PopDigests

What influence do personality traits have on divorce? And how do their effects change over time? Diederik Boertien and Dimitri Mortelmans use the psychological concept of "The Big Five" to understand the association between personality and divorce in Britain, Germany and Flanders. They determined individuals’ "Big Five" personality traits (agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism and openness to experience) using three questions for each trait based on seven-point scales ranging from "Do not agree at all" to "Fully agree".

Increasing divorce and separation rates among couples make repartnering an important factor to understand the dynamics of partnership formation today. Using register data from Belgium, Inge Pasteels and Dimitri Mortelmans (2017) from the University of Antwerp, explore how economic resources and an individual’s previous union influence the likelihood of finding a new partner.

Why are non-affluent regions still accompanied by high fertility rates? In a new study published in Demography, Pierluigi Conzo, Giulia Fuochi and Letizia Mencarini examined the relationship between life satisfaction and fertility in rural Ethiopia. The study is based on data from the Ethiopian Rural Household Survey, a longitudinal dataset.

To better understand the consequences of career breaks within the scope of governmental schemes to support a better work-life balance, research so far has mainly focused on the effects of parental leave for women and gender gaps in wage differentials. Mortelmans and Frans (2017) go beyond these shortcomings by examining the impact of career breaks on the income of both men and women, and across the life course.

Against the background of the increase in family dissolution and the corresponding rise of single-person and lone-parent households, Thomas et al. (2017) explore moves related to separation among families with children. Using British Household Panel Survey data, they show that significant gender differences exist, with fathers more likely to leave the family home than mothers, and mothers less likely to give up being close to family when starting a new cohabiting relationship.

In today’s ageing societies, assessing subjective well-being  in later life has gained substantial attention among researchers, as well as among policymakers in the areas of economic, health, and social policies. However, remarkably little is known about how older adults understand their own subjective well-being and related concepts, such as quality of life, and how these concepts differ between different groups of older adults.

What kind of impact does economic growth have on fertility behaviours? Previous research has observed downturns in fertility during periods of economic depression and when looking specifically at the Great Depression in the United States in the late 1920s and 1930s, research found that it had strong negative effects on fertility levels. But what about the more recent recession?

In a study published by the Journal of Happiness Studies, Niclas Berggren, Christian Bjørnskov and Therese Nilsson investigated the role played by laws that treat everyone equally, irrespective of sexual orientation, on people’s general life satisfaction. The authors looked at three measures of rights for gays and lesbians: (absence of) persecution (concerning the legality of same-sex relations), recognition (concerning marriage, adoption and age of consent) and protection (concerning inclusion of sexual orientation in anti-discrimination laws) in a broad set of countries.

It’s a question of integration, of perception, of cultural influence and, ultimately, of policy. That immigrants’ descendants tend to have fertility rates more similar to the mainstream average than their parents is far from a simple demographic matter. It’s a nuanced question requiring thorough analysis across countries.

In European countries, working retirees form a relatively new group in the workforce. The so-called "bridge employment" that allows seniors to have paid work while simultaneously receiving their pension benefits is often seen as a resource to counteract the effects of ageing societies. In a new study, Ellen Dingemens, Kène Henkens and Hanna van Solinge explored the individual and societal factors that may affect participation in the labour force after retirement.