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11 - Impact of the Recession on Family Dynamics and Youth Well- Being: Findings from the German Family Panel (Pairfam)
- from Part IV - The Impact of the Great Recession on Families
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- By Sabine Walper, Professor of Education with a focus on family and youth research at the Ludwig Maximilians University (Munich), Stefan Fiedrich, researcher at the Ludwig Maximilians University (Munich)
- Edited by Ingrid Schoon, University College London, John Bynner, University College London
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- Book:
- Young People's Development and the Great Recession
- Published online:
- 20 October 2017
- Print publication:
- 02 November 2017, pp 269-296
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Summary
Abstract
A large body of research has shown that poverty and economic pressure yield substantial stress for family relationships and parents’ as well as children's well-being. Referring to the higher salience of men's performance in the provider role, some findings suggest that father–child relations may be more vulnerable to economic hardship than mother–child relations. Our analyses focus on families with adolescents in Germany asking whether adolescents’ personal experiences of economic pressure affect their relationship with mother and father differently and whether resulting problems in adolescent–parent relationship explain negative effects of economic pressure on adolescents’ satisfaction with family life and their self-esteem. Longitudinal data come from the adolescent cohort of the German Family Panel (Pairfam) and are based on adolescents’ self-reports from waves 2 and 4 (N=1857). Overall, our cross sectional findings suggest aversive effects of economic pressure on adolescents’ closeness and conflict with both parents, with significantly stronger effects on closeness to father than mother. When controlling for previous closeness to parents, weak effects of concurrent economic pressure on adolescents’ closeness and conflict with mother and father remained significant, but did not differ significantly between both parents. Effects of previous economic pressure on adolescents’ satisfaction with family life were strongly, but not fully, mediated by diminished relationship quality with parents. Adolescents’ gender did not moderate these effects. The findings are discussed with respect to parents’ and adolescents’ coping with economic strain.
Introduction
The recent economic crisis of 2008 reflected the deepest global recession since the Great Depression (International Monetary Fund 2009). Having hit a substantial share of individual earners and their families all over the world, the recession has highlighted the many strains of financial hardship which increase the risk for compromised well-being not only among the unemployed, but also among other members of their families, last not least their children (Delgado, Killoren, and Updegraff 2013; Stein et al. 2011; Walper 2009). In fact, only rarely is it a single earner who loses income when being laid off, forced to work reduced hours, or when having to cope with reduced earnings in a self-employed business.
10 - Adolescents' Development in High-Conflict and Separated Families: Evidence from a German Longitudinal Study
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- By Sabine Walper, Department of Education, Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, Germany, Katharina Beckh, Department of Education, Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, Germany
- Edited by Alison Clarke-Stewart, University of California, Irvine, Judy Dunn, Institute of Psychiatry, London
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- Book:
- Families Count
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
- Print publication:
- 13 March 2006, pp 238-270
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Summary
As in many other Western countries, divorce rates have steadily increased in Germany during the past century (Engstler & Menning, 2003; Walper & Schwarz, 1999). At present, 37 percent of all marriages in Germany are estimated to end in court, placing Germany at an average level of risk for divorce when compared with other European countries. Not surprisingly, the rise in divorce rates was accompanied by an increase in the number of children growing up in single-parent families. Since 1975, the number of single-parent households grew by about 50 percent. In 2000, 15.4 percent of all children below age 18 lived with a single parent (Engstler & Menning, 2003). An additional 5.5 percent had a stepparent in their household, either married to or cohabitating with their biological parent (Teubner, 2002).
Although much public concern has focused on the risks of marital break-up and single parenting for children's development, the consequences of parental separation and remarriage for children and adolescents have only recently been addressed by systematic research in Germany (Walper & Schwarz, 1999). The largest body of evidence concerning the development of children from divorced and separated homes still comes from the United States (see Amato, Chapter 8 and Hetherington, Chapter 9 in this book) and guides educators and counselors, as well as policy making in other countries. In this chapter, we present findings from a longitudinal study conducted in Germany to investigate adolescents' development in nuclear and separated families, the latter including single mother and stepfather families.