Disagreement about Division of Household Labour and Experiences of Work-Family Conflict in Different Gender Regimes

This article focuses on the level of disagreement about how to divide household labour as well as on the experience of work-family conflicts among cohabiting women and men living in different gender regimes. The German speaking countries Germany, Switzerland and Austria represent a typical conservative gender regime while the Scandinavian countries Sweden, Denmark and Norway are representatives of a typical egalitarian gender regime. The data used comes from the International Social Survey Program 2002. Results support the notion that people living in a context characterised by an egalitarian gender regime to a higher extent report disagreement about the division of household work and work-family conflict than people living in a context characterised by a more traditional gender regime. The results indicate that these differences can be explained by the fact that people in an egalitarian gender regime have a more egalitarian gender ideology than people in a more conservative context

The Concentration of Unemployment Families and Social Networks : A Question of Attitudes or Structural Factors?

This article studies the concentration of unemployment within families and social networks in Sweden. The study, which is based on two random samples, one consisting of some 47,000 young people and their parents and one consisting of 3,500 unemployed people, raises the question of whether unemployment concentration is mainly caused by negative values towards employment or by structural factors. The results show that it is common for people who are unemployed and have experienced longer periods of unemployment to have unemployed family members and friends. The causes of the unemployment concentration can be traced to structural factors such as class, ethnicity, age, unemployment rate and population in the district, rather than to the attitudes of the members of the unemployed group.digitalisering@um

Arbetslöshetskoncentration : Ett resultat av negativa attityder gentemot arbete?

Unemployment concentration: Caused by negative attitudes towards paid work? This article studies the concentration of unemployment within families and social networks in Sweden. The study, which is based on two random samples, one consisting of approximately 47000 young people and their parents and one consisting of 3500 unemployed persons, raises the question of whether unemployment concentration mainly is caused by negative values towards employment or by structural factors. The results show that it is common for persons who are unemployed and have experienced longer periods of unemployment to have unemployed family members and friends. The causes of the unemployment concentration can be traced to structural factors such as class, ethnicity, age, unemployment rate and population in the district etc., rather than to the attitudes of the members of the unemployed group.Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv</p

How family policy context shapes mental wellbeing of mothers and fathers

Most studies show that parents have a lower level of wellbeing than non-parents. An interesting question is if this is true in different contexts, such for instance different family policy contexts. Although there are common family policy goals for all member states of the European Union there are still major differences between states regarding the implementation and contents of various family policy measures. The aim of the article is to study the importance of family policy context and gender for the negative influence of having children on mental wellbeing. Data is derived from an extensive cross-country data set named European Social Survey Program (ESS). Family policy context is measured through the different family policies contexts that each state represents, resulting in a Nordic cluster (representing an extensive family policy context) and two clusters, the conservative and liberal, representing less extensive family policy contexts. Results in general show that the level of mental wellbeing is lower among people with children living at home than among people with no children at home. However, separate analyses of the family policy contexts indicate that this difference between those with and without children only exists in the conservative and liberal family policy contexts. Further, separate analyses of women and men in different family policy contexts show that the negative association between the occurrence of children and mental wellbeing exist only among women in conservative and liberal contexts. This indicates that the family policy context is of importance for mother’s mental wellbeing but not for father’s

The importance of job and family satisfaction for happiness among women and men in different gender regimes

The family and the work place are two arenas of central importance for most adult people. Consequently, one can assume that the level of satisfaction with one’s family life and job may be critical to one’s level of happiness in general. However, there are reasons to believe that there are variations according to gender and gender regime. The general aim of this study is to analyse the relative importance of job satisfaction and satisfaction with family life for happiness among women and men in different gender regimes. Analyses are based on comparative data from the International Social Survey Program 2012. Results show that the level of satisfaction with family life appears more important to the general level of happiness than the level of job satisfaction. This is true for both women and men and in different gender regimes. However, the level of satisfaction with family life appears less important to men’s level of happiness in countries representing a conservative gender regime. Another interesting related result is that the level of happiness appears generally lower among women living in a conservative gender regime

Disagreement about division of household labour and experiences of work-family conflict in different gender regimes

This article focuses on the level of disagreement about how to divide household labour as well as on the experience of work-family conflicts among cohabiting women and men living in different gender regimes. The German speaking countries Germany, Switzerland and Austria represent a typical conservative gender regime while the Scandinavian countries Sweden, Denmark and Norway are representatives of a typical egalitarian gender regime. The data used comes from the International Social Survey Program 2002. Results support the notion that people living in a context characterised by an egalitarian gender regime to a higher extent report disagreement about the division of household work and work-family conflict than people living in a context characterised by a more traditional gender regime. The results indicate that these differences can be explained by the fact that people in an egalitarian gender regime have a more egalitarian gender ideology than people in a more conservative context

The Concentration of Unemployment Families and Social Networks : A Question of Attitudes or Structural Factors?

This article studies the concentration of unemployment within families and social networks in Sweden. The study, which is based on two random samples, one consisting of some 47,000 young people and their parents and one consisting of 3,500 unemployed people, raises the question of whether unemployment concentration is mainly caused by negative values towards employment or by structural factors. The results show that it is common for people who are unemployed and have experienced longer periods of unemployment to have unemployed family members and friends. The causes of the unemployment concentration can be traced to structural factors such as class, ethnicity, age, unemployment rate and population in the district, rather than to the attitudes of the members of the unemployed group.digitalisering@um

Disagreement about Division of Household Labour and Experiences of Work-Family Conflict in Different Gender Regimes

This article focuses on the level of disagreement about how to divide household labour as well as on the experience of work-family conflicts among cohabiting women and men living in different gender regimes. The German speaking countries Germany, Switzerland and Austria represent a typical conservative gender regime while the Scandinavian countries Sweden, Denmark and Norway are representatives of a typical egalitarian gender regime. The data used comes from the International Social Survey Program 2002. Results support the notion that people living in a context characterised by an egalitarian gender regime to a higher extent report disagreement about the division of household work and work-family conflict than people living in a context characterised by a more traditional gender regime. The results indicate that these differences can be explained by the fact that people in an egalitarian gender regime have a more egalitarian gender ideology than people in a more conservative context

The role of self-help groups in promoting self-confidence and hope for the future among people on sick leave in Norway: The importance of educational level

BACKGROUND:Vocational rehabilitation is important for supporting long-term sick-listed employees in returning to work or continuing in working life. OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study was to analyse self-confidence and hope for the future among people on sick leave in Norway who joined a self-help group, with a special focus on the importance of educational level. METHODS:109 persons who completed a 20-week program at a rehabilitation centre in the middle of Norway during the years 2007-2012 answered questions related to the importance of emotions as either motivating or discouraging forces influencing the individual’s return to work. The response rate was 52 percent. RESULTS:Eighty-five percent of participants who joined a self-help group stated that the group helped them to tackle everyday life better than before. Low-educated participants in the self-help group, to a greater extent than high-educated, stated that the self-help group had increased their self-confidence and hope for the future. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS:Most of those who participated in the self-help group stated that joining a group increased their self-confidence and hope for the future. Motivational factors, such as hope for the future and self-confidence, can be important factors in the rehabilitation process, as they can enhance sick people’s motivation to participate in rehabilitation and re-think their future prospects of returning to work

Sickness Presenteeism among the Self-employed and Employed in Northwestern Europe—The Importance of Time Demands

Background: European policymakers encourage individuals to become self-employed because it is a way to promote innovation and job creation. It can be assumed that health and well-being among the self-employed and managers in small-scale enterprises are particularly crucial in this enterprise group because the smallness of the enterprise makes its members vulnerable. Earlier studies have indicated that the self-employed have a high working pace and work for long and irregular hours, indicating that it can be difficult to stay at home because of sickness. The purpose of this study is to investigate the occurrence of sickness presenteeism among the self-employed in relation to the organizationally employed and to analyze whether any differences can be explained by higher work demands among the self-employed. Methods: The study is based on the fifth European survey on working conditions (2010) and includes the northwestern European countries in the survey. The questions cover a wide range of topics designed to meet the European Union's political needs. The main variables in this study are sickness presenteeism and several indicators of time demands. Results: The results show that the self-employed report a higher level of sickness presenteeism than the employed: 52.4 versus 43.6%. All indicators of time demands are significantly related to the risk for sickness presenteeism, also when controlling for background characteristics. Conclusion: The results confirm that the level of sickness presenteeism is higher among the self-employed and that high time demands are a major explanation to this.