Recent studies have argued that children’s cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes are largely determined early in life. In this context, inputs supplied by families and others outside the household during early childhood would play a very significant role in later cognitive, social and behavioural outcomes. In turn, the growth in labour market participation among women with young children has raised concerns about its implications for child cognitive development.

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.

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.

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.