Just Like Family: Fictive Kin Relationships in the Netherlands

Objectives. This study examined the extent to which older adults in the Netherlands include a nonrelative as part of their family (create fictive kin), and whether this process is similar in other age groups. It assessed the importance of absence of close family ties and the experience of divorce in the family network for the creation of fictive kin. Method. Using data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study, logistic regression models for the different age groups tested the importance of absence of primary family relationships and the experience of divorce in the family among three age groups (18-40, 41-60, 61-79, N = 6,571). Results. Prevalence of fictive kin relationships was higher in older age groups. Both the absence of close family relationships and the experience of divorce within the family were related to having fictive kin, although the latter was only found in the youngest age group. For older adults never having married, being widowed or divorced were important predictors of having fictive kin relationships. Discussion. The study provides support for the idea that the creation of fictive kin is a form of substitution for absent family members and shows that older adults in the Netherlands are active agents in the construction of their family networ

Can Interviewer Evaluations Predict Short-Term and Long-Term Participation in Telephone Panels?

Interviewers often assess after the interview the respondent’s ability and reluctance to participate. Prior research has shown that this evaluation is associated with next-wave response behavior in face-to-face surveys. Our study adds to this research by looking at this association in telephone surveys, where an interviewer typically has less information on which to base an assessment. We looked at next-wave participation, non-contact and refusal, as well as longer-term participation patterns. We found that interviewers were better able to anticipate refusal than non-contact relative to participation, especially in the next wave, but also in the longer term. Our findings confirm that interviewer evaluations – in particular of the respondent’s reluctance to participate – can help predict response at later waves, also after controlling for commonly used predictors of survey nonresponse. In addition to helping to predict nonresponse in the short term, interviewer evaluations provide useful information for a long-term perspective as well, which may be used to improve nonresponse adjustment and in responsive designs in longitudinal surveys

The link between separation and political party preference: selectivity or causal influence?

This paper studies the impact of separation from marital and cohabiting relationships on political party preferences. Relying on longitudinal data (1999–2017) from the Swiss Household Panel, it examines to what extent differences in party preferences between partnered and separated individuals are the result of a selection effect (with individuals who separate having different party preferences prior to their separation compared with partnered individuals) or of a causal effect (with individuals changing their party preferences following separation). The analyses show that partnered individuals are significantly more likely to support a party with Christian values (the CVP) compared with separated individuals, and indicate that this is due to a selection effect. For populist right (SVP) voting, we find a causal effect of separation. Interestingly, the event of separation increases the likelihood of supporting the populist right SVP. While separated individuals are more likely to support the social democratic party (PSS) than married individuals, we do not find a significant selection or causal effect of separation on support for the PSS. Overall, our results confirm the relevance of taking a dynamic approach distinguishing selection and causal effects and reveal that the effect of separation on voters’ party choice is modest but significant

The effect of unemployment on couples separating. Panel evidence for Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom

We examine how unemployment affects the separation risk of heterosexual co-residing couples using an innovative method and large panel surveys. Theoretically, unemployment spells may decrease the separation risk as a drop in resources makes separation more costly. In contrast, the separation risk should increase if unemployment creates stress and reduces the quality of couple relations. In addition, the effect may not be homogeneous for all couples. If men’s jobs are more consequential for household income and social status, male unemployment may undermine couple stability more than female unemployment. Moreover, low-income couples may be more vulnerable to the negative consequences of unemployment than high-income couples. We analyze the heterogeneous effects of unemployment on separation for Germany, Switzerland and the UK, using household panels that observe couples over time. We innovate by combining fixed-effects regressions with a matching method. This provides us with a control group of comparable couples that did not experience unemployment. For all three countries, our results show a doubling of the separation rate after an unemployment spell: It increases from 2% to 4% per year. This effect does not vary when men or women lose their job. However, contrary to Germany, it is higher for low-income couples than high-income couples in the UK where the welfare state provides only weak income protection to the unemployed

Concentration of Critical Events Over the Life Course and Life Satisfaction Later in Life

Critical events create turning points, disrupt individuals’ life courses, and affect wellbeing. Periods of life densely populated with critical events may translate into an acute resource drain, affecting long-term wellbeing more strongly than if the same events were sparsely distributed. We investigate how the co-occurrence of critical events and their concentration in time influence life satisfaction in later life. To do so, we construct a novel indicator, the Concentration Index, based not only on the number but also on the time lag between occurrences. Using retrospective information on critical events in family, work, health, and residential trajectories in Switzerland, we show that the higher the concentration in time of critical events is, the stronger their negative long-term relation to wellbeing, net of sociodemographic characteristics, the total number of events ever experienced, and the time since the last event. Furthermore, relevant gender and social origin differences emerged with a stronger negative association with wellbeing among men and respondents from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Our work clearly shows that simply counting the number of events gives only a partial and potentially inaccurate measure of the complexity of the life course and its relationship with quality of life. Not only how many events experienced matter but also the spacing between them