PopDigests

The authors analyse anonymous profile and preference information of users registered at the eDarling online dating site. In an agreement with the company, data were accessed for all users in September 2011, resulting in a total pooled sample of 58,880 heterosexual members. The focus relies on initial profile information, and more precisely the selection criteria that users impose in terms of race, as well as their socio-demographic data records when they first fill out their profile.

Depression is a major public health problem and the most frequent cause of emotional suffering in later life, which significantly decreases the quality of life of older adults. Social support from family members, and especially children, is of key importance for mental health and well-being. In this study, Maja Djundeva, Melinda Mills, Rafael Wittek and Nardi Steverink explore the role of gender, functional limitations, and social interaction in the association between instrumental support from adult children and parental depression.

The increasing labour force participation of women is considered one of the most significant social changes of the past decades and has had a profound impact on the household division of labour and childbearing decisions. The growth in female labour market participation and the resulting difficulties in combining work and family duties does not only impact the number of hours women work, but it also impacts their working times.

Children’s living arrangements have become increasingly diverse and complex in recent decades. A significant proportion of children today grow up in stepfamilies or in separated one-parent families.There has been a wide range of literature that has explored the impact of these family configurations on children’s outcomes later in life. Silvia Meggiolaro and Fausta Ongaro focus on an aspect that has received less attention: children’s emotional status related to non-traditional family forms.  

Across Europe, statistics show that children from migrant families are less successful in school then other pupils. In a recent article Camilla Borgna and Dalit Contini examine the impact of educational systems and provide explanations beyond language skills and socio-economic background.Using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey, the authors compare results for 17 countries. They focus on second-generation immigrants and their achievements at the end of compulsory schooling, about age 15.

Most welfare states in Europe have taken measures to make their public pension systems more sustainable, not only by increasing the retirement age but also by placing additional responsibility on individuals to close the pension gap through personal savings and private pension plans. A cross-national study by Douglas A. Hershey, Kne Henkens and Hendrik P. van Dalen investigates who worries most about their financial future in retirement and who takes active steps to ensure an adequate standard of living when retired.  

Terms like “blended families” or “patchwork families” sound new and modern, but the concept is an old one. There have always been children growing up in what was then called “Stepfamilies”. However, what changed significantly over time are the reasons for such arrangements: Whilst historically they were mostly a result of early parental death, today’s stepfamilies are usually formed after parents separate. So today’s family arrangements are varied: Two children living in the same household might share both parents, making them full siblings. Or they might each be the biological child of one, but not the same, adult in the household, making them stepsiblings. Or one child might live with both of their biological parents of whom one is the parent and one is the stepparent of the other child, making the children half-siblings.

Les termes « familles mélangées » ou « familles patchworks » semblent nouveaux et modernes, mais le concept est ancien. De tout temps, de nombreux enfants ont grandi dans ce qu’on appelle une « famille recomposée ». Toutefois, ce qui a considérablement changé au fil du temps, ce sont les raisons d’une telle situation. Alors que par le passé les familles recomposées étaient principalement le résultat d’un décès prématuré des parents, de nos jours, elles se forment suite à la séparation des parents.

Ausdrücke wie „Patchworkfamilie“ klingen neu und modern, doch das Konzept ist alt. Schon immer gab es Kinder, die in sogenannten „Stieffamilie“ aufwuchsen. Was jedoch im Laufe der Zeit einen beträchtlichen Wandel erfuhr, sind die Gründe für derartige Arrangements: Waren sie früher zumeist die Folge des frühen Todes eines Elternteils, werden die Stieffamilien unserer Tage im Allgemeinen nach der Trennung von Eltern gegründet.

Términos como “familias mixtas” o “familias mosaico” suenan nuevos y modernos, pero el concepto es antiguo ya que siempre han habido niños que han crecido en lo que se denominaban “familias reconstruidas”. Sin embargo, lo que han cambiado de forma significativa con el tiempo son las razones que originan estas uniones: mientras que históricamente fueron principalmente el resultado de la muerte prematura de un progenitor, las familias reconstruidas de hoy en día se forman principalmente tras la separación de los padres.