Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
3.2
1.7
Journals
Social Sciences
Special Issues
Work–Family Arrangements: Variation across and within Countries
share announcement

Work–Family Arrangements: Variation across and within Countries

A special issue of Social Sciences (ISSN 2076-0760). This special issue belongs to the section "Contemporary Politics and Society".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 29718

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Jonas Wood

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Sociology, University of Antwerp, Prinsstraat 13, 2000 Antwerpen, Belgium
Interests: family and labor market transitions; migration; maternal employment; family policy; active labour market policy; fertility
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Referring to the fundamental principle of path-dependency in which past states or events are assumed to affect future life outcomes, it is common ground in life course research that work and family life are strongly interrelated. Labor market positions are likely predictors of family formation, and—particularly for women—employment cannot be understood without taking family dynamics into account. A large body of sociological and microeconomic literature explicitly addresses tensions between these two spheres of life, for instance, through microeconomic opportunity costs (e.g., forgone career opportunities due to childrearing) or potentially alternative pathways to identity formation (e.g., to identify as a parent, worker, or working parent).

In this Special Issue, we aim to broaden and deepen our understanding of both across- and within-context variation in work–family arrangements, but also the consequences of work–family arrangements on subsequent patterns of family formation and labor force participation. We therefore welcome empirical contributions with a focus on aspects such as formal versus informal child care arrangements, contextual effects on work–family arrangements, within-context social differentiation in work–family arrangements, the impact of work–family arrangements on mothers’ or fathers’ employment, and the interrelation between work–family arrangements and subsequent family transitions (e.g., childbearing, divorce). We welcome comparative analyses as well as contributions from specific contexts taking into account variation across groups of parents (e.g., by socioeconomic group, ethnicity). Both quantitative and qualitative contributions are highly appreciated. 

Dr. Jonas Wood
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Social Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • future life outcomes
  • life course
  • work and family life
  • labor market positions
  • work–family arrangements

Published Papers (4 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

16 pages, 427 KiB  
Article
The Relationship between Familizing and Individualizing Policies and Mental Health in Parents in Europe
by Nikolett Somogyi, Wim Van Lancker, Rossella Ciccia and Sarah Van de Velde
Soc. Sci. 2021, 10(2), 55; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10020055 - 05 Feb 2021
Viewed by 3371
Abstract
Previous studies suggest the relative importance of the impact of childcare policies on mental health in parents. There have also been studies showing that welfare states have differing policy packages, consisting of a mixture of familizing and individualizing policy measures. This study builds [...] Read more.
Previous studies suggest the relative importance of the impact of childcare policies on mental health in parents. There have also been studies showing that welfare states have differing policy packages, consisting of a mixture of familizing and individualizing policy measures. This study builds on and extends this knowledge by carrying out a European comparison of the association between mental well health and family policies. We use Lohmann and Zagel’s familizing and individualizing policy indices to describe family policies. Our main interest is differences in mental health depending on the country, household, and individual-level characteristics. Therefore, we apply a multilevel model to 26 countries included in the 2013 wave of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions survey (N = 141,648). The analysis found that, in general, parents of children under 13 have better mental health than other adults. We found individualizing policy measures to be positively related to mental health in parents, while familizing policies had a negative relationship. No evidence was found for the combined presence of individualizing and familizing policies making a difference to mental health in parents. These results suggest that welfare states could help parents by promoting individualizing policies to make parenthood a less stressful experience. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Work–Family Arrangements: Variation across and within Countries)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

23 pages, 392 KiB  
Article
Uptake of Childcare Arrangements—Grandparental Availability and Availability of Formal Childcare
by Naomi Biegel, Karel Neels and Layla Van den Berg
Soc. Sci. 2021, 10(2), 50; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10020050 - 01 Feb 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3021
Abstract
Grandparents constitute an important source of childcare to many parents. Focusing on the Belgian context, this paper improves our understanding of childcare decision-making by investigating how formal childcare availability and availability of grandparents affect childcare arrangements. By means of multinomial regression models we [...] Read more.
Grandparents constitute an important source of childcare to many parents. Focusing on the Belgian context, this paper improves our understanding of childcare decision-making by investigating how formal childcare availability and availability of grandparents affect childcare arrangements. By means of multinomial regression models we simultaneously model uptake of formal and informal childcare by parents. Combining linked microdata from the Belgian censuses with contextual data on childcare at the level of municipalities, we consider formal childcare availability at a local level, while including a wide array of characteristics which may affect grandparental availability. Results indicate that increasing formal care crowds-out informal care as the sole care arrangement, whereas combined use of formal and informal care becomes more prevalent. Characteristics indicating a lack of grandmaternal availability increase uptake of formal care and inhibit to a lesser extent the uptake of combined formal and informal care. While increasing formal care substitutes informal care use, the lack of availability of informal care by grandparents may be problematic, particularly for those families most prone to use informal care. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Work–Family Arrangements: Variation across and within Countries)
13 pages, 609 KiB  
Article
The Consequences of Work–Family Enrichment in Families on the Behaviour of Children
by Annelies Van den Eynde and Dimitri Mortelmans
Soc. Sci. 2020, 9(10), 180; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci9100180 - 07 Oct 2020
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4048
Abstract
This study considers the spillover effect of work-family enrichment in parents on the behaviour of their children. Using a mediation model with parental well-being and parenting styles, the study unravels the associations between a positive perspective on work-life balance and the outcomes in [...] Read more.
This study considers the spillover effect of work-family enrichment in parents on the behaviour of their children. Using a mediation model with parental well-being and parenting styles, the study unravels the associations between a positive perspective on work-life balance and the outcomes in a child’s live. Using 4012 parents from the data of the Australian LSAC (Growing up in Australia), the model shows that children’s behaviour is influenced by parents’ experience of work-family enrichment through parental well-being. Also, parenting performance functions as a mediator between work-family enrichment and the behaviour of the child. Parents show more stimulating parenting behaviour when they experience enrichment between work and their family. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Work–Family Arrangements: Variation across and within Countries)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

19 pages, 614 KiB  
Article
Single Mothers’ Perspectives on the Combination of Motherhood and Work
by Dries Van Gasse and Dimitri Mortelmans
Soc. Sci. 2020, 9(5), 85; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci9050085 - 15 May 2020
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 18782
Abstract
This study aims to define the perspectives taken by single mothers when combining work and motherhood in a stressful work–life constellation. One of the challenges for single mothers after divorce is to find a work–life balance in their single-parent family system. Regarding work-life [...] Read more.
This study aims to define the perspectives taken by single mothers when combining work and motherhood in a stressful work–life constellation. One of the challenges for single mothers after divorce is to find a work–life balance in their single-parent family system. Regarding work-life balance, we take a General Strain Perspective, describing the work-life conflict as a combination of financial strain and role strain. We argue that both strains are the most problematic for single mothers in comparison to their married and/or male counterparts, as both finances and parenthood ideologies are more under pressure. For this reason, we explore how single mothers coped with this strain, answering the question: ‘Which perspectives on the combination motherhood and work do single mothers take in their attempt to balance role strain and financial strain after divorce?’ To answer this research question, we used a qualitative approach, based on 202 in-depth interviews with single mothers in Belgium. These interviews involved two groups: A primary research population of 13 single mothers and an elaborative research population of 189 single mothers. Timelines were used to structure the single mothers’ narratives. The analysis resulted in the contruction of a typology of four different perspectives based on how single mothers dealt with maternal role strain and financial strain: the re-invented motherhood perspective, the work-family symbiosis perspective, the work-centered motherhood perspective and the work-family conflicted perspective. We found that perspective of single mothers in their work-life strain can be described by the flexibility and/or strictness in either their motherhood ideology and/or their work context. These results point at the needs for policymakers, employers, and practitioners to focus on initiatives improving the work–life balance of single mothers by reducing financial and role strains. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Work–Family Arrangements: Variation across and within Countries)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-4
Back to TopTop