Demands of Social Change Across Multiple Domains of Life and Across Time at the Advent of the Global Financial Crisis

Abstract

Longitudinal data collected between 2005 and 2009 is analyzed to investigate the interplay of trajectories of perceived demands in the domains of work and family. Quadratic latent growth curve models were used to mimic the increase of demands in N = 1,296 young adults from Germany as structural uncertainty increased in the second half of the study. Demands in the different domains develop highly parallel, reflecting possible spill-over effects between the domains, and seem to indicate changes of objective uncertainty during the outset of the global financial crisis. Furthermore, there is also evidence for cumulative disadvantage and inoculation effects.