In the previous decade, the family underwent some important changes. These transformations are associated with the perception of the family in terms of a diversified entity – both with regard to its structure and to the relationships within it. Consequently, we cannot but consider how the feminine figure of both woman and mother has drastically changed. Due to her own agency, a woman can thus choose whether or not to become a mother – and its accompanying appointed time and conditions. This research has been carried out by means of 80 semi-structured interviews with women aged between 40 and 50 who have reached motherhood in different ways – be they biological mothers, adoptive mothers, women who achieved pregnancy through assisted reproductive technology, women without any children. Research aims at discovering the factors which come into play in behind one’s decision. Yet, it is believed that each choice aims at balancing a woman’s personal and structural dimensions – the former being related to one’s manifold phases of life, the latter to their socio-cultural environment. This investigation has revealed a more recurring presence of ascriptive factors such as one’s experiences in the family she was raised and one’s personal way to act, which is part and parcel of one’s choosing of her partner and of one’s achieving of goals. Ascriptive factors have thus shadowed contextual factors (such as employment and financial stability), as well as the presence of a system of social services to support parenting and early childhood.

The aim of the study is to examine the attitudes and positioning concerning post-divorce fatherhood of professionals who deal with divorce in their work. In Finnish societal debate, the position of fathers in divorce has been brought up. A particular cause of concern is that fathers are rarely designated as custodial parents. It is claimed that women professionals defend the mother’s right to her child. According to critical views, the authorities’ decisions are guided by attitudes, beliefs and myths related to good mothering.

The research data complies interviews with eighteen family professionals who work with divorce, and they are social workers, psychologists, district court judges and a lawyer. The research method is qualitative attitudinal research. The generation of data has made use of statements on attitudes and the argumentative interviewing method combined with semi-structured interviews. Qualitative attitudinal research includes methods for generating and systematically analysing argumentative interview talk. The focus of the analysis is on what attitudes on post-divorce fatherhood the professionals express and how they argue for and justify their views.

The preliminary results indicate that the family professionals’ positioning on post-divorce fatherhood is based on the frames of a child’s best interest, parents’ responsibility, the importance of professionals’ life experiences and the respect for the diversity of clients.

This paper studies different forms of relationality in the everyday lives of 39 Finnish mothers who have or are breastfeeding extendedly. In sociological research the concept of relationality is linked to studies concerning intimacy, family and personal life. We understand ourselves in relationships with others but also in relation to others and to the social norms surrounding us. I argue that different relationships shape the way these mothers experience extended breastfeeding in everyday life and that at the same time their maternal identity is shaped by relations to other people.

Relationships are not just given based on one’s part in the family but changing and based on will to be in the relationship. In this paper I focus on both the “given” family and the “chosen family” of friends but also to “outsiders” such as healthcare professionals and other people mothers interact with and with whom they are in relation with. I use close reading and narrative analysis to study how mothers describe different kind of relationalities and I am interested in descriptions of positive relationality but also conflicts in relationality.

This paper is a part of my ongoing gender studies’ PhD research. My research focuses on Finnish women who have been breastfeeding over a one year and on cultural aspects they encounter.

The nature or type of care is often presented as different for men and women. Moreover, childcare is often actualized as gendered (e.g., Ciccia & Bleijenbergh, 2014). Yet there are fathers “speaking in the language of care” in the same way as is expected of mothers (Doucet, 2006) and challenging the idea of gender differences in care. The presentation explores everyday views on differences between mother’s care and father’s care as described by eight interviewed Finnish parents.

The data consist of thematic interviews of four mothers and four fathers. The parents were reached either via child health care centres or via their places of work using snowball sampling. The data were analysed thematically using inductive bottom up approach (e.g., Braun & Clark, 2006)

The findings suggest that fathers’ care is generally perceived to be more relaxed and mother’s care more meticulous. Several interviewed described mothers’ care as natural, while fathers need to learn to care.

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa

Ciccia, R., & Bleijenbergh, I. (2014). After the male breadwinner model?: Childcare services and the division of labor in European countries. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society, 21(1), 50‒79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxu002

Doucet, A. (2006). Do men mother? Fathering, care, and domestic responsibility. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

A little is known about the importance of peers from a father’s perspective during early years of their children. Being and becoming a father is important life change for most of the men. According to previous findings social support is one important factor associated to father’s involvement (Lamb 2010; Doherty, Kouneski and Erickson 1998).

In this particular research aim is to find out: a) what is the meaning of father to father talk when the child is approximately one and three years old? and b) from what matters do fathers consider important to share their thoughts and experiences?

This research includes my PhD research project and uses a part of the follow-up data from Finnish STEPS study (Lagström et al. 2013). This research is focused the Finnish two-parent families who were classified three family types. Fathers’ self -reported answers from the importance of peers were asked when their children were approximately one (N=1069) and three years old (N=720).

The presentation explores the results based on the same respondents with these two periods. Data will be analyzed by using SPSS 23 – program. Currently, the statistical analysis is still in a process. By using a factor- and principal component analysis, the instrument is also tested and created new variables. Based on the results, I will also discuss the changing context of fatherhood and what are current matters when their children grow.

This contribution reveals the associations between feelings of competence and autonomy in the parental role and mothers’ and fathers’ (positive and negative) parenting behavior in a dyadic perspective. The presented analyses consider reciprocal influences both on individual and couple level which are expected particularly from the stress theory perspective in terms of “spill over” and “cross over” effects and against the background of emotional contagion effects. Data comes from the 2nd and 4th wave of the German Family Panel (pairfam). The expected associations are evaluated using actor-partner interdependence models among a sample of N=176 mother-father dyads of 8- to 15-year-old children. Interdependencies are specified in the cross section as well as in the longitudinal perspective. On individual level results indicate that mothers’ and fathers’ feelings of competence and autonomy in the parental role are positively associated with their current parenting behavior towards their child. Longitudinally, only feelings of competence in the parental role affect later parenting behavior. On couple level cross sectional and longitudinal effects can be proven significant as well. Especially, by means of autoregressive models that prove cross-lagged effects significant interdependencies among couples can be revealed: Fathers’ experiences of competence and autonomy in the parental role affect mothers’ later experiences, while otherwise mothers’ parenting behavior affects fathers’ later parenting behavior. Results highlight the importance of considering characteristics of both mothers and fathers when researching dynamics within families. The findings are discussed with regard to their relevance for practice and research in family psychology.

Introduction: Parental traits can have major influences on family relationships. The objective of this study is to explore the impact of parental self-efficacy on the coparental relationship. A dyadic approach was adopted with the aim to analyze the influence of each parent’s self-efficacy on one’s own perception of the coparental relationship and on the perception of the other parent.

Method: The sample was composed of 126 Swiss couples (M age = 37.05; SD=4.75) having at least one child of maximum 10 years. The French versions of the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (Gibaud-Wallston, 1977) and of McHale’s coparenting scale (1997) were used to evaluate parental self-efficacy and the coparental relationship. An actor and partner interdependence model was used.

Results: Parental self-efficacy positively predicted the perception of the coparental relationship with a small size effect for mothers (β = .188, p < .05) and a medium size effect for fathers (β = .414, p < .01). A dyadic effect was also found, indicating that in families where fathers had a high parental self-efficacy, mothers were more satisfied of the coparental relationship (β = .217, p < .05). The reciprocal was not significant.

Conclusion: Self-efficacy appears to be a positive trait for satisfactory coparental relationships. However, only fathers’ self-efficacy had a dyadic effect on mothers’ coparental satisfaction. These results indicate that fathers’ perception of their parental role is particularly important for the coparental team. As such, it might be an interesting target for family prevention and therapy.

Having children has been largely associated with reduced relationship satisfaction. This study investigates relationship satisfaction among persons with and without children, with further analysis comparing findings across parents by the age and gender of their children. Findings are based on data from the Sustaining Relationships research, carried out by the National Centre for Family Research in Malta. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered through computer-assisted telephone interviewing with a random stratified sample. This study considers the subset of 1369 participants in couple relationships. While high levels of relationship satisfaction were reported by both groups, respondents with children yielded slightly lower scores than those without children. Significant differences among parents emerged with respect to their children’s gender and age range. Parents reporting highest levels of relationship satisfaction had daughters below age 9 (p=0.021). Relationship satisfaction decreased among parents with male offspring aged 10 to 19 (p=0.045). A greater tendency to seek relationship support was associated with having offspring aged 10 to 19, while having children aged 20 and over was associated with decreased help-seeking behaviour (p=.000). Such findings indicate that parenting adolescents may bring challenges to the couple relationship, while shedding light on the complex processes within the couple system and its wider context. A significant difference was found with regards to demonstration of affection (p=0.16), with parents reporting poorer partner agreement. Having children also impacted couples’ employment situation (p=.000) and perceived income adequacy (p=.000). Participants with children were less likely to have both partners working full-time and reported lower income adequacy.

Self-perceived health has been studied in terms of somatic illness, and socioeconomic inequalities. Mental well-being has been associated with better self-perceived health, family being a reported driver of mental well-being.

A cross-sectional study has been carried out on a nationally representative sample in Malta during 2015 to investigate life satisfaction in Maltese society and drivers and inhibitors thereof. A net sample of 2469 adults (89% response) drawn, from a population register, was recruited through quota sampling, stratified by gender, resident with partner or not, and the presence of dependent children. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered through computer assisted telephone interviews (CATI). A question on self-perceived health was also included.

On univariate analysis, self-perceived health was positively associated with a graduate level of education (p<0.001), being in a relationship (p<0.001), and satisfaction with one’s financial resources (p<0.001), career (p<0.001), and life generally (p<0.001). It was however negatively associated with increasing age (p<0.001), being female (p<0.001), being married (p=0.039), having children (p<0.001), having mental health problems (p<0.001), facing big problems currently (p=0.048). A mixed picture appears with children of different age groups and gender.

Independent associations were sought using multiple linear regression. Self-perceived health is independently positively related to educational level (p<0.001), career satisfaction (p<0.001) and life satisfaction (p<0.001). Adverse associations include being female (p=0.002), older (p<0.001), or facing mental health problems (p=0.023). Having male children aged above 20 is negatively associated (p<0.001).

Therefore, while factors affecting life satisfaction affect perceived health, age, being female and adult male offspring can be threats.

In Finland, a Nordic country, fathers are expected to share childcare with the mother of their child from the very outset of their parenthood. In line with these expectations, fathers’ share of care work has increased significantly during recent decades, and thus, equal and shared parenting has become a widespread practice in contemporary Finnish family life. However, research on father involvement in decision-making on childcare responsibilities and arrangements, especially from their point-of-view, is scarce. We aim to address this issue by analyzing the personal accounts of Finnish first-time fathers. Our qualitative analysis investigates how decisions on childcare are made in families, and to what extent mothers and fathers, respectively, are involved in this process. We draw on three different sets of narrative interviews: the first set comprises accounts by 28 fathers interviewed in 2003 (and re-interviews with four fathers in 2011), and the second set longitudinal interviews (2 waves) with 16 fathers conducted in 2008-2011. The third set, comprising accounts by about 30 fathers, will be gathered in autumn 2016. According to our initial, tentative analysis based on the first two data sets, the fathers’ accounts indicate significant involvement in childcare practices rather than in the decision-making process. Some changes were also observed in fathers’ accounts over time, in step with the prevailing discourses on the family in Finnish society. The presented study is a part of the project Finnish Childcare Policies: In/Equality in Focus (2015-2020) funded by the Strategic Research Council of the Academy of Finland.

The amendment of the German Parental Leave legislation in 2007 can be seen as a further step in establishing new forms of fatherhood in Germany. By introducing two ‘partner months’, fathers are encouraged to raise their com-mitment in household- and child-caring activities. Recent data from the federal office of statistics show that between 2006 and 2013 the percentage of fathers, who took parental leave, increased from 3.5% to 32.0%– a historical peak. Nevertheless, related to differences and inequality in terms of education, income, ethnic affiliation or region, fathers make demands on parental leave in very different ways, which influences e.g. the length of the leave or the amount of money they’ll get during that time.

With a qualitative-reconstructive approach, we focus on these (and further) differences in Interviews with couples and reconstruct – based on a comparative and sequential analysis – their negotiations and decision-making concerning the leave of the fathers.

First findings reveal that the couples’ arrangements concerning the fathers parental leave are influenced by anticipated problems within the workplace, as well as attitudes and cultural images about mothering, fathering and parenting. Further new conflicts potentially emerge about the entitlement who defines the standards and quality of family work.

Parental leaves policies have increasingly aimed fathers to use leave to childcare in several European countries. Among other elements, the design of leave schemes is a way to promote fathers to get more involved in reproductive activities. In this study we have researched Spanish rural police since this profession is mainly developed by men and it is linked to macho stereotypes. We have dug into fathers’ discourse about their experience, motivations, reactions and consequences of taking a leave alone. This paper is framed in a wider project about fathers on leave alone funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (CSO2013-44097-R). We have performed fifteen in-depth interviews to fathers who work as rural police which have been on leave at least during a month while their partners were on a paid work. Sample method has been snow ball sampling and, the fieldwork has been carried out in 2014. We have analyzed the interviews using codes and families with the software Atlas.ti. Our preliminary findings show rural police fathers did not considered taking a leave alone as a form to change roles but as a tool to balance the familiar strategy. When advantages are perceived in taking a leave alone, the traditional father role is not a key to decide. Reactions at the work place were heterogeneous, ranging from disapprovement to indiference.

Numerous studies have focused on how and why parents share parental leave or care work in a gendered way, and how they experience their parenting tasks. So far, relatively little is known about how couples rationalize and justify their division of employment and care work when they become parents. The study focuses on Austrian first-time parents’ negotiation, implementation and evaluation of distributing care responsibilities when arranging their parental leave. Austria provides a comparatively flexible and long paid parental leave, thus favours traditional gender roles. Through a lens of social constructivism and by acknowledging the multidimensional character of parental responsibilities, I delineate different types of rationales behind the parents’ leave arrangements and examine how they alter throughout the transition to parenthood. Empirically, this research is therefore rooted in a qualitative longitudinal study in Austria. Semi-structured interviews (n=66) were conducted with mothers and fathers separately before the birth of their child, as well as six months and two years after (2013-2015). The sample covers parents from diverse educational and socio-economic backgrounds, with different forms of family status and use of parental leave. After a thematic analysis of all interviews, an in-depth sequential analysis following a hermeneutic approach was applied to the data on a case-level with a subsequent cross-case analysis. Preliminary findings suggest that parents tend to negotiate their arrangement of parental leave mainly from an economic point of view and seek to maximize their financial resources. However, the rationalization strategies are strongly underpinned by gendered ascriptions of caring abilities and responsibilities.

The concept of agency is widely used in the social sciences, but what might it mean in the context of family relationships? Gender and child-parent relationships have been claimed to be relationships involving strong cultural ideals and embodying power asymmetries. The family identity categories of mother, father and child, created by societal and cultural factors, shape the possibilities for agency of the individual family members. The picture is complicated by the changes that have taken place in the relations between women and men in families, and by the advent of children’s rights and their increasing voice in the family, which have made relations between parents and children more reciprocal and egalitarian.

This presentation applies a relational perspective on agency to explore the position of mothers, fathers and children in present-day families and how the concept of agency could help in understanding family relationships. The presentation utilizes data gathered with multiple methods from young children and their parents (18 children, 15 mothers and 10 fathers) in Finland, and shows how the family identities of mothers, fathers and children and their possibilities for agency are manifested in everyday life. Gender and generational orders along with power affect how the everyday, pragmatic agency of different family members is negotiated. Examples are given of identity categories and of agency with respect to, e.g., power, initiative, creative adjustment, negotiation and resistance, by different family members in everyday family life.

What emotion first springs to mind when you think about your everyday (family) life? This research initiative aims to find out what different family members think about their daily family life, how they conceptualize it and describe their actions and, above all, emotions.

Emotions may be seen as irrational, unreliable subjective states, but they are nevertheless highly meaningful. They highlight the kinds of meanings that occupy the foreground in practical, everyday life, while also revealing new insights into cultural beliefs and prejudices (González 2013).

This presentation focuses on how individuals in the same family experience their everyday lives. The data consist of interviews with six nuclear families (12 parents, 8 children) and three divorced families (6 parents, 8 children). Each family member was individually interviewed twice (overall 68 interviews). The second interview was a so called photonarrative interview, for which each participant took photographs pertaining to their daily life (approx. 300 photos).

Content analysis of the data revealed that the everyday life of the different family members appears to be divided into three categories: personal, family and spousal. Each category consists of both pleasurable and burdensome elements. Surprisingly, the interviewees highlighted the importance of their ‘own daily life’, which was characterized by various emotions from pleasure to irritation. At its best, having one’s own time was seen as the foundation for wellbeing of both the individual and the family as a whole.

Many families in Finland and other European countries face difficulties to adapt their life with all demands and expectations of the society and surrounding communities like working life, schools and day-care system. The timing is essential and you need e.g. to be able to plan all your duties according to opening and service hours. The family work services aim to help families that are under risk of becoming marginalized or that have difficulties because of sudden illness or other unexpected situations.

The so called sequence method aims to empower family members so that they could find their capacities and that they would be able to seek help outside the home if needed. The key element in the sequence method is doing together (family members and family workers) all kinds of household work that are difficult for family members. The doing is based on the using of the sequence map, where daily and weekly chores are planned for certain time periods of the day. Discussions are the third element to support and to help the family. The discussions contain evaluation of the co-operation process, reflections about targets and achievements, as well as listening of all family members.

The objective of my paper is to give an overview of the working method and the dimensions and capacities of the sequence map tool. As a multi-dimensional tool it carries more functions than expected at first sight. The analysis base on qualitative methods.

By everyday practices and routines, the family can be defined as a largely stable unit which is the basis for the experience and the management of individual and interpersonal everyday life and the familial relationship constellations (Sabla 2015). Family rituals, normalized shared sequences of actions (Keddi 2014), are understood as way of doing family. Their meaning can also be shaped by the influence from outside parties and institutional work processes.

In different contexts families are involved in socio-educational institutions delivered by Social Work. Here families are accompanied in their everyday life by social-education professionals. The professionals are biased by social norms and values and their own perceptions and evaluations of families they work with. This mental image affects the work with certain families and can thereby affect the design and implementation of family dynamics and everyday practices and routines.

Through an ethnographic approach (participant observation) in selected families a deeper understanding about the family realities can be achieved. The pilot study focusses on the importance of everyday action processes for individual family members and the role of family rituals on educational processes within families. Another focus of the research project is on the relationship between the production and realization of family rituals and the existing institutional assistance. The guiding question is in what way family rituals stand out as an resource available for socio-educational services carried out by the institutional framework and how they are shaped and even used by the socio-educational professionals as a support for coping with everyday family life.

Seen as a contextual organism, dwelling configuration and family syntaxes are being determined in relation to its multiple influential spheres: macrosystem, exosystem, mezosystem, microsystem and chronosystem (Bronfenbrenner 1979). Focusing from macro to microresidential system, there can be identified a diversity of space affinities and space privatizations, belonging to different family members, constantly filtered by family syntaxes, by family dynamics and by family life cycle.

Using a wide pallette of methods to collect relevant examples and data,

from documentation to direct observation, from questionnaire to cohort study, the present study is aiming to translate different residential gestures, relating them to distinct roles inside the family. Preliminary results of the study revealed that classic paradigm of the family comes along for example with a pronounced teritorializations of the father, with wife's appropriations of the kitchen and attenuated appropriations of the child. There are also cultural variations of the classic paradigm, where for example the wife is being isolated inside the home and in extreme cases, the house became a negative environment. And afterwards, western cultures are facing an intense de-traditionalisation of family models, where for example children appropriations are becoming alued and prioritized, identifying intensified personalisations of the child’s area. Equalizations of father's and mother's role inside the family is also reverberating into residential configurations, a lot of activities being externalized because of female decreasing internal role. The house is adapting all these changes inside the family roles configuration and is reflecting the pattern of gender role and family syntax.

Families in Western societies have become more diverse. Whereas the heterosexual married couple with children used to be the only legitimate “family”, now other arrangements such as registered partnerships, unmarried cohabitation and same-sex couples are increasingly common. Also, more and more children are born to unmarried parents and more couples remain childless.

In this study, we compare the views people hold of the family in France and the Netherlands. These two countries differ in the prevalence of certain family forms as well as in the timing with which these alternative family forms have been embedded in the law.

Using data collected in a special module on family definitions and family inclusion in the Dutch LISS panel and the French ELIPSS panel, we compare the two countries on the extent to which the label of “family” is associated with various aspects of couple relationships: the level of institutionalization of the couple, such as marriage or registered partnership, the gender composition of the couple (opposite sex versus same sex male and female couples), and the presence of children. Using a vignette design with the vignette depicting a family gathering, we aimed to ascertain (by proxy) the boundaries of inclusion by a different means.

The aim of this project is to better understand how the French and the Dutch think about the family in the face of legal and demographic developments in family formation in Europe in recent decades.

Marriage rates have been significantly decreasing and divorce rates have been significantly increasing, over the last decades in Western Europe (Eurostat, 2014). In some countries, rates of birth outside wedlock are now close to rates of birth inside wedlock. New sexual and marital tropes and norms develop, largely influenced by the medias (Bajos & Bozon, 2008). The definition of the family no longer overlaps the definition of the household. In many cases, family may be defined as a geographically scattered network of affinities more than as a kinship group. These changes invite to focus on the notions of 'doing family' (Morgan, 2011) and on the interactions between 'family configurations' (Widmer, 2010) and their social environment. Everywhere, several cultural factors affect the implementation of the kinship functions (Godelier, 2004).

Today, some single individuals prefer to raise children by themselves; others prefer to involve more than one (adult) partner in family practices. It questions monogamy as a mainstay of family and Western kinship. It also raises epistemological questions in family and kinship studies.

This presentation highlights social and cultural factors contributing to non monogamous family pathways and configurations, in Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland.

Data gathers written and recorded life stories from non-monogamous mothers and fathers, online and field observations among non-monogamous parents, and a score of articles, books, videos, and websites produced or used by the actors of non-monogamous families. The study is restricted to French-speaking informants. Data management may be discussed.

Previous results based on the Swiss Household Panel demonstrated that in the 2000s childbearing within cohabitation may be considered as an avant-garde family style rather than a marker of poverty.

However, the increase of out-of-wedlock children rose from 7% in 1995 to 22 % in 2014. Then, extra-marital births cannot anymore be considered scarce in the context of the 2010s. The presentation aims at understanding to what extend childbearing within marriage and cohabitation are still different; or contrariwise to what extend it is slightly becoming an alternative to marriage?

Based on data from the Swiss “Family and Generation survey 2013”, we investigate to what extend individuals who marry or cohabit still present different opinions and attitudes toward different aspects of life such as family attitudes, gender opinion and family organization. The particularity of this presentation is to consider the heterogeneity of cohabitation. Three different groups are distinguished: first a group of married individuals, second a group of cohabitant individuals and third, a group of individuals who declared to be divorced and having a new conjugal relationship with a partner living in the household.

Based on ordinal regression first preliminary results tend to indicate that cohabiting and married individuals differ: individuals who are cohabiting after a divorce tend to declare more negative affect and more work family life balance difficulties compared to the cohabitant and married groups. Concerning family’s attitudes, the two groups of cohabitants still seem to present less traditional attitudes on family compared to the married group.

This study offers a theoretical reflection upon the foundation of the determinants of the family ambivalence in Spain from the cultural and the institutional dimension. There are two main reasons for it: on one hand, it is confirmed the scarcity of studies that have focused their attention on this objective in the case of Spain, on the other hand, the studies carried out in the international context have confirmed the analytical effectiveness of researching on the attitude and value changes to explain the meaning and rhythm of the family changes (O'Brien, 2009; Treviño et al. 2009; Cooke, 2010; Daly and Scheiwe, 2010).

The data analysis shows that more than the half of the Spanish population living with a partner and children under the school year organise their family life according to a pattern of living arrangement closer to the traditional values than to the egalitarian ones. The predominant family models of the Spanish population is not coherent with their family models preferences as this study has proven. The results obtained show the ambivalence of the Spanish family. As a conclusion it must be highlighted that the results of the present analysis confirm the need of deepening the understanding of the Spanish family contradictory transformation.

This presentation maps the legal and political landscape in which Muslim marriages and divorces are situated in contemporary Europe and offers a review of how Northern and Western European States in particular have responded to the challenges posed by practices of Islamic family law. Three dimensions of wellbeing (material, relational and ethical, following White 2010) are examined in the context of European policies and legislation relating to transnational family life. In a legal context, the material aspect of wellbeing may be seen as fair distribution or procedural norms, the relational aspect as paying attention to autonomy and dependency, and the ethical aspect as the possibility of ethical subjectivity and engagement with questions of justice in legal arenas. In all these dimensions, gender and other identity categories act as important categories of analysis. This article contributes by adopting the concept of wellbeing as the prism of analysis, analysing how the concept of wellbeing translates to legal norms and rights and asking whether and how the legal framework contributes to the wellbeing of Muslim families. The article offers a discussion of wellbeing on three levels: 1) a jurisprudential analysis on wellbeing and rights in the context of marriage and divorce in European human rights law, 2) a literature review on European legal approaches to Muslim marriages and divorce and how they foster wellbeing and 3) a closer examination of relevant case law from European institutions.

Finland has been maintained as a social service state in which childcare services are universally provided and available for all (Anttonen & Sipilä 1994; Eydal & Rostgaard 2011). Having said this Finnish childcare policies can be labelled also controversial and complex. They encourage children’s participation in early childhood education, but they also support home and informal care, and private childcare production by different kinds of cash-for-care benefits. The Finnish model is often considered as securing equality between families, but municipal childcare systems and cash-for-care benefits vary increasingly. The government’s new policies to limit families’ right to municipal day care intensify these complexities.

The municipal variations and the system of cash-for-care benefits can be considered as a potential source of inequalities. The presentation will discuss how Finnish childcare policies may condition parental childcare decisions, and consequently, contribute to children’s early education trajectories. The presentation will introduce the new consortium research project “Finnish childcare policies: In/Equality in Focus” funded by the Strategic Research Council (SRC) at the Academy of Finland that studies possible inequalities in childcare between regions and families. The project will be carried out in collaboration with 10 municipalities that provide different combinations of childcare services and cash benefits. The study applies a multi-method and longitudinal approach. The data consist of documents, expert interviews, survey, parent and child interviews as well as recordings of institutional interaction.

The Italian Supreme Court has recently debated the impact of the change of sex in existing marriages (Case 8097/2015); the Court has also redefined the conditions for the legal rectification of sex (Case 15138/2015).

The analysis of these decisions raises the issue of the importance of gender for the legal institution of family and for personal status, as well as of the complex nature of the legal notion of gender.

Notwithstanding that the Italian Law does not attempt to define the concept of gender, it considers gender as the basis of different disciplines concerning family law, self-determination and personal identity. In this context, the right of every person to define him/herself and to be recognized and respected becomes relevant. These factors affect, among other things, the rules concerning family formation, and the regulation of marriage.

This paper aims to identify the areas of friction within self-determination in relation to the legal rectification of sex. In addition, it analyses the consequences of sex reassignment on Family Law, especially within the legal institution of marriage. Some possible guidelines will be identified for orienting the discussion.

This research, not based on statistical analysis, is empirically founded on ECHR, foreign and national case-law and legal documents, considered in relation to the notion of gender drawn by other disciplines (particularly social sciences and psychiatry).

Recent studies on desires to have children mostly focus on women whereas research describes, that more men remain childless today than women. Research that analyses men and their tendency to become a father shows, that men’s decisions are very much influenced by the circumstances, like a stable relationship, financial resources and the ‘right age’ to become a father (Zerle-Elsäßer 2015). In a DFG-funded research project (“Wege in die Elternschaft”) we conducted interviews with 24 heterosexual couples (interviews with the individual partners and partner-interviews) which are analyzed for this paper with a focus on gender- and masculinity issues. All couples are either expecting a child or became parents within the last year. (First) Results show that the desire to have children is strongly interconnected with the images of fatherhood the interviewees have – and these are interconnected with their constructions of masculinity. While men who orientate mostly on an institutionalized biography and hegemonic masculinity (Connell), see children as a ‘normal’ and thus unquestioned part of their lives, men who orientate on “alternative masculinity concepts” (Buschmeyer 2013/Buschmeyer&Lengersdorf 2016) discuss the possibility to have children ambivalently. Alternative concepts of masculinity and fatherhood often include questioning their expectations towards becoming a father: these men wish to spend time with their children and they want to be different from their own fathers. Sometimes they report, they felt the expectations were too high and they doubted if they want to have children at all.

keywords:

gender role, partnership, desire to have a child; bargaining process, panel study, dyadic analysis

There is no reason to doubt that usually the decision process towards having a further child is taken within partnerships. However less is known about the interaction processes itself. It is undisputed that both partners’ socio-economic attributes have an impact on decision making, even though few is known about the strength of these mutual influences.

Not only that the effect sizes remain uncertain but also one does not know whether females and males attributes, measured on the individual level, have the same impact as they have on the couple’s level. Furthermore one must be aware that the dispositions towards having a further child are likely to vary over time. Considering this fact the negotiating process towards the final decision is as likely to be a short- or a long-term process.

Longitudinal dyadic modelling appears to be a promising effort in trying to close the knowledge gaps. Two different models will be developed to take into account the fact that the decision making process varies in time.

Results of the analyses show that on the pair level male partner’s influences are as relevant and strong as female’s influences although in comparison with analyses of family foundation different attributes become relevant. Furthermore the probability of the decision of having a second child is likely than decisions of having more children.

Many studies have focused on the family background of young parents, but we know less about their life situations. Were they studying, working or doing something else? Did they live with their parents or alone and what kind of relationship they had with the child’s other biological parent? The aim of this presentation is to examine Finnish young parents’ life situations at the beginning of pregnancy. The paper will have a look, are there any differences between mothers and fathers and between those who have been underage and older.

The presentation is part of an on-going PhD research project and is based on survey data (N=309; 72 % women and 28 % men; mean age 26,9). The Finnish-speaking young parents, born in 1978-1994 and have had their firstborn under the age of 20, were reached by using the stratified sampling of the whole Finnish population. The survey was conducted in February 2013.

The preliminary results show that the most of the young mothers and fathers were students at the beginning of pregnancy and older parents worked more often than younger. Most young parents had the steady relationship: most of the 18-19 years old lived together with their child’s other parent and over 40 % of the underage has been dating for more than half a year. Most underage lived in their childhood home but over 20 % of them had moved away from home. More results of the life situations will be presented and their significance is discussed.

Leaving the parental home, entering a relationship and starting a family are important events for young people on their transition into adulthood. These private life-course events are prerequisites for breaking away from the family and consequently becoming independent members of society. They present new challenges for adolescents and young adults because they have to assume greater responsibility for themselves as well as for their children (du Bois-Reymond, 2013).

Referring to the theory of developmental tasks (Havighurst, 1972 [1981]; Hurrelmann & Quenzel, 2012) we argue that in times of uncertainty and individualized life courses (Beck, 2009; Macmillan, 2005) especially labor-market entry has become highly unsteady and fragile, so that it is not perceived to be the crucial transition marker into adulthood. Otherwise private life-course events are much more important even though they have also changed (e.g. in terms of meaning, timing, motives). The presentation takes up findings from the Luxembourgish Youth Report 2015 that is based on both quantitative and qualitative data analysis (Willems, 2015).

Qualitative data have shown that some young people associate with adulthood much more than the achievement of the traditional markers (entering into the labor-market, leaving the parental home and starting a family). Becoming adult is rather related to a general change of lifestyle, the development of independency and the assumption of responsibility. For most of the young people taking over responsibility for its own life and behavior as well as for others is of high importance and closely related to their concept of adulthood.

Union dissolution has negative effect on the economic living conditions of single mothers and this has been empirically documented for many countries.

The current study focuses on the subjective assessment of the changes in economic wellbeing after divorce of single mothers in the Lithuanian context and gives particular attention to the differentiating role social class plays in the economic outcomes of divorce.

The study is based on the nationally representative survey “Single mothers and social exclusion in Lithuania” conducted in 2014.

Our descriptive analysis reveals that also almost half of divorced mothers consider their economic wellbeing as deteriorating, significant share declare no changes and a minority assess it as improved. Preliminary results of regression analysis reveal that significant predictors of the higher risk of perceived decrease in the economic wellbeing after divorce are associated with women’s and the former partners’ social class standing, the time elapsed after the divorce or union dissolution. Our preliminary findings show that women with the lowest social class standing have highest chances to assess their economic wellbeing as deteriorating. However, the contrary effect is observed for the former partner’s social class standing. Time elapsed after divorce is positively associated with the economic wellbeing.

Introduction: Data show that interpersonal relations are different in stepfamilies as compared to traditional families. Differences are observed in quality of stepparent’s involvement, in marital satisfaction and in frequency of child difficulties (Bray, 2005).

Study population: 50 non-clinical stepfamilies living together and having at least one child from a previous relationship (5 to 17 years old).

Method: A validated questionnaire assessed three specific interpersonal dynamics in stepfamilies: 1) stepparenting difficulties, 2) parenting difficulties, 3) social and family difficulties. Three other validated questionnaires assessed the quality of the marital relationship, of the coparenting relationship and child behavioral and emotional problems.

Hypotheses: Difficulties on the three specific interpersonal dynamics in stepfamilies would relate to marital and coparenting distress as well as to a higher level of child behavioral and emotional problems

Results: Results showed an association between: (1) Stepparenting difficulties and marital distress for both stepparents (stepmothers: r = .618**, p =.006 ; stepfathers: r = .884**, p =.000); (2) Stepparenting difficulties and coparenting distress, for stepfathers (r =-.430*, p =.046); (3) Parenting difficulties and child difficulties (r = .570*, p =.014); (4) Social and family difficulties and child difficulties (r = .372, p = .018). A model of interaction (structural equation modeling - SEM) will be presented.

Conclusion: Difficulties in stepfamily dynamics were associated with other dimensions, such as marital and coparenting distress and child difficulties. These results indicate a probable spillover effect between different relational dynamics. Observational data will also be presented in order to further explore these specific dynamics.

Statistics suggest that lone mother families have become an increasingly vulnerable group in Sweden. Their standard of living is low compared to other families. The numbers who are on non-permanent employment contracts or unemployed have increased. Mothers with a lower education are particularly exposed. We have conducted a qualitative study with 39 Swedish lone mothers with different occupational and social backgrounds. This paper takes a deeper look at challenges faced by 16 working-class and low-income lone mothers. The aim is to provide a better understanding of the ways in which working conditions and economic resources impact on mothers’ opportunities to balance paid work and family. Mothers are seen as actors whose conduct is guided by cultural ideas about the right and proper way to be a mother and worker. Thematic analysis was used explore themes in the data. Results show that disjunctions between aspirations and access to means for their realization gave rise to conflicts and dilemmas. It also fostered feelings of guilt and shame. Lack of financial resources resulted in a sense of relative deprivation and significantly limited mothers’ opportunities to practice the kind of mothering they preferred. Facing the money–care dilemma, mothers could not effectively use some of the rights granted to Swedish parents, i.e. to reduce working hours and stay at home with sick children. To provide for the family they had to spend long hours at work, meaning less time to devote to their children. Inflexible jobs, nonstandard hours and temporary employment aggravated conflicts.

Family law is an important element of the institution of marriage: it determines the socially desired “rules of the game” within marriages and families and provides sanctions for deviant behavior. From a theoretical perspective, the introduction of unilateral divorce law is of particular interest as it leads to a redistribution of bargaining power between the partners. Thus, one can potentially expect more far-reaching socio-demographic consequences of this legal transition than only on divorce: Unilateral divorce law shifts normative demands and cultural orientations, which influence every interaction between (potential) partners concerning decisions on partnership formation, marriage, parenthood, division of labor, divorce, and remarriage.

Our contribution aims, firstly, on the elaboration and presentation of the theoretical importance of family law (using the concrete example of unilateral divorce law) for spousal interaction and, as a result, virtually all family demographic processes.

In addition, we present empirical evidence for the (unintended) social and demographic consequences of introducing unilateral divorce law, as it has occurred in most of Europe over the last decades. Using data from the “Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)” and particularly SHARELIFE and employing fixed-effects and event history analytic methods, we find that the introduction of unilateral divorce has increased the risk of divorce in Europe, particularly for parents. Moreover, we find evidence that unilateral divorce law has contributed to the increase in age of marriage, the expansion of female labor force participation and the decline of marital fertility.