In Gesundheit und Krankheit?

This Study examines the relationship between health status and the risk of marital separation. The data base is the German Socio-Economic Panel, a representative longitudinal study of private households in Germany. Controlling for marital duration and other covariates, both poor health of one partner and poor health of both partners are associated with a higher risk of dissolution. The results suggest that the higher risk of dissolution is partly caused by financial burdens which are associated with illness. Further possible explanations??social expectations addressed to the healthy partner, an increasing dependence of the sick partner on his spouse, a reduction of alternatives and a deterioration of the marriage match??are of minor importance for the risk of separation. The results are also relevant for explaining health inequalities. They suggest that better health of married people compared to unmarried people not only depends on a protective effect of marriage on health, but is also due to the fact that healthier people are more likely to stay married.     

Zieht es die besten fort?

The article tackles the question whether or not the emigration of German researchers and highly skilled professionals to the US has increased over the last decades. We analyze German emigration data, US and German (micro-) census data, and US immigration data in order to assess the scope and development of the phenomenon since the early 1990s. Results show that the emigration of highly skilled Germans to the US increased, especially since the mid-1990s. Besides, the rise in the skill level of the German born living in the US was more substantial than the according change in Germany. However, more detailed analyses show that these findings need to be qualified in two important regards. On the one hand, the absolute numbers of Germans moving to the US for work related purposes are small. On the other hand, the increase in the number of highly skilled Germans who settle in the US permanently is mostly a consequence of the substantial increase in the number of highly skilled temporary visitors from Germany. There is little evidence that the “risk” of these temporary visitors to become permanent resident aliens increased substantially over time.     

Multidimensional time and income poverty: well-being gap and minimum 2DGAP poverty intensity – German evidence

This paper focuses on interdependent multidimensional poverty of time and income with its incidence and intensity. We introduce a Two Dimensional Minimum Poverty Gap (2DGAP) measure, which quantifies the shortest path to escape multidimensional poverty. The 2DGAP disentangles single poverty attribute gaps while assuring their interdependence; an important issue for targeted antipoverty policies. Besides income, we include genuine personal leisure time with social participation reflecting Sen’s capability approach. The interdependence of multidimensional poverty is estimated by a CES-type well-being function with individual German data. The empirical results of Germany’s “working poor” emphasize the importance of time with social participation aspects in the multidimensional poverty discussion.     

The impact of privatization and change of social security systems upon living conditions of east German households

After the collapse of the communist regime East Germany became the prime example of a ‘Big Bang’ strategy of transformation. Rapid marketization and privatization brought about a disastrous economic downturn. But immense transfer payments from West Germany and the import of a well‐developed system of social security institutions accompanied the transformation, minimizing social costs. This article summarizes the main developments and analyzes their impact on the living conditions of East German households. The indicators presented cover labour force participation, business activities and economic inactivity in the household context; relative income position, poverty, income inequality and the self‐assessment of income changes; consumption and livelihood. The article reveals both the different experiences of gains and losses within East German society and the (in some respects) advantageous position of East German households compared with households in Hungary, Poland, and the Czech and Slovak Republics.     

Die Schere öffnet sich

Recent decades have witnessed some extraordinary increases of income richness in some countries. Even though many consider Germany to be different, recent research has found a strong increase of rich income households in Germany, as well. However, Germany’s data infrastructure on rich households is comparatively weak so that little is known on the causes of higher richness headcounts. This article discusses research and possible causes of the recent increase of household richness using a decomposition of unconditional quantile regressions and data from the German Socio-economic Panel (GSOEP). Comparing most recent data and the early 1990s after reunification, the most striking result is that the upper half of the German income distribution was polarized most by taxes and social security contributions which reinforce labor market related developments.     

Der Fu?ball und seine Entproletarisierung

Since the 1950s, in Germany football has been characterized as a proletarian or working-class sport while in our days football is gaining credence and social acceptability. But how could this decrease of proletarianization??described as a shift of the social focus of football from an especially proletarian to an increased higher social classes interest??be explained? Has the transformation of football which is largely caused by television to an event and show sport made it more attractive for higher social classes (transformation hypothesis) or does the change of the interest in football only explain the similar change of the structure of Germany??s social society (similarity hypotheses)? The empirical analysis of the mostly traditional readers of the German Kicker sports magazine as an indicator of the interest in football using the data from Media-Analyse from 1954 to 2005 leads to a clear result: The decrease of proletarianization of the Kicker-readers can only be explained by the socio-structural change in the past fifty years.     

Is Dual Income Costly for Married Couples? An Analysis of Household Expenditures

This study analyzed annual household outlays in the recent Consumer Expenditure Survey to obtain the cost of dual income for married couples. Of the crude differences between two- and one-earner married households in payments and expenditures, the portion reflecting structural differences in demand was obtained through decomposition as the measure of the cost of dual income. We found dual-earner couples’ work-related expenditures diminished fulltime working wives’ net contribution by 1.7 % of their average earning. Greater tax burden and Social Security payments diminished fulltime working wives’ net contribution by additional 2.0 and 3.4 % of their average earnings, respectively. Dual-earner couples contributed more to private pension plans and experienced lower levels of current-period consumption including consumption of market substitutes for housework.     

DEPENDENCE AND INDEPENDENCE

The contributions that adult men and women make to households in terms of paid and unpaid work have undergone substantial change, particularly in respect of women's responsibility for income generation, and have been seen as part of the processes of individualization. Recent contributions to the literature have suggested that children are now acquiring independence earlier as part of those same processes. The paper uses qualitative methods to explore the way in which parents in two-parent families, where both are employed, perceive the risks attached to children's exercise of greater independence, how they seek to ‘manage’ those risks and how far the perceptions of parents accord with those of children. We find parents’ perceptions of risk to be strong, but to have little to do with working patterns. In addition, they are often at odds with the actual behaviour of the child. Risks are managed by negotiation, in which children played an active part. We are also able to make some preliminary comments on the difficulties of interpreting scale measures in relation to interview evidence.     

Mother and Grandmother Parenting in Low‐Income Three‐Generation Rural Households

This study draws data from the Family Life Project to examine parenting behaviors observed for 105 mothers and grandmothers raising an infant in rural low‐income multigenerational households. Multilevel models are used to examine the relationships between maternal age and psychological distress and parenting of the infant by both generations. The findings indicate that young maternal age is a risk factor for less sensitive parenting in the presence of other risks, including psychological distress. Further, young maternal age is associated with negative parenting behaviors by grandmothers only. Grandmothers and mothers displayed similar levels of negative intrusive parenting, but different factors were linked to the observed parenting of each generation. These findings contribute to understanding the benefits and risks of three‐generation households.     

Shoplifters of the World Unite! Law and Culture in Financialized Times

The last two decades have seen significant growth and change in the character of the interactions between working-class households and financial markets. Individuals and households are bearing more and more of the risks that were once managed by governments and employers, and financial markets have developed a vast range of products to facilitate that risk transfer. This has put households at the centre of financial innovation, requiring the extension of regulation and consumer protection into a whole new suite of financial products and a project of financial literacy and advice. Along with this financial development and its associated regulatory demands has come a new cultural project of capital seeking to normalize the expanded integration of individuals and households into capital's frontiers of accumulation. The project invites and invokes new forms of subjectivity (and subjugation) on the part of households. The developmental project required of state regulatory regimes is increasingly articulating not just a discourse of financial literacy but subordination to the individualism and discipline implicit in financial calculation. Contrary to its conception as spontaneous and individualist, this is an intentional and universalizing project of producing and managing labour's financial risks. In the collective self-management of these risks, the household is now not just a site of risk absorption; it is a major source of investment products (and, therefore, at the frontier of accumulation). Increasingly also, in the name of financial stability, households – not just those reliant on state support – are becoming subjects of surveillance and administration in their internal financial functioning. It is these dual aspects of households as both consumers and producers of financial claims that give materiality to conceptual and historical claims about the financialization of everyday life.     

Der Wandel der Konsumstruktur in Deutschland – ein Indiz für die Individualisierung von Lebensstilen oder doch die Folge soziodemografischer Entwicklungen?The change of consumption patterns in Germany – an evidence of the individualization of lifestyles or the effect of socio-demographic changes?

Following the results of different empirical studies the consumption patterns of German households changed significantly during the last decades. While this change was attributed to a dissolving correlation between lifestyle and social status for a long time, more and more studies focus on the relationship of lifestyle and socio-demographic criteria again. This report analyses the effects of social composition regarding age, income and households types on the use of income between 1978 and 2008. The results of the decomposition analysis reveal that the socio-demographic components cannot explain the change of consumption patterns in Germany. Rather it seems that different social conditions during socialisation affect lifestyles and should be considered when analysing consumption patterns.     

Using egocentered networks in survey research. A methodological preview on an application of social network analysis in the area of family research

Can questions about families be adequately answered with household survey data? This question leads us to the problem to defining the family. To help us answer this question we use network analysis as a tool to examine the family without a preconceived definition. To get information about the population of family configurations in Federal Republic of Germany, we choose a survey technique that measured ego-centered networks (10–12 network generators, 4–6 network interpreters). Based on two pretests (n₁ = 98, n₂ = 534) and the main survey (n = 10,000), we discuss some problems encountered during data collection. We also examine the validity and reliability of the data. We used variations of the measurement instrument and asked a group of 99 respondents twice to test reliability. Then we compare our results with census data and compatible US and German studies to test validity. The results show: (1) It is possible to get reliable network data by using survey technique. (2) Size of networks, named persons, named relations are reasonably stable. (3) The instrument to measure networks is constant against minor changes in formulation of questionnaire and against variation of collecting techniques. These findings hold both on the macro level (aggregate data), and also on the micro level (person related data).     

Three perspectives on the mismatch between measures of material poverty

The two most prominent measures of material poverty within contemporary European poverty analysis are low income and material deprivation. However, it is by now well‐known that these measures identify substantially different people as being poor. In this research note, I seek to demonstrate that there are at least three ways to understand the mismatch between low income and material deprivation, relating to three different forms of identification: identifying poor households, identifying groups at risk of poverty and identifying trends in material poverty over time. Drawing on data from the British Household Panel Survey, I show that while low income and material deprivation identify very different households as being poor, and display distinct trends over time, in many cases they identify the same groups at being at risk of material poverty.     

Best practices: intercultural integration of Arabic refugees in Berlin

Abstract

The paper presents the work of a Berlin-based NGO (ANE) in Germany, which works with migrants and Arab refugees. The organisation has a strong record publishing a Parents Newsletter and conducting family counselling for migrants and refugees in Berlin. One of the major activities of the organisation in 2016 was an international conference with different German NGOs working with refugees. The conference was dedicated to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and developmental traumatic stress disorder (DTSD) of refugee children.     

Immigrants,Natives and Social Assistance: Comparable Take‐Up Under Comparable Circumstances

Are immigrants on welfare because they are more likely to be eligible or because they are more likely to claim benefits for which they are eligible? The answer is politically important, but because most current research on immigration and welfare is based on data from the United States, the answer is difficult due to the complexities of the transfer system which make eligibility determinations difficult. In Germany, by contrast, eligibility for the main cash transfer program, Sozialhilfe (Social Assistance), is determined by a comparatively simple nationwide formula. We use data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel to test whether immigrants to Germany are more likely than natives to claim welfare benefits for which they are eligible. We find that immigrants are more likely than native Germans to receive welfare, both because immigrants are more likely to be eligible and because they are more likely, when eligible, to claim their benefits. However, we also find that this greater propensity to take‐up benefits is not related to immigrant status per se: when other sociodemographic factors are accounted for in an appropriate manner, immigrant households are no more likely to take‐up benefits than native households.     

Nicht nur Gesundheit! Zusammenhänge zwischen psychischen Belastungen und Mitarbeiterbindung

Aim: Psychological risk assessments at work serve to identify psychological risk factors and their relation to health and well-being outcomes. Objective of the present study is to investigate which work characteristics predict commitment and turnover intentions of employees.Design: Based on the guidelines of the GDA (Joint German Occupational Safety and Health Strategy), a questionnaire was developed that captures psychological risk factors at work. Additionally, people were asked to indicate their commitment and their turnover intentions. Based on the guidelines of the Joint German Occupational Safety and Health Strategy we assessed four domains of psychological job demands (job content, work organization, social relationships and environmental demands) as well as affective commitment and turnover intention in a sample of 453 full-time employees. Using hierarchical regression analyses, we tested the predictive power of the psychological demands for the different indicators of employee retention.Results: Work content and social relationships were found to be significant predictors for commitment and turnover intentions, whereas work organisation and work context did not predict the outcomes. A detailed analysis of the single risk factors identified autonomy as the strongest predictor for both commitment and turnover intentions.Limitations: The single predictors are not independent and the cross sectional design does not allow for causality interpretations.Practical implications: Based on the assessment of critical psychological risk factors, it is possible to take individual and structural measures to promote commitment and to reduce turnover intentions.     

Migration across developed countries: German immigrants in Sweden and the US

The present study evaluates the interplay between the effects of host countries' characteristics and self-selection patterns of immigrants from a highly developed country on their economic assimilation in other developed countries. The focus is on immigrants originated from Germany during 1990–2000 who migrated to Sweden and the US. The results show that almost all German immigrants reached full earnings assimilation with natives of similar observed attributes, and that the assimilation of highly educated Germans was better than that of the less educated. It was also found that the skilled immigrants were compensated for their human capital acquired in Germany. Finally, the better assimilation of German immigrants, especially the highly educated, took place in the US. This finding was probably the result of an interaction between the Germans’ pattern of self-selection and the US context of reception.     

Father Absence and Youth Incarceration

This study measured the likelihood of youth incarceration among adolescent males from father‐absent households, using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N=34,031 person‐years). At baseline, the adolescents ranged from 14 to 17 years, and the incarceration outcome measure spanned ages 15 to 30 years. This study tested whether risk factors concentrated in father‐absent households explained the apparent effects of father absence. Results from longitudinal event‐history analysis showed that although a sizable portion of the risk that appeared to be due to father absence could actually be attributed to other factors, such as teen motherhood, low parent education, racial inequalities, and poverty, adolescents in father‐absent households still faced elevated incarceration risks. The adolescents who faced the highest incarceration risks, however, were those in stepparent families, including father–stepmother families. Coresidential grandparents may help attenuate this risk, although remarriage and residential instability increased it. Social policies to support children should broaden beyond an emphasis on marriage to address the risks faced by adolescents living in stepfamilies as well.     

Mehr Kinderlose oder weniger Kinderreiche?Increasing childlessness or fewer families with many children?

The decline of fertility in the course of the Second Demographic Transition is mainly caused by both an increase in childlessness and a decline of large families (three or more births). Which of these effects are stronger in Germany has been contested for a long time. An exact quantification of the particular effects is still missing. In this paper we develop a decomposition method which allows calculating the effects of the particular parity changes between cohort total fertility rates (CTFR) of different cohorts. This method is applied in order to compare German CTFRs for the cohorts the fertility decline occurred in, namely the cohorts between 1933 and 1968. The analyses are differentiated by regions and periods. The CTFR decline can be separated into four components: increasing childlessness, decreasing shares of higher order births (3+), a combined effect and a changing relation of first and second births. In Germany, the effect of the increasing childlessness accounts for 25.9 per cent of the CTFR decline, the decreasing higher order births for 68.0 per cent and the combined effect for 6.1 per cent. The relation of first and second births changed only marginally. Remarkably, these figures are based on two entirely different periods: The CTFR decline between the cohorts of 1933 and 1947 is solely based on the decline of women with three or more children. However, two thirds of the CTFR decline since 1947 is caused by an increasing childlessness. The results are relevant for fertility theories because increasing childlessness and decreasing higher order births have different reasons.