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We examined the prototype v. revisionist models of attachment stability with a five-wave, 6-year, longitudinal study of attachment security from middle childhood to adolescence in a White Western European sample (N = 157; Wave 1 M[subscript age] = 10.91, SD = 0.87; 52% female). Attachment was assessed using both questionnaire (Experiences in Close Relationships) and narrative-based measures (Attachment Script Assessment). In addition, a set of potential moderators of prototype-like stability were examined. Results indicated that data from both attachment assessments best fit the prototype model. Moderator analyses indicated that male sex significantly undermined the influence of an attachment prototype and parent-child conflict and parental divorce enhanced the influence of an attachment prototype on stability.

The increase in European divorce rates over the past decades was accompanied by several changes in divorce laws. Yet for European countries, research on the effects of divorce law on the divorce rate is scarce. Most of the existing studies are based on data from North America and provide numerous, but inconsistent, results. We use fixed-effects regression models to examine the impact of the introduction of unilateral divorce on the divorce rate in Western European countries. We find that de facto unilateral divorce practices led to a sustainable increase in the divorce rate, whereas legal rights to unilaterally divorce had no long-run effects.

This article examines whether correlates of cross-national homicide variation tested with data from highly developed, predominantly Western nations could also explain homicide rates in East-Central Europe. Using pooled time-series analyses of data from nine countries from 1990 through 2003, this study found that homicide rates were negatively related to GDP/capita and positively related to ethnic diversity and population density. They were also negatively related to the percentage of young people and not significantly related to income inequality or divorce rates. This article also investigates whether conditions specific to the post-communist transformations contributed to homicide variation. Findings indicate that progressive reforms toward democratization and marketization decreased homicide rates. The discussion uses the socio-historical context of the nations to explain these results. (Contains 5 tables and 1 note.)

Introduces special journal issue published to inform American readers of recent developments in Europe and to help readers address contemporary family change. Discusses similarities of trends in North America and Western Europe and points out differences among countries. Examines various statistical indicators and trends in birth rates, marriages, and divorces, and discusses difficulty of interpreting international differences. (NB)

Objective: This study examines the educational diffusion of divorce in Europe and the role of women's decisionmaking therein. Background: As the contextual barriers to divorce have lowered, the divorce rates of less-educated women have increased in many societies. Changes in divorce barriers are likely more pertinent to married women than to married men. However, no previous study has tested whether less-educated women increasingly take the initiative to divorce or whether less-educated women are increasingly left by their husbands. Method: The authors used retrospective panel data from the Generations and Gender Survey, covering 39,650 marital unions across 49 country-cohort contexts in Europe. Multilevel models showed how divorce barriers were associated with the educational gradient in divorce. Competing-risks models decomposed the associations into a wife-initiated share and a husband- or jointly-initiated share. Results: Lower divorce barriers are associated with the educational diffusion of divorce. This diffusion is largely driven by women's own divorce initiation. Conclusion: More permissive family norms and greater economic autonomy enable less-educated women to leave a dissatisfying marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the U.S., evidence has emerged suggesting that divorce is lower among those with many versus few siblings, a pattern that may indicate that children develop important social skills via their childhood interactions with siblings. However, this pattern has yet to be tested in other countries with varying fertility and divorce rates. We extend the empirical basis of the sibship size/divorce literature by exploring the association in China and Europe, each with unique demographic characteristics. Each additional sibling is associated with an 11 percent decline in the probability of divorce in China and a two percent decline in Europe, net a wide range of covariates. We also test whether these patterns vary across cohorts and alternative coding schemes. The results have implications for our understanding of how growing up with siblings influences later life outcomes and the contextual features that form that relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Work and family trajectories develop and interact over the life course in complex ways. Previous studies drew a fragmented picture of these trajectories and had limited scope. We provide the most comprehensive study of early-to-midlife work-family trajectories to date. Methods: Using retrospective data from waves 3 and 7 of the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we reconstructed work-family trajectories from age 15 to 49 among almost 80,000 individuals born between 1908 and 1967 across 28 countries. We appliedmultichannel sequence and cluster analysis to identify typical trajectories and multinomial logistic regression models to uncover their social composition. Results: The results revealed six common trajectories. The dominant and therefore standard trajectory represents continuous full-time employment with having a partner and children. Women, the lower educated and persons from conservative and liberal welfare regimes are underrepresented in this trajectory, whereasmen, higher educated people and those fromsocial-democratic, Eastern European and Baltic welfare regimes are overrepresented. The other trajectories denote a deviation from the standard one, integrating a non-standard form of work with standard family formation or vice versa. Mothers in a stable relationship generally work part-time or not at all. When mostly in full-time employment, women are more likely to be divorced. Lower educated persons are less likely to have work-family trajectories characterized by full-time work and a non-standard family, yetmore likely to be non-employed for large parts of their life with standard family formation. Younger cohorts are underrepresented in non-employment trajectories, but overrepresented in part-time employment trajectories along with a partner and children as well as full-time employment trajectories with divorce. Individuals from Southern European and liberal regimes are more likely to be non-working and self-employed partnered parents and those from social-democratic regimes are more likely to be full-time employed divorced parents. We also found pronounced gender differences in how educational level, birth cohort and welfare regime are associated with work-family trajectories from early to midlife. Discussion: Our findings highlight the socially stratified nature of earlier-life work-family trajectories in Europe. Potential implications for inequalities in later life are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Research on Muslim divorce practices in Europe often focuses exclusively on male Islamic authority, neglecting the role of women. This article compares the Islamic divorce practice of two female Islamic authorities with that of nineteen male Islamic authorities to demonstrate that women have important roles in relation to Islamic divorce. It also analyses how the two Danish female informants, Zaynab and Aisha, function as highly specialised volunteer social workers, referring Muslim women to shelters and guiding them through their Islamic divorce. Thus, the article points out a vacuum in the services provided by the Danish state – the lack of knowledge about conflicts relating to Islamic divorce – which makes professional social workers a less relevant option for Muslim women experiencing nikah -captivity (marital captivity within an Islamic symbolic frame of reference). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Living in a partnership has been shown to benefit later life health in general and decrease the risk of cognitive impairment. Few studies have, however, examined whether different types of partnership transitions also differ with respect to their impact on cognitive trajectories, and whether financial resources, healthy behaviors, cognitive stimulation, and social integration can explain these differences. Methods Data came from six waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, which is a representative panel for the population aged 50 years or older, and were collected between 2004 and 2017 in 20 European countries. Our sample includes 215,989 valid person-year observations from 78,984 persons. The mean age at baseline is 64 years, and individuals were observed on average 2.7 times. Cognitive functioning was assessed with measures of immediate and delayed recall on a memory test and verbal fluency. Fixed effects regression models were employed to exploit individual-level variation in partnership and simultaneous cognitive changes. Results Partnership status was stable in most respondents (around 90%). Compared to remaining partnered and after controlling for sociodemographic factors, transition to divorce was associated with a steeper decline in immediate and delayed recall. Exploring possible mechanisms, both financial resources and social integration, explained these differences. Additional analyses suggested that effects were mostly driven by individuals with lower education. Discussion Partnership transitions remain infrequent events in later life, but our findings indicate that they can induce less favorable cognitive trajectories compared to partnered individuals, particularly for those with lower cognitive reserve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grandparents are important childcare providers, but grandparental relationship status matters. According to several studies, caregiving is reduced after grandparental divorce, but differential responses by grandmothers versus grandfathers have often been glossed over. To explore the effects of relationship status on grandparental care, we analysed data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) comparing four grandparental relationship statuses (original couple, widowed, divorced, and repartnered) with respect to grandmothers' and grandfathers' provision of care to their birth children's children. When proximity, kinship laterality, and grandparents' age, health, employment, and financial status were controlled, divorced grandmothers without current partners provided significantly more childcare than grandmothers who were still residing with the grandfather, those who had new partners unrelated to the grandchildren, and widows without current partners. Grandfathers exhibited a very different pattern, providing substantially less grandchild care after divorce. Grandfathers in their original partnerships provided the most grandchild care, followed by widowers, those with new partners and finally those who were divorced. Seemingly contradictory findings in prior research, including studies using SHARE data, can be explained partly by failures to distinguish divorce's effects on grandmothers versus grandfathers, and partly by insufficient controls for the grandmother's financial and employment statuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joint physical custody, a parental care arrangement in which a child lives with each parent about equally after separation or divorce, is an increasingly common phenomenon in many Western countries. Although attention from family scholars, practitioners, and law professionals is growing, there are hardly any numbers on the prevalence of joint physical custody (JPC). Moreover, studies using large‐scale representative data on the effects of JPC for children's well‐being are still rare. The data for this study come from Health Behaviour in School‐Aged Children (HBSC), a representative cross‐national survey of adolescents in 37 European and North American countries that was conducted in 2002, 2006, and 2010 and included information on students at the ages of 11, 13, and 15 years (N = 92,886). First, results revealed that symmetrical JPC after family dissolution is still very rare in the majority of countries (5% or less), but reaches 10–20% in some countries. Second, adolescents' life satisfaction in nonintact families is higher in symmetric JPC arrangements than in asymmetric care arrangements. However, after controlling for children and family characteristics, the differences disappear. Thus, it is not the symmetric JPC arrangement that induces adolescents' higher life satisfaction, but rather the children and family characteristics that are associated with the choice of such a custody arrangement by separated or divorced parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wellbeing of older adults is closely related to their social relationships. There is a well-documented association of widowhood with social isolation and loneliness, but less is known about the consequences of divorce. This paper focuses on the effects of divorce and widowhood on the characteristics of social networks and loneliness in the Czech Republic. Data from the Czech component of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, 2015, are used. The results show that married older adults have the lowest levels of loneliness and, together with widowed men, the largest network of confidants. However, the size of the network is not associated with loneliness (net of socio-demographic variables). The only characteristic of the close social network that has an influence on loneliness is the presence of a partner in the network. This variable explains part of the advantage of spouses. Divorce is found to have a smaller impact on loneliness than widowhood, but the size of the difference depends on the gender and timing of the event. Widowed men seem to be most vulnerable while persons who divorce at age 50 or later experience the lowest level of loneliness among the unmarried groups. The favourable effect of late divorce can be interpreted in relation to the specific nature of partnership decisions in later life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study contrasts adult and child perspectives on divorce and separation. Based on harmonized retrospective life history data from eight European countries, we study the risk of divorce and separation from the perspective of adult unions and the perspective of children born into these unions. The analysis connects adult and child perspectives, focusing on union cohort changes (1945 to 2005) in the associations between parenthood, education, and (parental) separation. Our findings show that trends differ substantially between adult and child perspectives. First, the cohort surge in divorce and separation is stronger in adults than in children. Second, inequality in the risk of divorce and separation grows faster in children than in adults. For both trends, disparities between adult and child perspectives grow across cohorts due to increasingly negative associations between parenthood, education, and separation. In several countries, the separation surge has been trivial for children of higher-educated couples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid increase of the number of children being born in cohabitation appears to have an important impact on their lives, since they face a higher risk of parental breakup than children born in wedlock. This article aims to provide a cross-national overview of the living arrangements of children following breakup of cohabiting unions and to investigate whether the post-dissolution living arrangements differ between formerly cohabiting and married families. Analyzing the first wave of Generations and Gender Survey for 9 European countries shows that former cohabiters are not more or less likely to establish shared physical custody of their children than formerly married couples; however, formerly cohabiting fathers are somehow less likely to have sole custody of their children. The lower odds of sole-father custody among former cohabiters are caused by the selection of individuals into cohabiting unions (i.e., different demographic characteristics of cohabiting parents and union duration). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decades, Europe has witnessed a shift in the division of household chores among men and women, with a trend towards balance. The Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe has constantly advocated gender equality and recommended that equality between parents be guaranteed and promoted starting the very birth of the child. At the same time, it was appreciated that the involvement of both parents in the raising of children is beneficial to their development. A highly sensitive matter pertains to the establishment of the domicile in the case of the dissolution of marriage and actual separation of the parents. That is why the Parliamentary Assembly believes that, quite often, the best way for the child to maintain contact with the parents is the broad use of the dual-residence arrangements for the minor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND The second demographic transition (SDT), which links ideational changes with demographic developments, is one of the most prominent and debated theoretical frameworks in family demography. Yet, its operationalisations as composite sets of measures remain unevaluated. OBJECTIVE We evaluate two most frequently used SDT indices: attitudinal and behavioural. We assess how strongly they have been linked to each other in the last three decades in Europe and test their consistency over time. METHODS Using four waves of the European Values Study and publicly available demographic indicators for 23 European countries, we reconstruct, update, and evaluate the SDT indices. The attitudinal index measures postmaterialism, gender-egalitarianism, and religiosity. The behavioural index includes indicators of postponement, nonmarital childbearing, marriage, and divorce. RESULTS The correlation between the attitudinal and behavioural indices is positive, but its strength varies substantially over time. The indices' strongest correlates are indicators of postponement (demographic index) along with gender-egalitarian views and the importance of leisure (attitudinal index). Marriage and divorce rates together with attitudes towards the institution of marriage are least consistent with the indices. CONCLUSIONS Both indices are inconsistent internally and temporally. Some of the included indicators do not fit the SDT assumptions of stage-like one-directional development. Consequently, conclusions about the SDT based on cross-national data for a single year may be misleading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how the public acceptance of divorce has changed in European countries in recent decades. Taking advantage of the large-scale, comparative, and long-run measurement of value orientations in the European Values Study 1981-2017 it focuses on value change connected with divorce in a macro perspective. The article explores the acceptance of divorce in three aspects: 1) it measures and compares the trends in the acceptance of divorce in various European societies between 1981(1991) and 2017 and contrasts these trends with the data on divorce rates in these countries; (2) it explores the consistency/correlation between divorce attitudes and the affinitive value orientations associated in the broader set of values connected with the concept of the deinstitutionalisation of marriage; (3) it looks for the correlates of divorce acceptance and the changes in acceptance over time at the individual level (sex, education, cohort, family background, religiosity). Because of the descriptive nature of the research, no hypotheses are tested. The results show that divorce acceptance is rising over time in all EVS countries, and the acceptance is connected to divorce levels in given societies. Attitudes towards divorce form a consistent set of values together with other marriage deinstitutionalisation indicators. The acceptance of divorce correlates on an individual level with age, education, and religion, but surprisingly there is only weak difference between men and women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Becker's telling, Elizabeth Stuart perfectly exemplifies the kind of lynchpin figure that state decisions sometimes hinge on, but that can so easily be overlooked in later analyses. The Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies • 20:3 124 carefully observes that Othello, The Rape of Lucrece, Henry IV part 1, and Titus and Andronicus affirm or challenge orthodoxies of sexual value. Elizabeth's early death and her obscured burial in a rustic church kept her largely out of the history books, but Becker's exploration of Elizabeth's own writings and the writings of others about her in court records and contemporaneous plays demonstrate that her influence was keenly felt during her lifetime and after her death. [Extracted from the article]

Violence against women often continues after couples separate. Although the involvement of children in intimate partner violence is known, no study has investigated the role of children in postseparation violence in southern Europe. The aim of this study was to analyze male perpetrators' strategies to maintain control over the woman after couples separate and the involvement of children in this process. We designed a multimethod research with a sample of women attending five anti-violence centers in Italy: In the quantitative part, women were interviewed with a questionnaire (N = 151) at baseline and followed up 18 months later (N = 91); in the qualitative part, in-depth interviews were carried out with women (N = 13) attending the same centers. Results showed that women experienced high levels of violence and that children were deeply involved. When women with children were no longer living with the violence perpetrator, threats, violence, manipulation, and controlling behaviors occurred during father–child contacts: 78.9% of women in the longitudinal survey and all women in the qualitative study reported at least one of these unsettling behaviors. The qualitative study allowed for discovering some specific perpetrator strategies. Making the woman feel guilty, threatening, denigrating, and impoverishing her; preventing her from living a normal life; and trying to destroy the mother–child bond were key elements of a complex design aimed at maintaining coercive control over the ex-partner. Results from this multimethod study provided a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of coercive control and postseparation violence and how perpetrators use children to fulfill their aims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has shown that parent's union dissolution has negative consequences for individuals' well-being, parent–child relationships and children's outcomes. However, less attention has been devoted to the effects in the opposite direction, i.e. how children's divorce affects parents' well-being. We adopted a cross-country, longitudinal and multigenerational perspective to analyse whether children's marital break-up is associated with changes in parents' depressive symptoms. Using data from 17 countries and 5 waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (2004–2015), fixed effect linear regression models were estimated to account for time-constant social selection processes into divorce/separation. The results show that across European contexts parents' depressive symptoms increased as one of their children divorced. Furthermore, we found that parents living in more traditional societies, such as Southern European ones, experienced higher increases in depression symptoms when a child divorced than those living in Nordic countries. Overall, the findings provide new evidence in support of both the notion of "linked lives" and a normative perspective of family life course events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing importance of marriage as a migration strategy has been accompanied by a problematisation and securitization of marriages between binational couples in media and policy discourse. Moreover, marriage migration has received increased scholarly attention. In this article, we propose an analytical framework for the study of marriage migration and its government that permits to transcend three biases and related blind spots that we identify in the existing literature. While this literature offers rich insights into marriage migration and states' ever more laboured attempts to control and regulate it, this literature is, nevertheless, characterised by an implementation gap bias, a control bias and, finally, a destination country bias. To address these biases, we propose an analytical framework that is inspired by the autonomy of migration approach. We propose to ethnographically study binational couples' encounters with marriage migration related authorities in countries of destination and citizenship with a particular focus on binational couples' struggles for visas, resident permits and a right to family life. Illustrated through ethnographic research, we show that this methodology permits to highlight three aspects of marriage migration that have not been sufficiently considered so far. These include the securitization of marriage migration 'from below' through informal practices of government on the 'street-level', binational couples' inherently political border struggles and their capacity to negotiate restrictive legislations and bureaucratic hurdles and, finally, what we call the multiple entanglements of binational couples in the border and citizenship regimes of two or more nation-state orders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joint physical custody (JPC), a parental care arrangement in which a child lives with each parent for at least 25–50% of the time after separation or divorce, is increasingly common in many Western societies. This is a major shift from the standard of sole physical custody, with mostly mothers providing primary childcare after a parental separation or divorce. The increasing share of separated or divorced parents who practice JPC, which in some countries, US states, and regions reaches 30% and more, results from increasing gender equality due to mothers participating considerably in the labor force and fathers being actively involved in their children's daily lives. This review focuses on the effects of JPC on children's and parents' well‐being, based on 40 studies from North America, Australia, and Europe published between 2007 and 2018. In sum, there is empirical evidence from different countries that suggests that JPC arrangements can have positive effects on the well‐being of children and of parents. However, the existing studies are conceptually, methodologically, and contextually very heterogeneous. In addition, self‐selected highly educated parents with a high socio‐economic status, a low conflict level, and children between the ages of 6–15 practicing JPC dominate the samples. Thus, the risks and benefits of JPC are not clear yet and are heavily debated by advocates and academics. The review concludes with suggestions for future research. Translation into Spanish [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has shown that divorce reduces the likelihood of home-ownership. Even in later life, ever-divorced men and women display lower home-ownership rates than their married counterparts. There is, however, a lack of knowledge about the consequences of divorce for a majority of divorcees: those who remain in home-ownership or move back into home-ownership after an episode in rental housing. This paper investigates the economic costs of divorce by focusing on the housing wealth of ever-divorced home-owners in later life (age 50 and over), against the background of changing welfare and housing regimes. The empirical analysis is based on data from ten European countries that participated in the third and fourth waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE 2007/8 and 2011/2). Our analyses support an association between divorce experience and lower housing wealth holdings for men and women who remain in home-ownership after a divorce, or re-enter home-ownership after a spell in rental housing. This means that a divorce has negative housing consequences for a broader range of individuals than thus far assumed. In countries with a dynamic housing market and a deregulated housing finance system, ever-divorced home-owners are worse off than their married counterparts. In these countries, more elderly individuals with a weaker financial situation are able to remain in or regain access to (mortgaged) home-ownership, but at the cost of lower housing equity. Further research should focus on the implications (e.g. for wellbeing, economic position) of such cross-country variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Few studies examine risk to offspring who experience both parental alcohol problems and parental separation and still fewer consider gender of the affected parent. We examined interactive effects of maternal versus paternal alcohol problems and parental separation on timing of first alcoholic drink in daughters. Methods Data were drawn from a sample of 3,539 European (or other) ancestry (EA) and 611 African ancestry (AA) female twins born between 1975 and 1985, median age 15 at first assessment. Cox proportional hazards regression models were estimated predicting age at first full drink from parental history of alcohol problems (mother only, father only, or both parents), parental separation during childhood, and the interaction of parental alcohol problems and parental separation. Cox models were estimated without and with adjustment for correlated risk factors, separately for EA and AA twins. Results For both EA and AA twins, a significant interaction between parental separation and mother-only alcohol problems was observed, suggesting reduced risk of drinking associated with mother-only alcohol problems in separated versus intact families. Conclusions Findings highlight parental separation as an important moderator of risk to children of mothers who have a history of problem drinking, with interactive effects observed consistently across racial group. To identify underlying processes, additional research is needed with more detailed characterization of separated families where mother only has a history of alcohol problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent evidence from the United States suggests that the reversal of the gender gap in education was associated with changes in relative divorce risks: hypogamous marriages, where the wife was more educated than the husband, used to have a higher divorce risk than hypergamous marriages, where the husband was more educated, but this difference has disappeared. One interpretation holds that this may result from cultural change, involving increasing social acceptance of hypogamy. We propose an alternative mechanism that need not presuppose cultural change: the gender-gap reversal in education has changed the availability of alternatives from which highly educated women and men can choose new partners. This may have lowered the likelihood of women leaving husbands with less education and encouraged men to leave less educated spouses. We applied an agent-based model to twelve European national marriage markets to illustrate that this could be sufficient to create a convergence in divorce risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a large-scale sample of online daters in eight European countries (N = 196,777), we examine willingness to stepparent among divorcees in relation to both gender and number of children, as well as a set of contextual determinants. We find evidence that having one’s own resident children increases the readiness to partner someone with children. Contrary to previous findings, women are generally less willing to stepparent than men, but when resident children are present, gender dissimilarities fade. Notable national differences are also found. Divorced mothers living in Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, or France are more open to having a partner with children, whereas Polish and Spanish divorced mothers would be less willing to stepparent. These results are interpreted in light of each country’s institutional background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge about the potential effects of stressful events on smoking cessation is helpful for the design of health interventions. Previous studies on this topic tended to group together adults of all ages and of both genders. We investigate the contribution of marital and employment losses on smoking cessation by gender, specifically among older adults in Europe. We used panel data from waves 4 (2011) and 5 (2013) of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe for 3345 male and 3115 female smokers at baseline aged 50 and over from 13 countries. The associations between marital and employment losses and smoking cessation were derived from logistic regression models for each gender, controlling for age, educational attainment, diseases incidence and country of residence. Interactions between gender and marital and employment losses were tested. Over the analysed period, 119 smokers became widowed or divorced (1.8 %), 318 became retired (4.9 %) and 100 became unemployed (1.5 %). Becoming widowed or divorced was associated with lower probability of smoking cessation among both men (OR 0.36, 95 % CI 0.14-0.94) and women (OR 0.46, 95 % CI 0.21-0.99). Transitions to unemployment and to retirement were not significantly associated with smoking cessation (OR 0.62, 95 % CI 0.25-1.49; and OR 0.68, 95 % CI 0.43-1.07, respectively). Gender differences in the association between marital and employment losses and smoking cessation were not statistically significant ( p value > 0.05 for all interactions). Health interventions should take into account that male and female older adults affected by marital loss are at risk of continuing smoking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from the European Social Survey fielded in 2010/11, this study presents new evidence on retirement preferences in Europe. It investigates retirees' preferred and actual ages of retirement, focusing on the retirement window 1995–2011. Moreover, it reports on the prevalence of mismatch in the form of involuntary retirement (retiring earlier than preferred) and involuntary work (retiring later than preferred). The study identifies substantial shares of retirees who are affected by a mismatch between their preferred and actual ages of retirement. In the majority of the countries analysed, at least 30 per cent of retirees would have preferred to continue working past the age at which they retired, while in a number of countries sizeable shares of retirees report involuntary work. The risk factors for involuntary retirement include the experience of late-career job loss, unemployment, job exits for health reasons and, in the case of women, working in higher-status occupations. The risk factors for involuntary work include fatherhood and, in the case of women, part-time work. As a result of rising actual ages of retirement, the risk of involuntary retirement has decreased for more recent retirement cohorts, while due to pension reforms that have tightened eligibility rules for early retirement, men's risk of involuntary work has increased. However, involuntary retirement is still more prevalent than involuntary work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

• We study the impact of the pandemic on loneliness in older adults living alone. • Older adults living alone cannot be tarred with the same brush. • The impact of the pandemic on loneliness varies by marital history. • Further research needs to examine the underlying mechanisms. The COVID-19 pandemic and related physical distancing measures have disproportionally affected older adults living alone due to their greater social isolation. Unlike previous studies on the subject, the current research recognizes the diversity amongst older adults living alone by considering the impact of marital history. Combining information from Wave 8 of the Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement (SHARE), with data of SHARELIFE and the SHARE Corona survey, we investigated the differential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on loneliness in older men (N = 1504) and women (N = 4822) living alone. Logistic multilevel analyses were performed on data from 26 European countries and Israel. For men, we found that the short-term widowed were more likely to report increased loneliness than the medium- and long-term widowed and those living apart together (LAT). For women, the results indicated that the short- and medium-term widowed and the divorced were at greater risk for increased loneliness than those in a LAT relationship. Also, medium-term widowed women were more likely to report increased loneliness than their long-term widowed counterparts. The three hypothesized underlying mechanisms – i.e., (i) the opportunity mechanism, (ii) the expectation mechanism, and (iii) the vulnerability mechanism – only played a small role in explaining the observed differences. In sum, our study highlights the importance of recognizing the diversity within the group of older adults living alone when investigating the effects of the pandemic on loneliness, yet the mechanisms behind the stratifying role of marital history are not fully understood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study’s main objective is to gauge the prevalence of family forms following separation and divorce in Europe. In addition to the comparison of the prevalence of single-parent families and stepfamilies in Europe based on data of the ‘Generations and Gender Program’ (GGP), family patterns which draw on marriage and divorce rates on the one hand, and on the incidence of single parenthood and stepfamilies on the other hand are investigated. Data are available for 17 European countries (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Sweden) and include a total of 58,336 family households with minor children. The analysis first presents descriptive statistics allowing comparisons of the prevalence of single-parent families and stepfamilies. Secondly, a cluster analysis was carried out to identify family patterns around Europe and to answer the question, whether the Hajnal line can help us to describe regional differences. By taking marriage and divorce rates as well as the prevalence of single parenthood and stepfamilies into account we were able to identify four clusters of family patterns, which give no support for Hajnal’s line anymore. Family patterns in Europe are quite complex and hard to systemize by an East–West divide. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the association between early parenthood and poorer later health in Western and Eastern Europe. Topics include the challenges facing young mothers and fathers including physiological challenges for young women like pregnancy, parturition, and lactation, and the social implications of early parenthood including disruptions in educational and career progression and the increased chances of divorce.

Objectives: Studies have shown that a parental divorce has a negative effect on parent-child relations. This study examines how adult children's divorce affects the amount of contact children have with older parents, making a distinction between the effects of being single on the one hand and the effects of divorce on the other hand. Method: Using data on older adults in 11 European countries, I estimate within-family regression models to compare multiple adult children per parent (19,454 children aged 30-49; 10,476 parents aged 50-96). I analyze contact frequency while taking into account coresidence and distance. Results: When comparing single divorced children and married children, no difference in contact is observed, but divorced children are more likely to live with their parents. When comparing among children who are single, divorced children have less frequent contact with parents than never-married children. This negative divorce effect exists for sons and daughters and is found in 9 of the 11 countries. Discussion: The divorce of a child has a double meaning: it leads to being single, which is associated with stronger intergen-erational ties, but it is also a non-normative and stressful life event, which is associated with weaker intergenerational ties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1870 and 1930 the French colonial state in Algeria expanded its regulatory prerogatives in the governance of Muslim "personal status law" without abandoning its policy commitments to "respect local custom." This article examines this fraught historical process with a focus on the impact of European medicine and redefinitions of evidence and expertise. Through case studies drawn from judicial archives and published jurisprudence, this study traces the paradoxical effects of colonial medicalization on Muslim women's divorce based on forced or failed consummation of marriage. In divorces based on forced or premature consummation, colonial medical and legal discourses that infantilized Muslim women and criminalized Muslim men created new pathways for women to escape abusive marriages. Conversely, women's divorce suits based on nonconsummation were weakened by French interventions that suppressed expert witnessing by local women birth attendants (qablas) and instead privileged the witness credibility of husbands as heads of households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the demographic and social determinants of repartnering after divorce in four Baltic and Central European transition countries (Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, and Hungary), which, despite their common transition paths after the 1990s, developed distinct political economies and have different gender and family cultures. The article explores how the re-partnering chances of divorced women and men are shaped by the social divisions of gender, parenthood, age, and education within various transition- society contexts. In general, the findings support the argument about the relevance and mediating role of the societal context in the process of re-partnering. Although we found an overall gender disadvantage in re-partnering across all countries, in more traditional contexts, parenthood undermines the chances of re-partnering for women but not for men. The negative effect of older age for re-partnering after divorce is almost universal for men, but is context-sensitive for women. Education does not affect women's chances of re-partnering, but it does play a significant role in the attractiveness of men in more traditional settings. The analysis is based on the partnership and parenthood histories recorded in the Generations and Gender Survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The association between health and partnership status is a growing concern within the social sciences. Some partnership situations exhibit positive effects on health, while partnership breakdowns display negative impacts. However, case studies show that these associations may change with age, due to potential sources of heterogeneity within a population. The current analysis explored this association over the adult life course (ages 30-64) of Europeans aged 50 years and older based on retrospective information on health and partnership from SHARELIFE ( N = 23,535 after data screening). The data allowed us to control for socio-demographic covariates as well as for individual infirmity, measured by childhood health. We also considered contextual survival selection effects by comparing 13 European countries for which pre-adult mortality levels largely differed among the cohorts involved (1907-1958). Discrete-time hazard analyses examined the risk of suffering from a major episode of poor health (self-reported) in adulthood as a function of partnership history, using two approaches: a pooled model and country-specific models. The results revealed no differences between those who lived with a partner (first union) and single individuals in terms of the retrospective hazards of poor health. We hypothesize that this result stems from the cumulative effect of survival selection on individuals in advanced ages according to partnership status. The results also partially point to the plausibility of a contextual survival selection, which should be confirmed by further research based on additional health indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The increase in births within cohabitation in the United States and across Europe suggests that cohabitation and marriage have become more similar with respect to childbearing. However, little is known about additional childbearing after first birth. Using harmonized union and fertility histories from surveys in 15 countries, this study examines second conception risks leading to a live birth for women who have given birth within a union. Results show that women who continue to cohabit after birth have significantly lower second conception risks than married women in all countries except those in Eastern Europe, even when controlling for union duration, union dissolution, age at first birth, and education. Pooled models indicate that differences in the second conception risks by union type between Eastern and Western Europe are significant. Pooled models including an indicator for the diffusion of cohabitation show that when first births within cohabitation are rare, cohabiting women have significantly lower second conception risks than married women. As first births within cohabitation increase, differences in second conception risks for cohabiting and married women narrow. But as the percent increases further, the differentials increase again, suggesting that cohabitation and marriage are not becoming equivalent settings for additional childbearing. However, I also find that in all countries except Estonia, women who marry after first birth have second conception risks similar to couples married at first birth, indicating that the sequence of marriage and childbearing does not matter to fertility as much as the act of marrying itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of single-parent families is rapidly growing worldwide. In Europe single parent households, represents about 3.5% of all households and 9% of families with children. The main reasons for the increase in single parent families are the decline of marriages ratio as well as the increase in the divorce ratios and births outside marriage. The observed differences in the, appear to delineate a separation between EU countries by distinguishing them in countries of the North and the South. The highest rates are presented in the Nordic countries and the lowest rates in the southern countries. The image presented in this paper, maintains the distinction between the richest and poorest countries but also in countries with different religion like Protestantism and Catholicism. There is therefore a correlation between the growth rates of single parenthood, both by culture and by religion. This article concludes the importance and the necessity of the evaluation of the changes that the structure of the family undergoes, as it seems to have been directly related to the formation of the socio-economic context of a country and consequently the mental and physical health of its citizens. Therefore, a deeper inside of the problems that the members of single parent families are facing, should be a challenge to health professionals, especially those working in the field of Community-family nursing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the terms of freedom of movement of EU Member States' citizens and of increasing labour mobility in Europe, is of particular importance to study the material and territorial jurisdiction of the courts in the matter of civil status actions, the recognition and enforcement of legal judgments rendered in matters relating to divorce, legal separation or marriage annulment, as well as the power of final decision of the judgments regarding the actions on civil status. The present study analyzes the provisions of the EC Regulation of the Council no. 2201/2003 of November 27, 2003 concerning competence, recognition and enforcement of legal judgments in matrimonial matters and in the matter of parental responsibility, which entered into force on March 1st, 2005, in conjunction with the rules of private international law regarding the conflict of jurisdiction. The author also analyzes the jurisdictional competence of private international law of the Romanian courts in the matter of civil status actions according to Law no. 105/1992 on the regulation of private international law relations and to the new Civil Code. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Age structure is one of the most important demographic characteristics of the population, which is multicausally related to almost all population processes. On one hand, age structure is the complex result of processes such as fertility, mortality, immigration and emigration. At the same time, it substantially affects a number of socio-demographic phenomena such as marriage, divorce, migration, potential labour resources etc. Certain relationships between the age structure and other population characteristics, such as ethnic, educational, sex, economic or religious structure can also be observed. The demographic behaviour of the European population in the second half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century is characterised by significant changes. They are reflected in a number of population processes and indicies, which are typically interconnected and interrelated. These changes have been most strikingly manifested in a drop of fertility rates, changes in family behaviour, and shifts in the age structure of the population. The main aim of this paper is to analyse the time-space development of the age structure of the European population. The period of investigation is 1950-2010 which is extended by a projected development until 2060. Changes in age structure are analysed through several indicators such as coefficients of inflow, outflow and exchange, as well as with indices of economic and social support. Authors make also efforts to provide a complex assessment on population ageing. Using the method of standardised variable, 11 indicators of age structures for 39 European countries are used in the synthesis. In view of the londer time span, several types of age structures are pointed out in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to investigate the moderating effects of the national divorce rate on the association between body weight and marriage duration. Previous studies argued that a high divorce rate at country level reduces the body weight of married people because of an increased risk of a return to the marriage market. To examine the association in question, this study used retrospective data from 14,083 middle-aged individuals in Europe. For women the divorce rate, the percentage change, and the trend of change did not moderate the positive association between body mass index and marriage duration. In contrast, for men a high divorce rate and a steady decline over time positively moderated the relation between body mass index and marriage duration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radical changes in living arrangements, in sexual habits and in the position of marriage in Europe have arisen, very unevenly, since the 1960s and in some regions in scarcely more than a decade. Cohabitation before marriage is normal - even universal - in many countries, with the popularity of marriage falling as its mean age rises to beyond the highest levels hitherto recorded. Divorce has been legalised and in most cases made readily accessible. However, although not as firm a demarcation as once believed, Hajnal s line separating East and West has not yet been erased from the map of contemporary Europe. The article describes patterns and trends in partnership in Europe, including trends in marriage rates, divorce rates, the spread of cohabitation, LAT-relations and of births outside marriage, and tries to account for them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to discuss the harmonization of family regulations at European level and also to analyze to what extent the Principles of European Family Law regarding Divorce have been included in the family regulations at national level. In order to reach the objectives, there were two research methods that have been used: document analysis and comparative research. At European level there is no definition of "family" and this fact makes the concept of family very difficult to define. Considering the various sociological, anthropological, historical and religious factors, the definition and the meaning attributed to this institution differs from state to state. The analysis has revealed that in the last decade there is a growing interest for harmonization in the field of family law. It has also revealed that, at national level, steps have been made in order to integrate the European principles in the national regulations. The importance of this study is that has provided detailed information of the European norms and also a thorough analysis about the national regulation and the improvements that can be made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, Europe has witnessed dramatic changes in demographic behaviour manifested by postponement of childbearing, cohabitation replacing marriage together with increased divorce rates. It is often argued, especially in the demography literature, that these new behaviours are driven by fundamental changes in attitudes and value orientations. This article uses data from the third round of the European Social Survey to assess the drivers behind attitudes to demographic behaviour. There are large differences across countries, and we find that economic development is indeed a strong predictor for modern attitudes. However, attitudes towards demographic behaviour correlate with many other country-specific characteristics, some challenging popular wisdom in the demography literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s, the correlation between divorce and total fertility has turned positive on the country level in Europe. This paper investigates whether this positive association also holds on the individual level. To this end, it uses micro-level data from the third round of the European Social Survey about 23 countries. We introduce location-scale models to analyze both the average number of children and the dispersion around this number. Particular attention goes to the role played by repartnering. We find that a past divorce experience is generally negatively associated with the number of children ever born for both men and women, even for people who are in a new post-divorce union. So, contrary to what is suggested by aggregate level correlations, divorce has not become a pro-natal force in Europe. The only exception may be remarried men, who are somewhat more likely to have three or more children in our sample. Whereas the difference in average number of children born between divorced and never divorced people is small, divorce is associated with much greater heterogeneity in childbearing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]