Partnerships and families

Grandparents, moms, or dads? Why children of teen mothers do worse in life

We explore whether and why children born to teen mothers have worse outcomes later in life. Using Norwegian register data, we compare outcomes of children of sisters who have first births at different ages. We find that the causal effect of being a child of a teen mother is much smaller than that implied by … Read more

Gender division of housework during the COVID-19 pandemic: Temporary shocks or durable change?

This paper looks at the gender gap in housework during Covid-19. It finds that there was some increased input from men during the early stages of lockdown, but families with young children were the first to return to previous patterns. The researchers used data gathered by the Understanding Society COVID-19 study in April, May, June … Read more

The effect of unemployment on couples separating in Germany and the UK

This research looks at how unemployment affects the risk of separation for heterosexual couples living together in Germany and the UK. The findings show that the annual separation rate almost doubles after an unemployment spell, increasing from 0.9% to 1.6% per year. The picture was the same whether it was the man or the woman … Read more

Gendered division of housework during the COVID-19 pandemic: temporary shocks or durable change?

This paper looks at the gender gap in housework during Covid-19. It finds that there was some increased input from men during the early stages of lockdown, but families with young children were the first to return to previous patterns. The researchers used data gathered by the Understanding Society COVID-19 study in April, May, June … Read more

Double Trouble: Does Job Loss Lead to Union Dissolution and Vice Versa?

Does relationship breakdown lead to job loss, and job loss to relationship breakdown? Links between the two events are well documented, but this study looks more closely at the data and concludes other factors are at play. Using a large sample of working-age adults who took part in British household surveys between 1991 and 2018, … Read more

The gender pay gap in the UK: children and experience in work

This paper documents the evolution of the gender pay gap in the UK over the past three decades and its association with fertility, examining the role of men’s and women’s career patterns and how they change with the arrival of a first child. The researchers find that the different working experiences of men and women, … Read more

The complexity of employment and family life courses across 20th century Europe: More evidence for larger cross-national differences but little change across 1916‒1966 birth cohorts

This paper looks at whether the work and family lives of people living in Europe became more unstable across the 20th century. It finds that family and work lives have become more unstable and unpredictable, but not nearly to the extent thought by scholars and the general public alike. However, there were large differences between … Read more

Family size and economic wellbeing following divorce: The United States in comparative perspective

Do childless women fare better economically than mothers after divorce? And do mothers with many children suffer more than those with small families? This study compares data from a panel study in the United States with similar information from studies in Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia. It finds that the household incomes of women … Read more

Family forerunners? Parental separation and partnership formation in 16 countries

This paper looks at whether children whose parents separated are more likely to cohabit rather than get married. The researchers looked at the partnerships of more than 130,000 men and women in 16 countries over five birth cohorts spanning 50 years. The research – one of the first to look at partnership formation patterns across countries … Read more

From villain to hero: trans men and non-binary persons as care providers in Southern Europe

This article looks at experiences of caring among trans and non-binary adults in Southern Europe, viewing this as a positive story which can redress what the author sees as skewed representations of this community, focusing traditionally on victimisation, violence and health problems. The study came out of the INTIMATE project, which took place between 2014 … Read more