Divorce, regional family norms and childcare by grandparents

in Europe

Maaike Jappens & Jan Van Bavel

Interface Demography

Family cultures in Europe

Great diversity of norms & attitudes about family lifein Europe

Northern Europe

weak family ties, individualistic, liberal

Southern Europe

strong 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 analysis

Scores of respondents aged 55 or older averaged per NUTS 1

region

(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 & country

Individual 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 ***

Individual 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 **

Interaction 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