Mioara Zoutewelle-Terovan

Criminality and Family Formation: Effects of Marriage and Parenthood on Criminal Behavior for Men and Women

In this article, the authors study the effects of family formation on criminal careers for 540 high-risk men and women in the Netherlands. In a prospective design, spanning 21 years, the authors analyzed complete data on offending, marriage, parenthood, and a large set of background information. Random effects were used to model the relation between family-life events and offending, controlling for possible confounders. Findings for men support the hypothesis that marriage promotes desistance from serious offending. Males additionally benefit from parenthood, and from having a first child in particular. Furthermore, although parenthood reduces offending more strongly than marriage, the “full family package” brings the most benefit. Female offending patterns were not significantly influenced by marital status or motherhood.

Associations in criminal behaviour for married males and females at high risk of offending

Using a sample of males and females at high risk of offending, this study examines associations in criminal behaviour for married partners, over and above pre-existing levels of assortative mating in offending, as well as other individual and family characteristics. Interactions between partner’s criminal offending were analysed during first marriage using a longitudinal prospective design. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis for multiple failure-time data showed that both males and females have an immediate increased likelihood of committing an offence when the partner offends. Prolonged associations in offending were observed only for females up until the third month after their partner offended. For both males and females, results showed no long-term associations in partner’s offending.

Marriage and transitions between types of serious offending for high-risk men and women

This study examines the effect of marriage on the conditional probability of different types of serious offending (violent, property and drug offences) over the life course for a group of high-risk males and females. Using the Trend Vector Model, results suggest that over time, marriage is linked to decreases in the likelihood of property offending in males relative to violent and drug offending, and to increases in the likelihood of property offending in females relative to the likelihoods of violent and drug offending. These findings demonstrate that the relationship between marriage and offending not only is dynamic in nature but also differs between types of offences.

Swimming Against the Stream: Non-normative Family Transitions and Loneliness in Later Life Across 12 Nations

Abstract Background and Objectives Relatively little research investigated whether experiences during young adulthood have long-lasting consequences for older age loneliness. This article examines whether deviations from culturally based scripts regarding family transitions represent risk factors for later-life loneliness. Moreover, it analyzes whether and in which conditions long-term associations between family transitions and loneliness differ across nations. Research Design and Methods The analyses use micro-level data from the Generations and Gender Survey Wave 1 for 12 European countries. The sample comprises 61,082 individuals aged 50–85. The research questions are addressed using a step-wise approach based on linear regression analyses, meta-analyses, and meta-regressions. Results Results show that never having lived with a partner and childlessness are most strongly related to later-life loneliness. Whereas early transitions are unrelated to later-life loneliness, the postponement of partnership, and parenthood are associated with higher levels of loneliness compared to having experienced these transitions “on-time”. Childlessness is more strongly associated with later-life loneliness in more traditionalist countries than in less traditionalist ones. Discussion and Implications This study reveals that individuals with non-normative family transitions are more exposed to loneliness in old age, and that this exposure is related to societal context. In traditionalist contexts, where people rely on families for support, older adults who have experienced non-normative family behavior, and childlessness in particular, may be particularly at risk of loneliness.