Divorce, regional family norms and childcare by grandparents

in Europe

Maaike Jappens & Jan Van BavelInterface Demography

Family cultures in Europe

Great diversity of norms & attitudes about family lifein Europe

Northern Europe weak family ties, individualistic, liberal

Southern Europestrong family ties, familialistic, traditional

But: heterogeneity between countries & within countries

‘Traditional family norms’

ESS2:• A woman should be prepared to cut down on her paid work for

the sake of her family.• When jobs are scarce, men should have more right to a job

than women.• When there are children in the home, parents should stay

together even if they don’t get along.

Principal components analysisScores of respondents aged 55 or older averaged per NUTS 1region

(Regional classification harmonized with Eurostat’s NUTS system)

Mean component scores for ‘traditional family norms’

Grandparents and childcare

• Grandparents are important childcare providers everywhere in Europe

• Divorce: weakening of family ties? Less exchange of support?

To what extent do mothers rely on children’s grandparents as their main source of childcare?

&Is this influenced by the mother’s marital history and by the normative climate of the region they live in?

• ‘Mothers’: ESS2, aged 20-54, child(ren) <13 in household

Multilevel logistic regression model Y= grandparents are main source of childcare for youngest child

Baseline model:Random effects of NUTS 1 region & countryIndividual covariates:• Age• Number of children <13 in HH• Employment: in paid work• Level of education• Parents alive• Marital history

• In first marriage• Never married, cohabiting with partner          • Never married, single        • Divorced, cohabiting with partner     • Divorced, single         • Widowed

Results of baseline model

• Age, • Number of children in HH, • Being in paid work, • High level of education, • Own mother not alive anymore: negatively correlated with grandparents as main source

of childcare

• Never been married, living with a partner• Being divorced or separated and single

negatively correlated with grandparents as main source of childcare

Random effects of multilevel logistic regression (baseline model, logit scale)

Multilevel logistic regression model Y= grandparents are main source of childcare for youngest child

Additional individual covariates• Parents (in law) in the household• Traditional family norms

Covariate on the regional level• Traditional family norms (people>54)

Covariates on the country level• Gross domestic product• Childcare coverage rate 0-2 years

Interaction marital history*traditional family norms region

Mothers using grandparents as main type of childcare & childcare coverage rate in country

Mothers using grandparents as main type of childcare & traditional family norms in region

Traditional family norms & mothers ever divorced in region

Results: effect of macro-level variables

• Co-residence between mother and parents(in law) is positively correlated with childcare by grandparents

• Formal childcare coverage rates are negatively correlated with childcare by grandparents

• Traditional family norms On the regional level: are positively related to

childcare by grandparents Not a significant effect on the individual level

• Interaction family norms in region * marital history of mothers: in more traditional regions, being divorced is slightly positively related to childcare by grandparents (but not significant)

• No effect of GDP

Conclusions

The probability that European mothers rely ongrandparents as their main source of childcareis influenced by:• Various individual covariates

i.a. marital history (smaller for divorced single mothers)

• The childcare coverage rate of their country, but also by

• The normative climate of the region they live in

Living in a more traditional normative climate does notsignificantly affect the probability for divorced mothersto mainly rely on grandparents for childcare

maaike.jappens@vub.ac.be

  Effects of covariates in multilevel model(Intercept) 1.706842128 *** I ndividual covariates

Age -0.030173217 *** Number of children <13 in HH -0.135675734 * Employment: in paid work -0.479915956 *** Level of education (ref=low)

· Medium 0.224170077 . · High -0.105834036

Marital history (ref=in first marriage) · never married, cohabiting with partner -0.604647628 ***

· never married, single -0.242708937 · divorced, cohabiting with partner -0.128839305 · divorced, single -0.505343243 **

· widowed -0.455682686 Parents alive (ref: both parents alive)

· Only mother alive -0.099545896 · Only father alive -0.971058350 ***

· No parents alive -1.102142472 *** Parents (in law) in the household 0.981086293 *** Traditional family norms 0.039817053

Covariates on the NUTS1 level Traditional family norms (people>54) 0.806868508 ***

Covariates on the country level Gross domestic product 0.000004957

Childcare coverage rate 0-2 years -0.013006969 ** I nteraction marital history* conservative family norms region

· never married, cohabiting with partner -0.549445422 · never married, single -0.031460821 · divorced, cohabiting with partner 0.414161257 · divorced, single 0.255424555 · widowed -0.220644219