Couples' provision of informal care for parents and parents-in-law: far from sharing equally?

This study examines whether and how couples share the provision of informal care for their parents. Four waves of the British General Household Survey contain cross-sectional information about caring for parents and parents-in-law. Descriptive and multivariate analyses were conducted on 2214 couples that provided parent care. The findings emphasise married men’s contribution to informal caring for the parental generation and at the same time demonstrate the limits of their involvement. Spouses share many parts of their care-giving but this arrangement is less common with respect to personal and physical care. The more care is required the more likely are people to participate in care for their parents-in-law. More sons-in-law than daughters-in-law provide care but, once involved, daughters-in-law provide on average more hours of care than sons-inlaw. Own full-time employment reduces both men’s and women’s caring for their parents-in-law, and men’s caring drops further if their wife is not in the labour market. The findings suggest that daughters-in-law often take direct responsibility whereas sons-in-laws’ care-giving depends more on their wives’ involvement. Children-in-laws’ informal care-giving might decrease in the future because of women’s increasing involvement in the labour market and rising levels of nonmarital cohabitation in mid-life

Childbirth in East and West German Stepfamilies

The present paper studies fertility rates in partnerships with and without children from previous partners in East and West Germany. Data from the German "Fertility and Family Survey" is used to estimate piecewise-linear hazard rate models for having another child. It turns out that a proportional-hazard model would give incorrect results because childbirth follows different time patterns for couples who have already a shared child and couples who do not. Therefore, a model with specific clocks for various experiences of parenthood is specified. Based on these model estimations the probability for having another child within a certain time is calculated. In West Germany the estimated likelihood of having another child within six years varies little by child composition. In contrast, East-German couples with no shared child have a higher likelihood than couples with a shared child to have a child within six years.fertility, hazard rate model, proportionality assumption, stepfamily

Partner Choice and Women's Paid Work in Sweden - The Role of Earnings

Recent observations of higher labour -market activity among women with a high-earning spouse and widened household inequality have spurred research interest in earnings homogamy and in effects of own and spouse’s earnings on female labour supply. This article studies trends in earnings homogamy among married and cohabiting parents and in effects of own and spouse’s earnings on mothers’ time in employment and non-employment in Sweden. We analyse, first, correlations between spouses’ earnings and, second, effects of time -varying own and spouse’s earnings on mothers’ transitions between part-time and full-time work, on their exits from and re-entries into employment and on their exits from parental leave over the years 1968-92. We use individual life histories from the 1992 Swedish Family Survey combined with longitudinal information on earnings from the national taxation register. A unique aspect of this data set is that it has very accurate longitudinal earnings information for both married and cohabiting spouses, including former spouses. We find that mothers’ own earnings have a larger and more significant impact on their labour -market transitions than spouse’s earnings and that the impact of the latter has even declined over time.-

Climatological relationships of severe duststorms in the Great Plains to synoptic weather patterns: A potential for predictability

A data base provided by 35 severe duststorms that occurred between 1968 and 1977 in the central and southern Great Plains allowed construction of a classification scheme of meteorological causes of duststorms, and a telescopic forecast technique for medium range (6 to 48 hour) prediction of severe cyclogenic duststorms. In addition, areal coverage definitions for duststorms based on characteristics of the storms, and a hierarchy of weather causes of severe duststorms were developed. The man machine mix forecast correctly predicted six of seven duststorms observed during the 1976-77 winter, with one overforecast; the machine-only forecast correctly predicted four of the seven duststorms, with one overforecast. Both techniques had problems correctly predicting the duration of severe duststorms

Couples’ daily childcare schedules: gendered patterns and variations

Gender inequality of childcare provision is regarded as one of the main barriers to women’s labour-market careers. However, there is a scarcity of quantitative studies that examine fathers’ and mothers’ combined childcare. This research focuses on father’s and mother’s timing and type of childcare for co-resident couples with a young child. Using the two most recent UK Time-Use Surveys, the study derives typologies of couples’ childcare patterns with a particular focus on gender differences. The five patterns on weekdays and three patterns on weekend days highlight gender inequalities not just in the duration of parents’ time with their children but also in its timing. Mothers are more often than fathers involved during standard working hours. The childcare patterns vary only modestly by occupational class. This might be related to the fluidity of couples’ daily childcare patterns, which change with children’s ages and across days of the working week

Diversity in UK families: liberalization of public attitudes and policies

In the 21st century, marriages have become more stable in the UK, but they have also become less prominent in adults’ lives. Attitudes toward sexuality, gender, and the standard family have liberalized remarkably. New family forms, especially SGM families and families created by MAR, have been recognized in UK family laws and policies. New legislation has also affected more common types of family, for example, by assigning enhanced rights and responsibilities to fathers and by increasing work requirements for many parents who receive benefits. More restrictive immigration policies have raised barriers to family life in migrant and transnational families