moderate for changes in emotional closeness, and smaller for changes in support. The persistence of gender role differentiation was evident, as daughters displayed closer ties and provided greater support to their mothers following a gray divorce. DISCUSSION: Divorce alters relationships with adult children. A gray divorce tilts adult-child solidarity toward mothers and puts fathers at a higher risk of social isolation. Moreover, the observed gender dynamics underscore the continued influence of gender roles on family dynamics in the aftermath of gray divorce.

How far do children move? Spatial distances after leaving the parental home.

This research used geocoded data from 11 waves (2000-2010) of the German Socio-economic Panel Study to investigate the spatial distances of young adults' initial move-outs (N=2113) from their parents' homes. Linear regression models predicted moving distances by factors at individual, family, household, and community level. Overall, home leavers moved across very small distances with a median value of less than 10km. Greater distances were found for well-educated and childless home leavers who moved out at relatively young ages from high-income households located in less-urbanized regions. In line with developmental models of migration, young adults stayed closer if the parental household was still located at their place of childhood. We conclude that considering the spatial distance of move-outs may advance our understanding of individual passages to adulthood and intergenerational relations across the life course.

Sibling influence on family formation: A study of social interaction effects on fertility, marriage, and divorce.

This study examined social interaction effects on family formation and dissolution, asking whether fertility, marital, and divorce behavior spread in the sibling network. Using panel data from the German SOEP (1984 - 2016; N = 4,521 individuals), we estimated discrete-time event history models with random effects at the individual to examine whether siblings' transitions to parenthood, marriage, and divorce influence an individual's chance to have children, marry, and divorce. Results show that the hazard of becoming a parent increased in the short term after a sibling had a child. Similarly, the hazard of getting married increased following a sibling's marriage. Tentative evidence also suggested that transition rates to divorce increased in the longer term following a sibling's divorce. Furthermore, we found evidence for social interaction effects across different transitions in the process of family formation, as the transition rates to marriage decreased after a sibling divorced. Conversely, the risk of divorce decreased following a sibling's entry to marriage. Overall, these findings illustrate that the impact of network partners on demographic behavior is not limited to the same behavioral domain and might be negative as well as positive.

The Comparative Panel File: Harmonized Household Panel Surveys from Seven Countries.

The Comparative Panel File (CPF) harmonizes the world's largest and longest-running household panel surveys from seven countries: Australia (HILDA), Germany (SOEP), United Kingdom (BHPS and UKHLS), South Korea (KLIPS), Russia (RLMS), Switzerland (SHP), and the United States (PSID). The project aims to support the social science community in the analysis of comparative life course data. The CPF builds on the Cross-National Equivalent File but offers a larger range of variables, larger and more recent samples, an easier and more flexible workflow, and an open science platform for development. The CPF is not a data product but an open-source code that integrates individual and household panel data from all seven surveys into a harmonized three-level data structure. The CPF allows analysing individual trajectories, time trends, contextual effects, and country differences. The project is organized as an open science platform. The CPF version 1.0 contains 2.7 million observations from 360,000 respondents, covering the period from 1968 to 2019 and up to 40 panel waves per respondent. In this data brief, we present the background, design, and content of the CPF.

Health and Housework in Later Life: A Longitudinal Study of Retired Couples.

OBJECTIVES: To examine how changes in wives' and husbands' health influenced housework time and domestic outsourcing in retired couples. METHOD: We estimated fixed-effects models to test hypotheses about the gendered influence of health declines on absolute and relative measures of time spent on routine and nonroutine housework as well as the probability of outsourcing housework. The data were obtained from 23 waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel Study, comprising N = 25,119 annual observations of N = 3,889 retired couples aged 60-85 years. RESULTS: Wives' and husbands' housework time declined with health status, but these effects were large only for serious health problems. We found evidence for within-couple compensation of spouses' health declines, a mechanism that was limited to indispensable tasks of routine housework. The probability of getting paid help from outside the household increased with declining health, and this increase was more strongly tied to wives' health declines than to husbands' health declines. DISCUSSION: The results demonstrate the relevance of health status for the performance of housework in retired couples. The evidence attests to the resilience of couples during later-life stages in which health issues may severely inhibit domestic productivity.

Trajectories of life satisfaction before, upon, and after divorce: Evidence from a new matching approach.

The aim of the current study was to compare changes in divorcees' life satisfaction to changes in a control sample of nondivorcees. Prospective longitudinal data came from 33 waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel Study. Divorcees (n = 787) were propensity-score matched to nondivorcees (n = 1,629) in the year of marriage. In this way, we created a clear starting point and time scale related to different phases of the divorce process. Piecewise growth models indicated gradual declines in the years before divorce, a sudden decline in the year of divorce, and gradual increases in the years after. The matched control sample of people who remained married throughout the study period showed gradual declines in life satisfaction, suggesting that some but not all of the declines found in divorcees were associated with the divorce process. In the year of divorce and the years after divorce, divorcees showed larger individual differences in change as compared with nondivorcees. Time-invariant moderators explained a small amount of variance in divorcees' life satisfaction trajectories. Discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for theory and research on hedonic adaptation during major life transitions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Education and Health across Lives and Cohorts: A Study of Cumulative (Dis)advantage and Its Rising Importance in Germany.

Research from the United States has supported two hypotheses. First, educational gaps in health widen with age-the cumulative (dis)advantage hypothesis. Second, this relationship has intensified across cohorts-the rising importance hypothesis. In this article, we used 23 waves of panel data (Socio-Economic Panel Study, 1992-2014) to examine both hypotheses in the German context. We considered individual and contextual influences on the association between education and health, and we assessed gender differences in health trajectories over the life course (ages 23 to 84) and across cohorts (born between 1930 and 1969). For women, we found no support for either hypothesis, as educational gaps in self-rated health remained stable with age and across cohorts. Among men, we found support for both hypotheses, as educational gaps in self-rated health widened with age and increasingly in newer cohorts.

Retirement and Changes in Housework: A Panel Study of Dual Earner Couples.

Objectives: To examine how transitions to retirement influenced the division of household labor in dual earner couples. We tested hypotheses about changes (a) between a couple's preretirement and postretirement stage and (b) across the transitional phase during which both spouses retired. Method: We estimated fixed-effects models for the effects of the husband's and the wife's retirement on changes in their hours and share of routine housework. The data came from 29 waves of the German Socio-economic Panel Study, comprising N = 31,040 annual observations of N = 3,288 dual earner couples aged 45 to 75 years. Results: Spouses who retired first performed more housework, whereas their partners who continued working performed less. This occurred irrespective of the retirement sequence. Husbands who retired first doubled up on their share of housework, but never performed more than 40% of a couple's total hours. None of the observed shifts were permanent. After both spouses had retired, couples reverted to their preretirement division of housework. Discussion: Although the findings on changes after retirement support the time availability hypothesis, gender construction theories still take precedence in explaining the division of household labor over the life course.

Fertility and social interaction at the workplace: Does childbearing spread among colleagues?

This research investigates whether colleagues' fertility influences women's transitions to parenthood. We draw on Linked-Employer-Employee data (1993-2007) from the German Institute for Employment Research comprising 33,119 female co-workers in 6579 firms. Results from discrete-time hazard models reveal social interaction effects on fertility among women employed in the same firm. In the year after a colleague gave birth, transition rates to first pregnancy double. This effect declines over time and vanishes after two years. Further analyses suggest that the influence of colleagues' fertility is mediated by social learning.

The temporal structure of intergenerational exchange: a within-family analysis of parent-child reciprocity.

Previous studies of parent-child reciprocity have focused either on the long term (generalized exchange over the life course) or on the short term (concurrent exchange in later life). The purpose of this research was to investigate the linkage between both temporal patterns of reciprocity within an integrative conceptual framework. We assessed whether long-term and short-term reciprocity operated as interdependent mechanisms that initially selected and subsequently relieved intergenerational caregiving relationships. We used data from the Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old study (AHEAD) provided by frail, single-living parents of at least two children (N=1010 respondents comprising 3768 parent-child dyads). Fixed-effects conditional logit models estimated between-sibling differences in assistance provided to parents, measured by instrumental help (i.e., assistance with IADLs) and hands-on care (i.e., assistance with ADLs). Key predictors were two measures of financial transfers given to children referring to longer and shorter recall periods. Receiving earlier and current financial transfers increased adult children's propensity to support their parents in later life. The effect of earlier transfers pertained to help rather than care whereas the reverse was true for the effect of current transfers. We found no evidence for a linkage between long-term and short-term reciprocity. Overall, the results indicate that adult children might balance long-term support accounts relative to their siblings, suggesting an intra-generational orientation on equity.