The influence of men’s income and employment on marriage and cohabitation: testing Oppenheimer’s theory in Europe

"This article discusses Oppenheimer’s theory on marriage timing, reviews the way this theory was received in European demography and family sociology, and develops a new test of the theory using annual panel data from 13 European countries for the period 1994–2001. Several indicators of men’s economic status are used, including school enrollment, employment, type of labor contract, work experience, income, and education. Effects of these indicators are estimated for the transition to marriage and cohabitation, as well as for the transition from cohabitation to marriage. Country differences in these effects are examined as well. The evidence provides strong support for the male breadwinner hypothesis on the one hand, and for Oppenheimer’s career uncertainty hypothesis on the other. However, the relevance of these hypotheses also depends on the national context, and especially on the way gender roles are divided in a society." [author's abstract]Dans cet article relatif à la théorie d’Oppenheimer sur le calendrier du mariage, nous examinons la manière dont cette théorie a été perçue par la démographie européenne et la sociologie de la famille et nous testons à nouveau cette théorie à l’aide de données de panel annuel collectées dans 13 pays européens au cours de la période 1994–2001. Différents indicateurs du statut économique de l’homme sont utilisés, tels que la scolarisation, l’emploi, le type de contrat de travail, l’expérience professionnelle, le revenu et le niveau d’instruction. Les effets de ces indicateurs sont estimés pour l’entrée dans le mariage ou la cohabitation, ainsi que pour le passage de la cohabitation au mariage. Les différences entre pays des effets de ces indicateurs sont également examinées. Les résultats appuient fortement l’hypothèse de l’homme en tant que soutien économique de la famille d’une part, et d’autre part l’hypothèse d’instabilité professionnelle d’Oppenheimer. Cependant, la pertinence de ces hypothèses dépend également du contexte national, et plus spécialement de la répartition des rôles selon le genre dans la société étudiée

Weakened parent-child ties and the well-being of older divorced parents

Background: The consequences of declining parent-child ties after divorce have primarily been studied for children's well-being and not for parents' well-being. Some parents lose contact with their children after divorce, and one would expect that such a decline in contact hampers their emotional well-being, in particular when parents are older and children are adults. Objective: This study aims to describe the association between how much contact divorced fathers and mothers have with their children and parents' well-being in old age. Methods: This report uses a survey with a register-based oversample of divorced parents and children from the Netherlands in 2017 (N = 4,641). Parents (mean age 62) reported about life satisfaction, health, and loneliness and on contact with two adult children (mean age 34). Results: A sizeable minority of older divorced parents had little or no contact with their children, although this was more common among fathers than mothers. Parents who had little or no contact with their adult children had substantially lower levels of well-being than parents who had regular contact with their adult children. A negative association was present for mothers and fathers. Divorced parents with a (new) partner were less strongly affected by the lack of contact with children, pointing to the compensating role of partners. Conclusions: Reduced contact with adult children after divorce is strongly associated with parents' well-being. In a more general sense, the findings point to a vulnerable segment of the divorced population that is currently aging. Contribution: The study presents systematic quantitative evidence on an often assumed but rarely tested association

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Uit het NKPS-onderzoek blijkt dat bij meer dan de helft van alle ouder-kind relaties wekelijks sprake is van face-to-face contact.Bij vijf procent is er helemaal geen contact.Zes procent van de moeders en negen procent van de vaders heeft het contact met ten minste één kind verbroken. Het aantal contacten per kind neemt rechtlijnig af met de grootte van de kinderschare