Childcare and family ideology in Sweden

This study examines the impact of public and private childcare supply and family ideologies on individual childbearing behavior in Sweden. We assume that childcare services facilitate the reconciliation of family and paid work. However, this relationship is not independent from family images like "dual-earners" or the "male-breadwinner". Although differences in family ideologies are not very pronounced in an egalitarian society like Sweden, we expect that childcare provision encourages young adults to start a family especially if dual-earner families are well accepted. In the empirical part, we use logistic regressions to analyze the entry into parenthood. Based on the Swedish survey "Family and Working Life in the 21st Century" and regional data for the years 2001 to 2003, we find that the probability to become parents is low in regions with a high level of childcare provision. However, in regions where non-familial childcare is highly accepted and, simultaneously, the childcare supply is high individuals are more likely to have a first child. This finding shows the importance of attitudes towards family arrangements on fertility behavior and childcare usage.Sweden, child care

Partnership Living Arrangements of Immigrants and Natives in Germany

This paper compares the partnership arrangements of Turkish and Ethnic German immigrants (i.e., return migrants from Ethnic German communities from predominantly Eastern European countries), the two largest migrant groups in Germany, and native Germans. Most existing analyses of migrants' partnerships focus on intermarriage, marriage formation, or union dissolution. We know only a little, however, about the prevalence of non-marital living arrangements. Given that single person households and cohabitation are widespread phenomena mainly in post-materialist societies, analyzing whether immigrants engage in these behaviors sheds light on potential adaptation processes. The analyses are based on the German Microcensus of the years 2009 and 2013, with a focus on adults in the 18–40 age group. First, we present descriptive findings on the prevalence of partnership arrangements of immigrants and native Germans. Second, we estimate cross-sectional regressions with the partnership arrangement as the outcome variable in order to control for compositional differences between immigrant groups with respect to education. Our results show that while the vast majority of first-generation immigrants are married, the share of married natives is considerably smaller. Living in an independent household without a partner and cohabitation are rare phenomena among immigrants. By contrast, about one in seven natives is cohabiting and more than one quarter is living in an independent household without a partner. The most prevalent partnership living arrangement of the Turkish second generation is living in the parental household without a partner. These results are robust after controlling for education, age, and year in the multiple regression analysis

The Transition to a Coresidential Partnership:Who Moves and Who Has the Partner Move In?

Moving into a joint household is an important step in the process of union formation. While a growing body of literature investigates differences between those couples who start coresidence and those who do not, we know little about the likelihood of moving upon the start of coresidence. The aim of this paper is to investigate how individual and couple-level characteristics are associated with moving, or having a partner move in, at the start of coresidence. We use data from 10 waves of the German Family Panel pairfam for those who started coresidence (n = 983) and estimate logistic regression models of moving versus having a partner move in. The respondents in the sample are quite young with a mean age of 27. For long-distance relationships, those with a higher level of education than their partner and women who were living in close proximity to their parents were less likely to move. In short-distance relationships, respondents living in the parental home or in crowded housing were more likely to move than those living in uncrowded housing. In contrast with previous research, we did not find that women were more likely to move than men. Our results highlight that factors like educational resources, housing demands, and local family ties have differential effects on moving decisions at the start of coresidence depending on the distance moved

Education and Intended Number of Children in Germany, Moldova and Norway: An International Comparison Using FReDA and GGS-II-data

In this study, we compare the intended number of children in Germany, Moldova and Norway in 2020 and 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a first step, we compare the intended number of children (including children born) in the newly available Generations and Gender Survey round 2 (GGS-II) and the German FReDA-GGS data. In a second step, we estimate the number of further intended children with multinomial logistic regression models. The results reveal considerable differences across the three countries. Respondents in Moldova plan to have rather large families (on average 3.3 children, including children born), whereas individuals in Norway and Germany intend to have 2.0 and 1.8 children, respectively. In the multinomial logistic regression analyses, we find differences in the association of educational level and fertility plans by gender and country. In Germany, education is positively related to the intention to have further children. This pattern is more pronounced for women than for men. Furthermore, this association is also found among Norwegian men. In Moldova, we find only weak evidence for this association. For Norwegian women, education and the intention to have further children also seem to be unrelated. While most data about the intended number of children refer to the 2000s or earlier, we contribute to the literature by providing recent insights on the intended number of children in three European countries, including Moldova, a country that is understudied in demographic research

Parental repartnering and child well-being: what role does coresidence play?

Objective: The paper examines the effects of parental repartnering (including residential and nonresidential partnerships) on children’s well-being. Background: An increasing number of children experience the repartnering of their parents. While previous research has focused on coresidential repartnering, this paper also considers the transition to a steady nonresidential (living apart together – LAT) partnership of formerly single parents. Specifically, the paper examines whether these transitions differ in their effect on children. Method: This study uses data from the German Family Panel (pairfam) to analyze the effects of parental repartnering on children’s emotional and behavioral well-being. The children in the sample were seven to 16 years old. Individual fixed effects regressions were estimated for two types of parental partnership transitions: the formation of a LAT partnership and the formation of a coresidential partnership. Results: The results show that children’s emotional symptoms increased in response to both parental LAT repartnering and coresidential repartnering, whereas children’s conduct problems increased only in response to parental coresidential repartnering. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the formation of a nonresidential partnership by a parent can affect children’s emotional well-being, and thus should be considered when analyzing post-separation family development

Fertility by birth order among the descendants of immigrants in selected European countries

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 320116 for the research project FamiliesAndSocieties.This study investigates the childbearing patterns of the descendants of immigrants in six European countries, with a focus on women whose parents arrived in Europe from high-fertility countries. While the fertility levels of immigrants to Europe have been examined in the recent literature, the childbearing patterns among their descendants have received little attention. Using longitudinal data from six European countries and applying Poisson regression models, the study shows that many descendants of immigrants exhibit first birth levels that are similar to the native population in their respective countries; however, first birth levels are slightly elevated among women of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin in the UK and for those of Turkish descent in France and Belgium. Transition rates to a second child vary less across ethnic groups; only women of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin in the UK exhibit elevated second birth levels. Most women with immigrant family background in the UK, France and Belgium show significantly higher third birth levels than natives in those countries. The inclusion of women’s level of education in the analysis has little effect on fertility differences across the ethnic groups. Overall, the childbearing behaviour of the second generation falls in between the fertility pathways experienced by their parents’ generation and the respective native populations. The analysis supports the idea that both the mainstream society and the minority subculture shape the childbearing patterns of the descendants of immigrants in Europe. Fertility levels of the descendants of immigrants from high-fertility countries are expected to further decline in the third generation, but a significant intra-group heterogeneity is likely to persist.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

A comparative study on fertility among the descendants of immigrants in Europe

This study investigates the childbearing patterns of the descendants of immigrants in selected European countries, with a focus on ethnic minority women whose parents arrived in Europe from high-fertility countries. While the fertility levels of immigrants to Europe have been examined in the recent literature, the childbearing patterns among their descendants have received little attention. Using longitudinal data from eight European countries and applying Poisson regression models, the study shows that many descendants of immigrants exhibit first-birth levels that are similar to the ‘native’ population in their respective countries; however, first-birth levels are elevated among women of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin in the UK and for those of Turkish descent in France and Belgium. Transition rates to a second child vary less across ethnic groups. Most ethnic minority women in the UK, France and Belgium show significantly higher third-birth levels than ‘natives’ in those countries. The inclusion of women’s level of education in the analysis has little effect on fertility differences across the ethnic groups. Overall, the childbearing behaviour of the descendants of immigrants falls in between the fertility pathways experienced by their parents’ generation and the respective ‘native’ populations. The analysis supports the idea that both the mainstream society and the minority subculture shape the childbearing patterns of the descendants of immigrants in Europe

Targeted delivery of a vaccine protein to Langerhans cells in the human skin via the C-type lectin receptor Langerin

Human skin is a preferred vaccination site as it harbors multiple dendritic cell (DC) subsets, which display distinct C-type lectin receptors (CLR) that recognize pathogens. Antigens can be delivered to CLR by antibodies or ligands to boost antigen-specific immune responses. This concept has been established in mouse models but detailed insights into the functional consequences of antigen delivery to human skin DC in situ are sparse. In this study, we cloned and produced an anti-human Langerin antibody conjugated to the EBV nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1). We confirmed specific binding of anti-Langerin-EBNA1 to Langerhans cells (LC). This novel LC-based vaccine was then compared to an existing anti-DEC-205-EBNA1 fusion protein by loading LC in epidermal cell suspensions before coculturing them with autologous T cells. After restimulation with EBNA1-peptides, we detected elevated levels of IFN-γ- and TNF-α-positive CD4+ T cells with both vaccines. When we injected the fusion proteins intradermally into human skin explants, emigrated skin DC targeted via DEC-205-induced cytokine production by T cells, whereas the Langerin-based vaccine failed to do so. In summary, we demonstrate that antibody-targeting approaches via the skin are promising vaccination strategies, however, further optimizations of vaccines are required to induce potent immune responses