Michael Gähler

Family dissolution, family reconstitution, and children’s educational careers: Recent evidence for Sweden

Both longitudinal and cross-sectional analyses on a large and recent Swedish data set demonstrate that, compared to children in intact families, children who have experienced family dissolution or reconstitution show lower educational attainment at age 16. Time constraints do not seem to be an important mechanism behind the negative effect of separation. Economic deprivation affects children s attainment negatively, but downward social mobility appears to be an even more important causal mechanism: Losing the parent with the higher social position probably reduces social capital and aspirations. When we control for socioeconomic characteristics, a small net effect of separation and reconstitution remains.

Childhood Family Structure and Routes Out of the Parental Home in Sweden

Leaving home at a very young age, particularly when not in conjunction with attending school away from home, appears to have a variety of negative consequences for the trajectory of young adults into successful career patterns and stable families. In this article, we examine the relationship between childhood family structure and nest-leaving patterns in the Swedish context. To our knowledge, this has never been done before. Analyses show that individuals from disrupted childhood families leave their parental home earlier than other young adults. The present state of knowledge is extended with analyses of the impact of adding a stepparent and of family conflict, and we distinguish between young adults leaving home to enter a union, to attend school, or to form a household of their own.

Parental Divorce and Union Disruption Among Young Adults in Sweden

This article analyzes the impact of parental divorce on the disruption of marital and nonmarital unions among young adults in Sweden, using longitudinal data from repeated mail questionnaire surveys (1999 and 2003) with 1,321 respondents (aged 26, 30, and 34 in 2003). The study takes into account several possible mechanisms governing the parent—offspring union dissolution link, including indicators on life course and socioeconomic conditions, attitudes toward divorce, union commitment, and interpersonal behavior. Findings reveal that respondents with divorced parents exhibit an increased risk for their own union disruption of almost 40%. When controls for all mechanisms are added, the excess risk ceases to be statistically significant. The unique contribution of each mechanism, however, is limited. Rather, the mechanisms seem to operate jointly.

Has the Association Between Parental Divorce and Young Adults’ Psychological Problems Changed Over Time? Evidence From Sweden, 1968-2000:

A large number of studies have shown that parental divorce is associated with psychological maladjustment in children. Less is known about whether the magnitude of this association has changed over time. This is mainly because of the lack of repeated data, containing identical measures over time. In the present article, the authors use data from two waves of the Swedish Level of Living Survey, conducted in 1968 and 2000, to analyze whether the association between parental divorce and psychological adjustment in 19- to 34-year-olds (i.e., born during 1934-1949 and 1966-1981) has changed between the two survey years. Results indicate a weakening association over time, but the change does not reach statistical significance. A reason for the persisting link seems to be that parental divorce is still associated with economic hardship and, above all, family dissension, two conditions that in turn are strongly associated with psychological problems in children.

Self-reported Psychological Well-being among Adult Children of Divorce in Sweden:

Data from the 1991 Swedish Level of Living Survey (LNU) was analysed to study the long-term impact of parental divorce on the adult individuals self-reported psychological well-being. The results show that neither women nor men who experienced parental divorce during childhood fare poorer than women and men from intact families. Instead, the decisive factor is whether or not the individual experienced severe conflict in the family of origin. Respondents who grew up in intact families characterized by serious dissension report the lowest level of psychological well- being, followed by those who experienced conflict and parental divorce. Key words: parental divorce, psychological well-being, long-term consequences, family dissension, Sweden.

Nest-leaving, childhood family climate and later parent–child contact in Sweden

In this paper, we ask whether the time spent in the parental home promotes the frequency of contacts between generations, and whether violating social norms regarding the socially accepted time for leaving home is related to less frequent interactions with parents in later life. We also devote particular attention to union dissolution and family conflict during childhood and adolescence as possible mechanisms behind this relationship. Employing multilevel linear probability models, data from two waves of the Swedish Level of Living Survey (2000 and 2010) are used to analyze earlier family history and face-to-face contacts between parents and their adult children. The findings reveal that the duration of co-residence is likely to foster family interactions in later life, and this positive relationship is only marginally explained by childhood family experiences. However, late home leavers tend to maintain frequent contacts with parents in part owing to having moved shorter geographical distances, and this is more evident for adult daughters than for sons. In addition, adult daughters who stay at home for longer have more opportunities to form binding relationships with mothers than with fathers.