A growing public and political interest in the contributions of families to the (economical) development of a society could be observed in recent decades. Parenting and parenthood thus has become a focus of political attention as well as public scrutiny. Recent social policy analyses see the advent of ‘politics of parenting’ and identify a ‘politicization of parenthood’. And as a matter of fact, profound changes has taken place in many European welfare states e.g. with regard to parenting support services, family support services, childcare systems or child protection systems. Taken together these changes seem to lead to contradictional developments: At the one hand side, many policies could be understood as a shift from private to public responsibilities in child rearing and education. They pursue the goal to support parents in the upbringing of children, shall allow more gender equality and a better reconciliation of work and family life and finally should create more equal opportunities for children in society without regard for their family backgrounds. On the other hand – and often at the same time – parents are made more and more responsible for the educational and economical success or ‘failure’ of their children, perceive more societal control of their parenting practices and are e.g. targeted by parenting programs. This is likely to be especially relevant for specific groups of parents: mothers, migrant parents as well as parents from lower educational and economical backgrounds.

These ongoing changes in the public understanding and the politics of parenting influences both, gender and generational relations within the family. Among others, social work services are to be found at the core of these policies: Social work institutions and social workers need to deal with the (new) public demands and policies and implement them into local programmes. But the other way around, they also shape current understandings of parenting, generational relations and gender relations e.g. through providing images and ideas of a good family life, good parenting, good motherhood or fatherhood. The discussion of the interaction of new policy frameworks and social work practices in the context of parenting as well as their their implications for gender and generational relations will be the core issue of the symposia.

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Since the implementation of a general state-regulated youth welfare system in the early 20th century as part of the German welfare system there is a very specific interrelation between the family and the youth welfare system. On the one hand there are periods of deep distrust to the moral and educational ability of (especially proletarian) parents for bringing up their children in an appropriate manner. On the other hand, in times of societal crises the family is addressed and pushed as salutatory for society and as the central institution for caring and educating. In this paper different stages of interrelation between the family, social work and the welfare state are reconstructed. First, it will be shown that the family always has been an object of political discussion and regulation and second, that actually there is an interesting mix of distrusting the family as well as addressing the family as most important for the education, care and upbringing of children. A new negotiation of shared duties of parents/the family, the state and its institution – the youth welfare system – can be seen at the moment.

Social workers' interventions in support of children and their families have often proved a minefield of sort, filled up with conflicting demands, expectations and tasks. This paper sets the resulting debate in the context of both social policy orientations and social work cultures. It argues that partnerships between families and practitioners have to be understood as the result of a complex set of factors. Data from a qualitative study of social work professional cultures suggest that among practitioners, policy orientations intertwine with different styles of conceiving social work; accordingly, professional cultures play an important part in connecting, or failing to connect, child protection and family support.

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Young adulthood is a time of important transitions, e.g., leaving the parental home, entering into the labour market, engaging in a stable partnership and eventually becoming a parent. Success in mastering these transitions both affects and depends on the relationship with parents as they serve as a „safety net”, providing financial and emotional support. On the other hand, the broader societal context plays a role, too: welfare states, labour markets and cultural norms shape opportunities, constraints and frames of reference for both the life course and family relationships. Comparative research points at european differences in the transition to adulthood as well as intergenerational solidarity. Especially for Italy, pronounced levels of intergenerational cohesion are reported. Nevertheless, regional disparities within one country should not be underestimated. The „special case“ of Switzerland with its language and cultural diversity and 26 autonomous cantons is a well-suited example for adapting cross-national analysis to a sub-national level.

This contribution analyses intergenerational ties of young adults with a special focus on the regional context. Several questions are addressed. Firstly, are there regional differences in transitioning to adulthood and can one find disparities in intergenerational cohesion? Secondly, which regional characteristics account for such regional differences? The multivariate analyses draw on the TREE panel (“Transitions from Education to Employment”). The results show marked disparities between Italian speaking and the rest of Switzerland, both in terms of transitioning into adulthood and intergenerational cohesion. The multilevel analyses confirm the significance of welfare policy and labour market.

The central question of this paper is to what extent the history of affection and support in adolescence determines the future of the mother-child relationship in adulthood. Do early family interactions shape adult intergenerational relationships? How do life course transitions, critical life events, and opportunity structures predict different types of relationships in adulthood?

The paper draws on data from a German longitudinal study that covers several decades of family development. It was first conducted in the 1980ies with adolescents aged 12 to 16. In 2002, it was resumed, when participants were 35 years of age. The sample consists of 858 participants. They reported on parenting practices, relationship quality, critical life events, and on role transitions in adolescence and adulthood.

To identify different types of mother-adult child relationships, a cluster analysis was conducted. The procedure yielded five categories that were consistent with previous research. A multinomial logistic regression was performed to estimate the probability of belonging to one type of relationship.

Results demonstrate that early family interactions predict relationship quality and relationship structure in later life. Harmonious mother-child relations in adolescence are less likely to become “distant” and “detached” when children are grown up, for example. However, the predictive power of early relationship experiences is only moderate. Analyses reveal that intergenerational relations are subject to constant change due to critical life events, changing life situations, and the needs of both generations. In general, women’s intergenerational relations seem to be characterized more frequently by closeness and ambivalence than men’s relations.

Intergenerational Solidarity and Parenting styles are both models which have a long and strong theoretical and empirical tradition in Sociology and Psychology. Nevertheless, the contributions of both are rarely considered together in order to clarify the relationship between parents and adult children. The empirical study of the relationship between them becomes increasingly relevant given the social and demographic changes associated with population aging, the postponement and evolution of the meaning of the transition to adulthood and the role of parenting. This study aims to observe the extent to which the perception of parenting styles prevailing in the family of origin, as well as the age and parental status, influence intergenerational exchanges of support and the current and anticipated educational styles adopted by adult children. Data was collected online through the Parenting Styles Questionnaire (Robinson, Mandleco, Olsen and Hart, 1995; Santos & Cruz, 2008) and Intergenerational Solidarity Scale (Bengtson and Roberts, 1991; Monteiro, 2010). The sample comprised 701 participants of both genders, ages from 18 to 69 years (M = 37, SD = 11), with (48.9%) and without children (51.1%). Different clusters of parenting styles were identified. Differences were observed according to those clusters and to the age and parental status of adult children on intergenerational solidarity and adopted parenting styles. Parenting styles of the family of origin are significant predictors, although low, of adopted parenting styles by adult children.

Although it is argued that fatherhood is now a more demanding role than it used to be, it is also claimed that in the context of organizations and management, fathers are invisible as such. In the family sphere, women usually have a dominant position and men’s social roles are relatively limited. Typically, fatherhood is presented within a framework of the father as a part-time, secondary parent. The assumption in managerial and professional posts that the employee should be available 24/7 produces and maintains the view that the ideal employee has no, or very few, responsibilities outside work. In this study, we are interested in fatherhood in the context of organizations and management. The mass media, a powerful force in the creation of social reality in contemporary societies, have the power to support certain versions of fatherhood and exclude others.

In this empirical study, critical discourse analysis is applied. Our data is produced systematically from three influential media sources in Finland between 1990 and 2015. We analyzed 67 articles. We interpreted four developing fatherhood discourses from the viewpoint of gender equality. In addition, we interpreted two discourses that are stationary.

We conclude that fatherhood in the context of organization and management is changing. We found that even though fatherhood discourses in the organizational context are mainly developing toward gender equality, there are at the same time other discourses that are putting the brake on such development.

The portrayal of parents in mainstream media, especially in newspaper media, is a resource for (future) parents to construct ideals of what (‘good’) parenting entails. Research examining parenthood in newspaper articles, however, is scarce and a systematic study of the discourses surrounding parenthood in newspaper media is absent. We aim to fill this gap by exploring German newspaper articles containing the terms ‘parenthood’, ‘motherhood’ and ‘fatherhood’ and examine change over time. As research on the construction of parenthood in newspapers focuses on ‘deviant’ forms of parenthood, we draw on literature on new trends in parenthood, including both ‘intensive motherhood’ and ‘intensive parenthood’. Given these recent trends we hypothesize: (1) an increase in the occurrence of parenthood terms over time and (2) the discourse to change towards more ‘intensive’ forms of parenthood, including a greater focus on the mother-child dyad and ‘engaged fathers’. Our analysis is based on newspaper articles from 1994 to 2015 from the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. Applying a combination of relevance and multistage sampling we select articles from the LexisNexis-database. Using the explorative method of text mining, we combine frequency and co-occurrence analysis and topic models to gain a comprehensive understanding of the discourse on parenthood. Initial findings suggest that the frequency of articles containing the parenthood terms increased strongly in 2006, which coincides with significant policy changes in parental leave, and have remained high since. Overall, our analysis is based on a quantitative analysis of qualitative data, enabling an innovative examination of changing parenthood ideals.

Facebook pages and groups about motherhood are currently an important informal support for mothers, allowing them to give and receive information, share experiences, and get advice on various topics about motherhood performance and childhood requirements. However, Facebook reflects many social stereotypes, particularly on social gender roles. In most European countries an intensive model of motherhood is set, which implies a strong affective involvement of the mother towards her children and that she devotes, before and after birth, much of her time, energy, affection and resources to her children’s care, education and development.

Our study aimed to identify the social model of motherhood prevailing in Portugal. Through the content analysis of descriptions and publications of Portuguese pages and groups in 2015 (n = 198), created by or directed to mothers, it identifies practices, attitudes, feelings and goals assigned to mothers on Facebook, as well as expectations regarding the maternal role.

The results showed that the disseminated maternity model assume the high centrality of children, their needs and interests, and assigns high demands to mothers. The selfless mother's dedication is broadly promoted. Mothers´ ambivalence, negative feelings and work-family balance are almost totally absent. Other women’s social roles, namely the professional one, are rarely considered and father’s involvement is residual. In a country where the dual employment family model prevails, the gap between women’s expectations towards motherhood, social demands, and the real conditions for its implementation can bring difficulties for working mothers and would jeopardize their quality of life and emotional well-being.

Uncertainty is a central part of the fertility process. Individuals can be unsure about having children at all, about the number of desired or expected children, and about the timing of first or subsequent births. While there has been done a lot of research on the determinants of intentions and desires to have children, only few studies have explicitly dealt with uncertainty of fertility plans.

The aim of our paper is to extend the knowledge about the effects of life events and biographical insecurity on uncertainty in fertility intentions. Our expectations are theoretically based on Life Course Theory and the Theory of Planned Behaviour. First, we assume that separation from a partner increases uncertainty since behaviour control is decreased. Second, we expect an increase in uncertainty when individuals become unemployed, because this reduces financial security and thus behaviour control. Third, we hypothesize that the birth of the first child increases uncertainty regarding further births because parenting is a new experience and competes with other domains (work, hobbies) of the life course. According to all hypotheses we assume different effects for women and men.

We use data from waves 1-6 of the German Family Panel (pairfam) and apply fixed effects models and logistic regression. Our findings confirm that uncertainty in fertility intentions is of relevant prevalence in our sample and is not stable over the life course. In accordance with our hypotheses uncertainty is connected with changes in partnership, employment status, and parity of children. Furthermore, gender specific differences emerge.

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.

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