Couples' provision of informal care for parents and parents-in-law: far from sharing equally?

This study examines whether and how couples share the provision of informal care for their parents. Four waves of the British General Household Survey contain cross-sectional information about caring for parents and parents-in-law. Descriptive and multivariate analyses were conducted on 2214 couples that provided parent care. The findings emphasise married men’s contribution to informal caring for the parental generation and at the same time demonstrate the limits of their involvement. Spouses share many parts of their care-giving but this arrangement is less common with respect to personal and physical care. The more care is required the more likely are people to participate in care for their parents-in-law. More sons-in-law than daughters-in-law provide care but, once involved, daughters-in-law provide on average more hours of care than sons-inlaw. Own full-time employment reduces both men’s and women’s caring for their parents-in-law, and men’s caring drops further if their wife is not in the labour market. The findings suggest that daughters-in-law often take direct responsibility whereas sons-in-laws’ care-giving depends more on their wives’ involvement. Children-in-laws’ informal care-giving might decrease in the future because of women’s increasing involvement in the labour market and rising levels of nonmarital cohabitation in mid-life

Childbirth in East and West German Stepfamilies

The present paper studies fertility rates in partnerships with and without children from previous partners in East and West Germany. Data from the German "Fertility and Family Survey" is used to estimate piecewise-linear hazard rate models for having another child. It turns out that a proportional-hazard model would give incorrect results because childbirth follows different time patterns for couples who have already a shared child and couples who do not. Therefore, a model with specific clocks for various experiences of parenthood is specified. Based on these model estimations the probability for having another child within a certain time is calculated. In West Germany the estimated likelihood of having another child within six years varies little by child composition. In contrast, East-German couples with no shared child have a higher likelihood than couples with a shared child to have a child within six years.fertility, hazard rate model, proportionality assumption, stepfamily

Partner Choice and Women's Paid Work in Sweden - The Role of Earnings

Recent observations of higher labour -market activity among women with a high-earning spouse and widened household inequality have spurred research interest in earnings homogamy and in effects of own and spouse’s earnings on female labour supply. This article studies trends in earnings homogamy among married and cohabiting parents and in effects of own and spouse’s earnings on mothers’ time in employment and non-employment in Sweden. We analyse, first, correlations between spouses’ earnings and, second, effects of time -varying own and spouse’s earnings on mothers’ transitions between part-time and full-time work, on their exits from and re-entries into employment and on their exits from parental leave over the years 1968-92. We use individual life histories from the 1992 Swedish Family Survey combined with longitudinal information on earnings from the national taxation register. A unique aspect of this data set is that it has very accurate longitudinal earnings information for both married and cohabiting spouses, including former spouses. We find that mothers’ own earnings have a larger and more significant impact on their labour -market transitions than spouse’s earnings and that the impact of the latter has even declined over time.-

Couples’ daily childcare schedules: gendered patterns and variations

Gender inequality of childcare provision is regarded as one of the main barriers to women’s labour-market careers. However, there is a scarcity of quantitative studies that examine fathers’ and mothers’ combined childcare. This research focuses on father’s and mother’s timing and type of childcare for co-resident couples with a young child. Using the two most recent UK Time-Use Surveys, the study derives typologies of couples’ childcare patterns with a particular focus on gender differences. The five patterns on weekdays and three patterns on weekend days highlight gender inequalities not just in the duration of parents’ time with their children but also in its timing. Mothers are more often than fathers involved during standard working hours. The childcare patterns vary only modestly by occupational class. This might be related to the fluidity of couples’ daily childcare patterns, which change with children’s ages and across days of the working week

The ageing of parent carers: classed and gendered care-giving patterns at higher ages

Increasing longevity has led to a rising number of adult children who are at higher ages when they provide care for their parents. Drawing on the lifecourse approach and exchange theory, the paper addresses similarities and differences in parent care between late middle-aged and older adult children. The study uses the UK Household Longitudinal Study, restricting the analysis sample to individuals aged 50 and older with a living parent or parent-in-law. It presents multivariate models to examine differences between late middle-aged (aged 50–64) and older (aged 65+) children in being a parent carer, providing intensive care, the duration of parent care and providing selected types of help to parents. The involvement in parent care increases among women up to the end of their seventh decade of life and for men up to their eighth decade of life. At higher ages, the proportion of parent carers decreases more strongly for women than men. Older carers have shorter care-giving episodes than younger carers, but there is no significant difference in the type of care provided. Even past retirement age, parent care remains classed and gendered, with women from lower social classes having the highest likelihood of providing intensive parent care in old age. Having dependent children or living in a non-marital union depress the likelihood of caring for a parent even past retirement age

Gender roles and values of children: Childless Couples in East and West Germany

Presuming that not just economic circumstances but also ideational factors influence fertility decisions, the paper examines the values of children of East and West-German childless men and women living with a partner. Based on the survey about ‘Change and Development of Family Life Forms’, a confirmatory factor analysis identifies an affective, a utility and a cost dimension of the values of children, and for West-German women an additional dimension of opportunity costs. Although East and West-German men and women differed in their values of children, hypotheses about the higher affective value of children for East Germans compared to West Germans or for women compared to men are not supported for the specific sample. The values of children varied with respondent’s labour-market position and the division of household work. An analysis of panel data for West Germany shows that for women, first-birth rates depended on the value of children and on the gender roles in the home.first birth, gender roles, Germany, value of children

Fathers’ involvement with their children in the United Kingdom: recent trends and class differences

BACKGROUND Many studies of Western societies have documented an increasing involvement of fathers with their children since the 1970s. The trend reflects changes in the meaning of fatherhood and contributes to child well-being and gender equality. New policies in the United Kingdom might have further encouraged father involvement in the new millennium. Differences in father involvement between socioeconomic groups have caused concern since they contribute to inequality in resources available to children. OBJECTIVES This paper examines the recent trends and social differences in father involvement with children in the United Kingdom. METHODS Data from the UK Time Use Surveys 2000-2001 and 2014-2015 are analysed using regression models. RESULTS Fathers' overall involvement in childcare in the new millennium has been stable but differences emerge when looking at specific childcare activities, in particular on weekend days. In 2014 fathers were less likely to provide interactive care and active fathers provided on average fewer minutes of physical care than in 2000. Fathers from higher SES groups offset some of these trends by increased participation rates in physical care in 2014 compared to 2000. CONCLUSIONS The stability of fathers' involvement signifies a stalling of the transformation of the father role and progress towards gender equality in the home in large parts of the population. Father involvement on weekend days continues to diverge between high and low status groups. CONTRIBUTION This is the first comprehensive analysis of trends in father involvement in the new millennium using time-use data. It is the first analysis that finds no further increase of father involvement in the United Kingdom

Chancengleichheit durch die Bildungsexpansion

Die Frage nach der Angleichung der Bildungschancen konnte bisher nicht befriedigend beantwortet werden. Einerseits kann man aufgrund des Schulausbaus und der größeren Durchlässigkeit des Schulsystems einen Abbau von Bildungsbarrieren erwarten. Andererseits spricht der Beitrag des Bildungssystems zu der Reproduktion der Klassenstruktur für eine Fortdauer sozialer Ungleichheiten im Bildungssystem. Der Beitrag basiert auf einer empirischen Untersuchung zu den Veränderungen der Chancengleichheit im Bildungssystem der (alten) Bundesrepublik. Es werden hierzu Daten der Lebensverlaufsstudie am Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung in Berlin für die Geburtskohorten 1919-21, 1929-31, 1939-41, 1949-51, 1954-56 und 1959-61 ausgewertet. Die Analyse lässt erhebliche Unterschiede in den Bildungsentscheidungen zwischen Stadt und Land sowie dem Norden, dem Süden und der Mitte der Bundesrepublik erkennen. Die Berücksichtigung dieses Aspekts verändert jedoch nicht die geschätzten Effekte. Die Schätzungen bestätigen, dass die Bildungsentscheidungen vom Straus des Vaters, der Bildung der Eltern, der Zahl der Geschwister und der beruflichen Bildung der Eltern beeinflusst sind. (ICB2

Fathers' time with children at the crossroads of the gender revolution: A comparative analysis in France, Italy, Sweden and the UK.

BACKGROUND According to recent literature the increasing women's labour market participation is only the first part of the so called gender revolution, while a second part is now unfolding, with an increased participation of men in family life with special attention to childcare. OBJECTIVE The aim of this paper is to explore fathers' involvement in parenting tasks within different contexts in terms of gender regimes, family policies, and workplace culture. The idea is to evidence individual factors that may enable/challenge the capability of fathers to stay with children and care for them, and to suggest opportune father-friendly policies. METHODS Time with children is compared among a sample of fathers in Time Use survey in France (2009-2010), Italy (2008-09), Sweden (2000-2001) and the UK (2000). Three different measures of father involvement are examined: the total time father spend with their children, the time they spend alone with them, and their engagement in childcare activities. RESULTS Results show that distinct micro-level factors contribute in determining the three levels of father's commitment analysed. Few cross-countries differences emerge. Fathers' involvement is mainly determined by their work-related features, by their children characteristics, and by their partner's working schedules. Weekday and weekend differences are observed. The quantum of father engagement strongly depends on the countries' institutional context: it is the highest in Sweden and the lowest in Italy. CONTRIBUTION This comparative study shows the methodological importance of considering different measures of father involvement to understand how micro-level factors influence the time fathers spend with their children in different institutional context