Family Policy Research Articles

Eine gelingende Familienpolitik ist wichtiger denn je

Abstract The lives of families in Germany have changed fundamentally in recent decades. In particular, young women are increasingly share an equal division of tasks between men and women. This makes it necessary to have fitting institutional childcare facilities. However, at present there is still a lack of childcare for children under the age of three. In addition, day-care centres must become educational institutions, as an increasing number of families do not speak German at home. A successful family policy is also necessary to make it easier for young people to decide for children, which is important given recent demographic shifts.

Familienpolitische Trends in den OECD-Ländern

Abstract The range of family policies in OECD countries has been influenced by various factors, including demographic shifts, efforts to integrate more women into the workforce, promoting shared responsibility in unpaid work, pursuing broader gender equality goals, and combating child and family poverty. What policy measures have OECD countries implemented and what are the results? How do recent developments in Germany compare to this?

Effects of job demands and resources on the subjective well‐being of teachers

AbstractAlthough it is widely recognised that well‐being of teachers is important, not much is known about the effects of job characteristics in subjective well‐being. This paper is a report of a study that investigates the effects of job characteristics on subjective well‐being. Nationally representative employee data is used to investigate the effects of job characteristics and teachers' subjective well‐being among teachers in Britain (N = 954). The findings suggest that there is a prima facie case for schools to use the job demands‐resources model to maintain and raise levels of job satisfaction and negative affect among their teachers. Multiple regressions were performed to calculate the relative weight of job characteristics related to subjective well‐being. Results show, among other things, that job security, autonomy and employee voice increase, and work–life conflict decreases, the subjective well‐being of teachers. In addition, it is found that family policies, a supportive supervisor and employee voice can mitigate the detrimental effects of work–life conflict, workload and work hours on negative affect. Policy implications follow, which include, inter alia, that training and development programmes with an emphasis on communications skills and providing teachers more opportunities to participate in decisions could be used to achieve greater participation, better supportive supervision and more job security. In addition, workload can be reduced by giving teachers more non‐contact time and creating smaller classes. Context and implicationsRationale for this studyIt is widely recognised that lack of well‐being can potentially affect both workers and the organisation in negative ways. Within the teaching occupation well‐being is a serious and growing concern. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to generate insights into what job characteristics affect teacher well‐being.Why the new findings matterThis study demonstrated that the JD‐R model can be used successfully to investigate job characteristics. Furthermore, this study highlights the relationship of subjective well‐being of teachers with job characteristics. In addition, it is found that various job resources can mitigate the detrimental effects of several demands on negative affect.Implications for practiceThe present study suggests that increases in subjective well‐being can be made by increasing resources and decreasing demands and that special attention needs to be drawn to: supportive management, employee voice, autonomy, job security, workload and work–life conflict. Policy implications include that training and development programmes with an emphasis on communication skills and providing teachers more opportunities to participate in decisions could be used to achieve greater participation, better supportive supervision and more job security. In addition, workload can be reduced by giving teachers more non‐contact time and creating smaller classes.

Caregiving across generations: Do older adults with more grandchildren get another bite at the “sandwich” generation?

Understanding the influence of grandchildren on long-term care use is a growing issue. Indeed, many countries, middle-aged adults provide unpaid care for aging family members, often their parents, at home. Although the influence of adult children's availability on their aging parents' caregiving decisions has been widely studied, the influence of grandchildren remains largely unstudied. Parental time allocated to childcare may compete with elder care, necessitating paid home care or transfer to a nursing home. Alternatively, grandparents may provide childcare, increasing incentives to keep grandparents at home. Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (75,296 observations from 11 countries covering years 2004–2018), we exploit an instrumental variable strategy to study the effect of grandchildren on grandparents' long-term care decisions, specifically, use of paid home care or transfer to a nursing home. We use the generosity of maternity leave policies in time and across countries as an instrumental variable to identify the effect of the number of grandchildren. We find that the presence of grandchildren significantly increases the likelihood of having grandparents live at home: the probability of paid home care significantly increases while the probability of nursing home admission falls significantly. In conclusion, policies influencing the number of grandchildren in families have an indirect impact on long-term care use trajectories, confirming that family policies and long-term care policies are strongly imbricated and should not be considered separately.

The evolution of family policies and couples' housework division after childbirth in Germany, 1994–2019

AbstractObjectiveWe examine how the re‐traditionalization effect of childbirth on couples' division of housework has evolved over time as a result of major family policy change.BackgroundSupportive family policies are associated with a more egalitarian division of labor. However, it remains unclear how a country's transition from a modernized male breadwinner regime that supports maternal care to family policies that promote maternal employment and paternal caregiving change couples' gender‐typical division of housework in the long run.MethodWe use representative survey data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel (1994–2019, N = 14,648) and estimate the re‐traditionalization effect of childbirth on mothers' absolute and relative time‐use on housework over four policy periods with linear fixed‐effects regression models.ResultsAcross all periods, mothers took on larger absolute and relative levels of housework after childbirth, with a more pronounced and persistent gender‐typical division in West than in East Germany. However, mothers spent somewhat less absolute and relative time on housework in recent periods with stronger levels of de‐familiarizing and dual‐earner/dual‐carer policies than in earlier periods with policies supporting maternal caregiving.ConclusionWe find somewhat smaller and less persistent re‐traditionalization effects of childbirth in more supportive work–family policy periods. In sum, the small changes illustrate that even in contexts of enormous policy change, progress toward a less gender‐typical division of housework has been slow and rather small.

Child-related Social Policies in Europe during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract Looking at core features of child and family related spending and policy design, and covering five domains of policy, the paper offers new empirical evidence and an original perspective for better understanding how EU countries and the UK responded to the needs of children and families during the pandemic and how to classify responses in terms of child-centredness. The paper is driven by a concept of child-centredness to examine developments from March to December 2020 in five policy fields: income support, food assistance, early childcare and education services, school opening and support for parental care-giving. The analysis shows strong variation across countries in terms of how active they were and what fields they were active in. One very striking commonality, though, is that the most popular field of policy action was in resourcing parental care of children at home, through paid leaves usually. A related finding is that there was little prioritising of children for most kinds of actions. Thirdly, in terms of national patterning those countries that were generous spenders on this field of policy prior to the pandemic were most child-centred in their response and there are few if any exceptions to this.

Parental leave policies, work (re)entry, and second birth: Do differences between migrants and non-migrants in Germany increase?

The paper investigates migrant–nonmigrant differentials over time among women in Germany after their first childbirth; we look at the transitions to paid work or to a second child. Our observation period covers almost 30 years, in which family policies changed substantially. Most notably, the year 2007 marked a shift in (West) Germany’s parental leave policy from a conservative family model to a policy directed toward fostering work and family reconciliation. Across these policy periods, we investigate whether population subgroups, i.e., first-generation migrants and migrant descendants, show different patterns in their transitions after the first childbirth compared to the non-migrant majority population. We use data of the German Socio-economic Panel Study (GSOEP). Our sample consists of 3555 mothers of one child, about 13% of whom are first-generation migrants and 16% are migrant descendants. We estimate event-history models: using competing risks analyses, we study transitions following the first birth, specifically, (re)entering work and having a second child. We find that the transition (back) to work increased significantly from one policy period to the next among non-migrants. Increases among migrants varied between the migrant generations, were smaller and occurred later. Hence, we find an increasing gap between first-generation migrants and non-migrants across policy periods, with migrant descendants in between. To some extent, the migrant–nonmigrant gap traces back to different compositional and institutional effects and varies across origin groups. By contrast, the transition rates to a second child decreased among non-migrants, but hardly varied across periods among migrants. Thus, our results demonstrate increasing differentials between societal groups in their work-family reconciliation behavior, to which the modern parental leave policies may have contributed. We discuss the implications of these results for researchers, society and policymakers.

Investigating the gender pay gap in the Maltese financial and insurance sector: a macro and micro approach

PurposeAlthough women have advanced in the economic sphere, the gender pay gap (GPG) remains a persisting problem for gender equality. Using Acker's theory of gendered organisations, this study strives to gain a better understanding from a macro and micro approach, how family and work-related policies, especially family-friendly measures (FFMs), and their uptake, contribute and maintain the GPG in Malta and specifically within the Financial and Insurance sector.Design/methodology/approachTwo research instruments were used. National policy documents were analysed through the gender lens, followed by structured interviews with HR managerial participants within this sector.FindingsFindings suggest that at a macro level, family and work-related policies could be divided into two broad categories: A set of family-friendly policies that contribute to the GPG because of their gendered nature, or because the uptake is mostly taken by women. These include make-work pay policies, which initially appear to be gender neutral, but which attracted lower educated inactive women to the Maltese labour market at low pay, contributing to an increase in the GPG. Second, a set of policies that take on a gender-neutral approach and help reduce the GPG. These include policies like the free childcare and after school care scheme that allow mothers to have a better adherence to the labour market. At the micro level within organisations, pay discrepancies between women and men were largely negated and awareness about the issue was low. Here, “ideal worker” values based on masculine norms seemed to lead to covert biases towards mothers who shoulder heavier care responsibilities in the families and make a bigger use of FFMs. Because men are better able to conform to these gendered values and norms, the GPG persists through vertical segregation and glass ceilings, among others.Research limitations/implicationsSince not all the companies in the Eurostat NACE code list participated in this research, results could not be generalised but were indicative to future large-scale studies..Practical implicationsAt the macro and policy level, some FFMs take on a clear gendered approach. For example, the disparity in length between maternity (18 weeks) and paternity leave (1 day) reinforces gender roles and stereotypes, which contribute to the GPG in the long run. While some FFMs like parental leave, career breaks, urgent family leave, telework, flexible and reduced hours seem to take on a more gender-neutral approach, the uptake of FFMs (except childcare) seems to generate discriminatory behaviour that may affect the GPG. When considering the make-work pay policies such as the “in-work benefit” and the “tapering of benefits”, this study showed that these policies attracted lower educated and low-skilled women into the labour market, which in turn may have further contributed to the increasing GPGs. On the other hand, the childcare and after school policies relieve working mothers from caregiving duties, minimising career interruptions, discriminatory behaviour and overall GPGs.Social implicationsThis study confirmed that organisations within the Financial and Insurance sector are gendered and give value to full-time commitment and long working hours, especially in managerial roles. Managerial positions remain associated with men because mothers tend to make more use of FFMs such as parental leave, reduced, flexible hours and teleworking. Mothers are indirectly penalised for doing so, because in gendered organisations, the uptake of FFMs conflict with the demands of work and ideal worker values (Acker, 1990). This maintains the vertical segregation and widens the GPG within the Financial and Insurance sector.Originality/valueBy using the gender lens and taking a wider and more holistic approach from the macro and micro level, this study highlights how interlinking factors lead to and sustain the GPG in the Financial and Insurance sector in Malta.

Double jeopardy: Gendered social policy for two risky life periods in six welfare state contexts

This study adopts a cultural gendered perspective to examine policy in two financially risky periods in women's life course: when raising young children and in post-employment in old age, when income is mainly from pensions. Specifically, we look at the intersection of social policy and cultural schemas of motherhood in relation to two policy axes: family policy and old age policy. The analysis is based on a cross-national comparison of social policies in six countries with significantly different welfare state and cultural traditions: Germany, France, Israel, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. Data are gleaned from document analysis of care and pension policies and the database of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The policy analysis revealed nuanced differences between countries that are captured through a typology composed of the level of generosity in family policy and the level of generosity in old age policy. The analysis addresses a research lacuna regarding the intersection between gendered cultural schemas and the generosity of socialpolicies and its plausible relation to the genderedness of old-age vulnerability.

Covid 19, Inequality and Poverty in Rural Indonesia

The Covid-19 pandemic has had an impact on inequality and poverty in rural Indonesia. This study aims to identify inequality and poverty during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as program policies for poor families after the Covid-19 pandemic in rural Indonesia. The combination of quantitative and qualitative methods with the Drone Participatory Mapping (DPM) approach is the preferred method used by researchers to obtain Precision Village Data (PVD). From this data, the researcher used the Lorenz Curve to determine the inequality and poverty of families in three villages (Sibandang, Cikarawang and Tegallalang). The results showed that the three research villages were in low inequality conditions (Sibandang Village with the typology of plantation village = 0.39; Cikarawang Village with the typology of food crops village = 0.36; and Tegallalang Village with the typology of rice field village = 0.35) during the Covid-19 pandemic. From this inequality, every poor family in rural Indonesia has a different income. Therefore, the policy to restore the condition of poor families in rural Indonesia must address three main aspects: education, employment and income.

Demographic Trends in Albania for Social-economic Development After 1990

The paper evaluates the latest demographic trends in Albania for the socio-economic development of the space for the period 1990 - 2031. These indicators are calculated in terms of the existence of migration (Albania is a typical case), where the net migration rate is taken into account. The design methodology is presented on fertility, mortality and migration, which are combined in three scenarios of population change at the national level. The medium growth scenario is then regionalized and differentiated into three internal migration scenarios for projecting the population of Albania's counties. Forecasts at the national level are described and analyzed through the future demographic changes in Albania. In addition to the decline in birth and death rates, the population structure of Albania after the 1990s has been strongly influenced by the component processes of continuous emigration. The paper estimates that the population aging indicators would be up to 4% - 5% lower, if the emigration process was limited and controlled. From the analysis of statistical indicators, it is noted that, throughout the period from 2001 to the projection of 2031, the average annual growth of the population is estimated to be negative (-0.7%), while the annual growth of the population over the age of 65 is estimated to be positive ( +0.5%). In order to slow down the phenomenon of the aging population of Albania and to mitigate the negative consequences of this aging, the drafting and elaboration of rigorous and continuous immigration and family policies is recommended.

Maternal Employment and Childcare Use from an Intersectional Perspective: Stratification along Class, Contractual and Gender Lines in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the UK

Abstract Connecting streams of feminist and comparative social policy literature, this article investigates stratification in maternal employment and childcare use along class, contractual, and gender lines across six countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) and five family policy models. Detailing the different stratifying factors that intervene in the relation between maternal employment and childcare use offers a concrete analysis of the complex link between social reproduction and work. Employing multivariate regressions and EU-SILC (2007–2018) data, it provides an intersectional perspective to the literature. First, we observe a process of formalization in childcare use with a parallel reduction of nonformal care for couples; this process is slower for single mothers. Second, we document a paradox in relation to the social investment approach: the relation between childcare use and maternal employment is stronger in countries that recently expanded childcare to modify their male-breadwinner orientation, but in these countries childcare use is more stratified along class/contract types, a concern for the outcomes of social investment strategies outside of Scandinavia. Being out of work, being in a lower social class, fulfilling domestic tasks and/or care activities, and having an atypical contract negatively correlates with childcare use in most countries. Third, households where partners have more similar earning levels use childcare to a greater extent. The article also provides models employing different dependent and independent variables, alternative family structures, full and part-time work, formal and nonformal childcare, and rich country details.

Perceptions of gender equality and engaged fatherhood among young fathers: parenthood and the welfare state in Sweden and the UK

This article presents analyses from an international empirical study of young fatherhood in Sweden and the UK to interrogate how welfare contexts and family policies shape young fathers’ views of parenthood. Our analyses demonstrate that despite differences in constructions of young fatherhood, whereby young parenthood is problematised in UK family policy, more so than in Sweden, young fathers in both countries express an encouraging commitment to contemporary cultural imperatives for engaged fatherhood. However, differences in welfare and parental leave systems have a clear influence on the extent to which the young men in the respective countries fulfil their parental commitments and act as local agents of change in the wider social project of gender equality. We argue that while policy processes and discourses in support of young parenthood and gender equality are currently treated as disparate concerns, their articulations with one another may instead be seen as complementary and symbiotic.

Early socioeconomic status, social mobility and cognitive trajectories in later life: A life course perspective

Using the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) from 2008 to 2018 accompanied by the growth curve model, we examined the association between early socioeconomic status, social mobility, and divergent cognitive trajectories in later life within a society undergoing significant transformation. The study confirmed a positive relationship between socioeconomic status in early life and cognitive ability in later life. However, socioeconomic status in adulthood is associated with better cognitive ability in old age compared to that in childhood. Meanwhile, upward social mobility mitigates the negative correlation between socioeconomic disadvantage in early life and cognitive ability in later life. In addition, the inequality in socioeconomic status at earlier stages resulted in heterogeneous cognitive trajectories, with the double cumulative disadvantage effect resulting from education being particularly noteworthy. Thus, Chinese health policy should focus on the earlier stages of life, actively promoting inclusive family policies and improving the family's role in protecting childhood from an adverse environment. Simultaneously, education and employment fairness should be strengthened to accelerate social mobility and enhance the “Health Repair Mechanism” of the second life course.

A closer look at demand-side explanations for the Matthew effect in formal childcare uptake in Europe and Australia

Although formal childcare is considered a key social investment policy to combat inequality, available research indicates that in most European and other high-income countries parents with lower socio-economic positions are less likely to use formal childcare. As the literature on the underlying causes of this so-called Matthew effect has not yet converged, this article is the first to assess whether educational gradients in formal childcare uptake can be accounted for by micro-level employment potential and work–family attitudes in 14 European countries and Australia. Complementing available research on supply-side factors such as policy design features, this study indicates that a large part of the educational gradients in formal childcare uptake persist after controlling for socio-demographic background variables, employment potential, and work–family attitudes as micro-level predictors. However, this study also shows that a considerable part of the educational differentiation in formal childcare uptake reflects differential employment potential. This finding turns attention to policies other than childcare to enhance labour market outcomes for lower educated groups, which in turn might attenuate the Matthew effect in formal childcare. Furthermore, a positive relation between individual-level work–family attitudes and the uptake of formal childcare is also identified as a partial explanation for educational gradients in formal childcare uptake. Although the explanatory power of work–family attitudes as an underlying determinant of the Matthew effect is more limited compared to employment potential, such variation in the acceptance of maternal employment and formal childcare should also be considered in the design of inclusive work–family policies.

When Kids Are a Burden: Understanding the Normative Sources of Negative Perceptions of Parenthood

AbstractHow individuals perceive raising children varies across countries. Researchers seeking to explain this have tended to focus on variation in family policies across countries, arguing that having children is perceived more negatively in terms of cost and disturbance to parents’ freedom and careers in countries where less policy support for families is provided. In this study, I add to the literature on attitudes toward child‐raising by focusing on a key feature of the cultural context: societal gender‐role norms. I posit that greater normative expectations in favor of women's “dual” responsibilities of being wage earners and devoted mothers are associated with more negative perceptions of parenthood. Using internationally comparative data drawn from 27 OECD countries, I find that in countries where the dual role expectation is established as a dominant cultural norm for women, people are more likely to perceive children as a burden. This pattern is particularly pronounced among women, who must contend with the dual expectations of contributing to family income while assuming the responsibility of primary caregiver. Furthermore, I find that between‐country differences in the normative context play a larger role than the policy context in explaining variation in the perceived costs/disruptiveness of children across countries.

Bread or roses? Trade unions, female employment and the expansion of work-family policies

ABSTRACT In the Fordist era, trade unions promoted welfare state expansion and coverage against risks for the broader workforce. With the shift to the post-industrial economy, however, new economic groups have been left without representation. This is particularly evident for women: despite a rapid increase in female employment since the 1980s, unions’ membership base remains anchored in the male, old and industrial working class. Without the crucial pressure of labour, welfare systems have failed to enhance the reconciliation of work and family life. Under which conditions do unions support the expansion of work-family policies? Marshalling evidence from 20 OECD countries in the 1980–2010 period, this paper investigates the role of political actors in family policy reform. Findings suggest that unions promote the expansion of work-family packages when they are gender-inclusive and have institutional access to policy-making.

Activities of the Internal Affairs Bodies for the Prevention of Domestic Crimes

The problem of domestic crime continues to be one of the urgent problems affecting the welfare of the nation . As a result of the implementation of the Concept of the Development of state Family Policy in the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025, a system of measures has been formed aimed at creating conditions for meeting the interests and needs of families, increasing their economic independence, their role in the self-realization of the individual, educating new generations, strengthening the prestige of marriage and family lifestyle . Experts point out the negative impact of family problems on the development of civil society, socio-economic, political stability of the state . Solving this problem is one of the main tasks of the internal affairs bodies of the Russian Federation . Domestic violence is a crime that occurs in the private sphere of life, characterized by systematic actions against family members in order to gain physical, emotional and material control . The article analyzes the provisions of regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation, materials of law enforcement practice and scientific positions related to the activities of the internal affairs bodies of the Russian Federation on the prevention of domestic crimes, and also suggests measures to improve them .

Productive and hazardous: Investing in families in social policy

Social investment has gained increasing prominence in family policy reform. It has also been widely criticised from a feminist and social justice perspective. This article examines how the meaning of the family changes when it is seen as a site of investment. Using a discourse-analytical approach and focusing on agenda setting policy documents of Germany's ‘sustainable family policy’ this is explored in four dimensions: the extension and simultaneous narrowing of the meaning of family; the articulation of new gendered subjectivities; a redefinition of the boundaries between the family and the state; and new modes of differentiation between families according to their ability to ‘produce’ human capital. I argue that the traditional family loses its role as a normative reference point and is increasingly framed as a production site of human capital. Hence, more critical engagement with social and racialized inequalities, which are implied in these discourses, is necessary.

Slovak Families in the Clutches of the Builders of Socialism: Population and Family Policy in Slovakia in the 1950s and 1960s

ABSTRACT After 1948, Czechoslovak communist elites were intently focused on the issue of population growth. In the post-war period, Czechoslovakia’s population significantly decreased as a result of the expulsion of the German population from the frontier territories of the Czech and Moravia areas. However, the Slovak territory saw much smaller deviations, with higher marriage and birth rates than the overall Czechoslovak average. My aim in this paper is to show the contribution of specific local circumstances in Slovakia and the approach of Czechoslovak communists to the population behaviour trends of the Roma inhabitants in this region.