The work-life balance of fathers has increasingly come under scrutiny in political and academic debates. This collection brings together qualitative and quantitative empirical analyses to explore fathers’ approaches to reconciling paid work and care responsibilities. Taking a global perspective, contributors explore how fathers realize and represent their gendered work-care balance and how enterprises and experts, in country specific institutional context, provide formal and informal resources, constrains, expectations and social norms that shape their practices. 

The LP&R network produces an annual review of leave policies and related research, it covers Maternity, Paternity and Parental leaves; leave to care for sick children and other employment-related measures to support working parents; and early childhood education and care policy. As well as policies, it provides information on publications and research. 

Bernhard Riederer (Wittgenstein Centre, IIASA, VID/ÖAW, WU), Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften) untersucht Auswirkungen der Elternschaft auf Glück und Zufriedenheit. Er zeigt, dass das individuelle und gesellschaftliche Umfeld beeinflussen, welche Konsequenzen Kinder für das Wohlbefinden der Eltern haben. In Einklang mit geringen Geburtenraten, Problemen der Vereinbarkeit von Familie und Beruf oder der ‚Regretting Motherhood‘-Debatte erläutert die Glücksforschung, dass sich Kinder in westlichen Gesellschaften tendenziell negativ auf ihre Eltern auswirken.

This book by Antti O. Tanskanen and Mirkka Danielsbacka offers a synthesis of social science and evolutionary approaches to the study of intergenerational relations, using biological, psychological and sociological factors to develop a single framework for understanding why kin help one another across generations. With attention to both biological family relations as well as in-law and step-relations, it provides an overview of existing studies centred on intergenerational relations – particularly grandparenting – that incorporate social science and evolutionary family theories.