How Does Transitioning into Retirement Impacts Life Satisfaction? Evidence from the Swiss Context

This article aims to document the impact and timing of the transition to retirement on life satisfaction (LS) while taking into account working conditions prior to retirement, social participation (participation in clubs or other groups, satisfaction of free time, leisure activities and personal relationships) and health status (impediment, satisfaction with health). The analyses are based on the last 15 waves of the Swiss Household Panel (2001 – 2015), a multithematic annual household panel based on a random sample from the Swiss resident population (www.swisspanel.ch). Respondents aged 50 and over working in their first episode of observation and retiring only once were selected in our sample, retirement being operationalized as (a) having no remunerated professional activity and b) not seeking work in the current wave and (c) having worked at least one hour per week in the last wave. In total, 8002 complete episodes relating to 899 different individuals during the SHP waves 3 to 17 (2001-2015) were retained. Analyzes are performed separately for women and men, and controlling for demographics (age), and economics parameters (household income, education level, satisfaction with financial situation). We adopt a life course perspective and use a multilevel approach (mixed linear model) to study individual trajectories both on the short- and the mid-term. This analytical strategy is aiming at understanding not only the immediate impact of this major transition on well-being, but also at capturing its duration through time, before, during and after the end of careers. After having ensured that the impact of years around retirement is linear, we introduced this parameter as a continuous variable in our models, to facilitate the calculation of interaction terms with other covariates. The first empirical results based on MLMs (table 1) showed that retirement itself does not play a key role in shaping individuals’ life satisfaction, for both women and men. Nevertheless, our results demonstrate that working conditions play a key role in shaping individuals’ subjective well-being before and after retirement, particularly among men. Positive work identification is detrimental to LS after retirement; conversely precarious working conditions before retirement increase LS after retirement. For men satisfaction with health status increase LS after retirement. To a lesser extent, the capacity of individuals to endorse different roles through social and family participation also tends to affect the level of LS. We also noted that living with a partner had slight negative impacts on women when retiring, which can be explained by the many changes in social and family life that happen with this transition. Finally, the timing of retirement does not show any significant impact. These results highlight that retirement itself has no influence on LS and this is more the working conditions prior to retirement, the capacity to endorse new social roles and the satisfaction with health that play a key role in shaping LS after the transition to retirement

Union libre, égalité et bien-être en Suisse

Les naissances de couples non-mariés se diffusent lentement dans la société suisse. Elles remettent en question la place de l’union libre qui depuis son apparition dans les années soixante-dix jouait essentiellement un rôle de prélude au mariage. Les couples non-mariés ayant des enfants montrent une division plus égalitaire des tâches, plus d’autonomie et moins d’attitudes traditionnelles à l’égard de la famille, comparativement aux couples mariés. Paradoxalement, ces couples témoignent d’un moindre bien-être. Cet article s’interroge sur les relations entre statut marital, inégalités au sein du couple et moindre bien-être. Basés sur une exploitation des données Suisses de L'Enquête sur les familles et les générations 2013 (EFG), nos résultats tendent à montrer que les jeunes couples ayant des attitudes égalitaires choisissent plus souvent de rester non-mariés lorsqu’ils ont un enfant. Qu’ils soient mariés ou non, les conjoints ayant des attitudes égalitaires expriment un moindre bien-être que les couples ayant des attitudes traditionnelles. Les raisons de ce moindre bien-être sont liées à la difficulté de concilier vie familiale et vie professionnel, surtout pour les femmes. Les conflits au sein du couple quant à eux, résulteraient plutôt d’une augmentation des affects négatifs

First results of the Swiss Household Panel – Covid-19 Study

To get more insight into how people were affected by and fared during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Swiss Household Panel launched an additional Covid-19 Survey among participating households. It was fielded between May and June 2020, right after the strictest regulations ended, but numerous restrictions were still in place. This paper presents the main findings of this study with respect to a wide variety of domains: the occurrence of Covid-19 infections in people’s networks, changes with respect to work, finances, time use, family life, following education from home, health and wellbeing, worries, social networks and social cohesion, and the evaluation of the political measures taken by the federal government

L’évolution du stress en Suisse – la première vague de la pandémie, une pause pour les personnes stressées / Die Entwicklung von Stress in der Schweiz – die erste Welle der Pandemie verschafft gestressten Menschen eine Pause

Notre étude basée sur l’enquête du « Panel Suisse de ménages » montre que le stress perçu par la population a augmenté entre 2016 et 2019. Or, le semi-confinement du printemps 2020 a mené à une réduction du stress de 10%, mais cette baisse n’était que temporaire. Avant et durant la pandémie ce sont les personnes présentant des difficultés financières et une précarité professionnelle qui exprimaient davantage de stress. Cependant, plusieurs groupes ont profité d’une réduction de stress pendant la première vague de la pandémie, notamment les personnes avec un niveau d’éducation tertiaire, un haut revenu, un rythme de travail intense ou un pouvoir décisionnel au sein de leur travail. Le semi-confinement du printemps 2020 a donc eu des aspects positifs pour celles et ceux qui ont vu leur vie professionnelle et privée ralentir ou qui ont gagné en flexibilité grâce au télétravail, tout en gardant une certaine sécurité économique. Unsere auf dem Schweizer Haushalt-Panel beruhende Studie kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass der von der Bevölkerung erlebte Stress zwischen 2016 und 2019 zugenommen hat. Der Mini-Lockdown im Frühjahr 2020 hat zwar zu einem Rückgang des Stresspegels um 10 % geführt, dies war aber nur vorübergehend. Vor und während der Pandemie fühlten sich vor allem Personen gestresst, die finanzielle Schwierigkeiten hatten und sich in prekären Arbeitsverhältnissen befanden. Für einige Gruppen bedeutete die erste Welle der Pandemie hingegen weniger Stress. Dazu gehören insbesondere Menschen mit Hochschulabschluss, hohem Einkommen, intensivem Arbeitsrhythmus oder einer Arbeit mit Entscheidungsbefugnis. Der Mini-Lockdown im Frühjahr 2020 hatte also positive Aspekte für diejenigen, deren Berufs- und Privatleben sich verlangsamt hat oder die dank dem Arbeiten von zu Hause aus an Flexibilität gewonnen haben und die sich gleichzeitig eine gewisse wirtschaftliche Sicherheit bewahren konnten

Changes in Employment Uncertainty and the Fertility Intention-Realization Link: An Analysis Based on the Swiss Household Panel.

How do changes in employment uncertainty matter for fertility? Empirical studies on the impact of employment uncertainty on reproductive decision-making offer a variety of conclusions, ranging from gender and socio-economic differences in the effect of employment uncertainty on fertility intentions and behaviour, to the effect of employment on changes in fertility intentions. This article analyses the association between a change in subjective employment uncertainty and fertility intentions and behaviour by distinguishing male and female partners' employment uncertainty, and examines the variation in these associations by education. Using a sample of men and women living in a couple from the Swiss Household Panel (SHP 2002-2011), we examine through multinomial analysis how changes in employment uncertainty and selected socio-demographic factors are related to individual childbearing decisions. Our results show strong gendered effects of changes in employment uncertainty on the revision of reproductive decisions among the highly educated population

Early Child-care Arrangements and Both Parents' Subjective Well-being

This study focuses on Switzerland where child-care is limited in offer and costly. It examines what child-care patterns parents of 0- to 4-years old children use; and, how different arrangements relate to several domains of mothers’ and fathers’ cognitive and affective subjective well-being (SWB). A major contribution of the present study is the distinction between child-care provided by parents, grandparents, relatives, formal institutions and mixed arrangements. Based on data from the Swiss Household Panel (SHP) from 2002 to 2017, multilevel regression models are applied to estimate the relationship between child-care arrangements and both parents’ SWB. The results demonstrate that grandparental care relates positively to both parents’ SWB: Compared to grandparental child-care, relatives and formal or mixed child-care arrangements tend to decrease most of the satisfaction dimensions. Formal child-care and child-care provided by relatives as well as mixed arrangements relate to a decrease in positive affect. Negative affect is not significantly associated to the different child-care arrangements