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BACKGROUND Parents who separate face the challenge of an urgent change in housing needs. Both parents have their individual needs - e.g., proximity to work - as well as the coimnon need to provide stability for their children and to stay involved - e.g., proximity to school and living space for the children. The urgency and specificity of the needs might be particularly problematic for parents with few financial resources, especially in today's competitive housing market. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to show whether, and to what extent, the consequences of parental separation for housing careers are stratified by parents' income. METHODS Using Swedish administrative data, the study analyzes pre- and post-separation housing careers (moving distance, frequency, housing type, and neighborhood) of parents with minor children between 2011 and 2020 (N = 27,204 parent couples). RESULTS Parents with lower incomes suffer greater increases in housing instability after a separation, with more frequent moves and a higher tendency to exchange owner-occupied for rental housing. In addition, they move over longer distances and end up living further away from each other. At the same time, parents with middle and higher incomes suffer the largest downgrades in housing type and neighborhood deprivation, mothers in particular. CONCLUSIONS Although the results imply that a separation involves a certain level of convergence in housing inequalities, lower-income parents also experience a downgrade and are, preand post-separation, worst off. CONTRIBUTION This study reveals that housing instability forms another, underexposed way in which lower-income families suffer stronger economic and potentially emotional consequences of separation.

Objective: This study examines the support from stepparents to adult children and considers the role of the composition of the parent network, that is, the presence or absence of the biological mother or father. Background: Going beyond previous research that compared the support provided by different types of parental households, this study provides deeper insights into adult stepfamily dynamics by considering support transfers on the stepparent-stepchild dyad level. Method: The analyses were based on data from the Ouders en Rinderen in Nederland (Parents and Children in the Netherlands) survey, which was conducted among a stratified random sample of Dutch adults (aged 25-45) with stepparents reporting on support from each of their stepparents (N = 4,351) and biological parents (N = 5,460) separately. Results: The results revealed different stories for stepmothers and stepfathers. Within-child analyses showed that, controlled for the duration of coresidence, children received less types of support from their stepmother than from their biological mother, whereas among fathers, the stepfather provided more. When compared between children, stepmothers provided less types of support if their stepchild's biological mother was still alive, whereas stepfathers' support was unaffected by the biological father's presence. Stepparents of both genders provided less types of support if their partner (i.e., the child's biological parent) was deceased. Conclusion: These findings articulate the central role of the biological mother in postseparation families and the ambiguous position of the stepmother and \"widowed stepparents.\"

As a result of the divorce revolution, more children grow up in complex families. Yet, we know little about how family complexity affects relationships when children are adults and parents are ageing. In this article, we use unique survey data to test fundamental ideas about intergenerational ties: the role of biology, partnerships (marriage and cohabitation), residence, and selection. The survey used a register-based oversample of Dutch adults who grew up in nonstandard families, collected data among adult children and their parent figures, and used a double multi-actor design in which adult children reported on their parents and parents reported on their children. Using random-and fixed-effects models, we confirm most hypotheses but the results are highly gendered. For fathers, we find evidence for a partnership premium and no disadvantage of being a stepparent once the length of residence is adjusted. For mothers, the partnership premium is weaker but the effect of biology is strong: stepmotherstepchild ties are much weaker, even after taking residence patterns into account. Biological mothers are the primary kinkeepers, and for fathers of any type, their relationship to children depends on their partnership to the biological mother. Within-family comparisons suggest that selection into divorce and remarriage do not explain these disadvantages.

Love, intimacy, and companionship are considered the cement of contemporary couple relationships. Yet previous research studying how the way that couples arrange their social life and leisure time relates to the stability of their union has focused exclusively on married couples. This study examines the extent to which married and cohabiting couples have joint lifestyles and how this relates to their risk of union dissolution, and explores heterogeneity within these groups. In this way, it provides insight into how couples in these different types of unions arrange their lives jointly and what keeps them together. We apply multilevel panel models and Cox event history models using four waves of the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (N = 4,255). Cohabiters have more separate lifestyles than married couples, in particular when it comes to joint friendships and social visits, while marital intentions or prior cohabitation makes no difference. Joint lifestyles are--for marriage and cohabitation--negatively related to the risk of union dissolution. Companionship--that is, a joint lifestyle--seems to have an important role in couple relationships. Although the marital vow still divides couples in how they arrange their lives together, joint lifestyles seem to be equally important in keeping cohabiting and married couples together, suggesting that married and cohabiting couples do not differ in their social foundations.

Objective: To examine the association between child mental health and (a) the amount of parent-child interaction and (b) the amount of interference in that interaction due to paid work. Background: Although some research findings suggest children do not always benefit from being with their parents full-time, other studies suggest it is important for children to have their parents' undivided attention. Method: Analyses are based on the 2013 New Families in the Netherlands dataset (639 fathers and 849 mothers of school-aged children). Using structural equation modeling (SEM), we analyzed how child well-being varied with the frequency of parent-child activities and the amount of interference due to paid work. Results: Children demonstrated better mental health when the frequency of father-child activities was higher and the amount of interference due to work was lower. We found no effects for mothers. Moreover, the association between the frequency of parent-child activities and child mental health was not moderated by the amount of interference due to paid work (neither for fathers nor mothers). Conclusion: The findings suggest that children attach great importance to the psychological availability of their fathers. We speculate that children respond more strongly to their fathers because their attention and involvement is less taken for granted than that of mothers. Implications: Given the intrusive nature of smartphones and laptops in daily life, it is crucial that parents, employers, and family life educators understand how distractions during parent-child time due to paid work can affect children. With this knowledge, strategies to minimize unintended detrimental consequences for children can be developed.

Abstract Generally, adult children are perceived to have obligations to support their parents, but now that divorce and remarriage are common phenomena, the question arises to which parent-figures this norm applies. We derive hypotheses on normative obligations towards step-parents and biological parents and the role of co-residential history and divorce. From the perspective of remarriage as an ‘incomplete institution’, we argue that obligations towards step-parents are more ambiguous and therefore more conditional. We collected unique vignette data (N = 4,783) as part of a nationally representative Dutch panel study and predicted norms on adult children’s obligations to provide socio-emotional and practical support using fixed-effects models. We found weaker norms to support step-parents. These are even weaker if there is no co-residential history and/or the step-parent divorced the child’s biological parent, while only co-residence affects norms to support biological parents, and less so than for step-parents. The most ‘disadvantaged’ type of biological parent (divorced, non-residential) is still more advantaged than the most ‘advantaged’ step-parent (married, residential), emphasizing the importance of biology. Analysis of residual variance shows less consensus on obligations towards step-parents than biological parents. It seems that given the absence of clear norms of behaviour, normative obligations towards step-parents are more conditional.

Abstract This data brief gives an overview of the background, design, and content of the multi-actor OKiN survey (Ouders en Kinderen in Nederland; Parents and Children in The Netherlands). The purpose of OKiN is to examine the individual consequences of family complexity for intergenerational relations, intergenerational reproduction, and individual health and well-being. Another goal of OKiN is to generate detailed and nationally representative descriptive information on the types and degrees of family complexity that contemporary adult generations in The Netherlands (adults born between 1971 and 1991) have experienced when they were growing up. Unique features of the OKiN data are (i) the oversample of persons who grew up with separated and/or widowed parents, and persons who grew up with a step-parent; (ii) the double multi-actor design (i.e. primary respondents (anchors) report about multiple parent figures and parent figures (alters) report about multiple children); and (iii) the systematic probing of relations to and characteristics of all parent figures in the respondent’s life. The brief provides the first descriptive findings about the OKiN respondents.

Summary of the article by Van Houdt, K., Kalmijn, M., & Ivanova, K. (2018). Family Complexity and Adult Children’s Obligations: The Role of Divorce and Co-Residential History in Norms to Support Parents and Step-Parents. European Sociological Review, 34(2), 169-183. doi: 10.1093/esr/jcy007.