Using a couple perspective, we investigate in the current study the differential importance of couple dynamics for relationship satisfaction among childless couples. In the present study we address two main questions: (1) do relationship dynamics have different effects on childless women's than childless men's levels of relationship satisfaction; and, (2) does the relationship between relationship satisfaction and mental and physical well-being differ between childless men and childless women. In the first step, we examined whether gender differences could be observed in the association between relationship aspects (i.e., conflict and support) and relationship satisfaction (H1).
In the second step, we examined whether the relationship between relationship satisfaction and self-rated physical and mental health differed between male and female partners (H2). In the first step of our analyses, we focused on the question of whether there were gender differences in the association between relationship dynamics and relationship satisfaction. The first two models in the table show the main effects of gender (Model 1) and support from partner and relationship conflict (Model 2).
Subsequent models addressed the second research question: whether there were gender differences in the association between relationship satisfaction and partners' well-being.
Discussion
In other words, we found no evidence that childless women were more influenced by the positive aspects of their relationship than childless men. Our findings in Model 4 in Table 15.3 also indicated that there was a (marginally) significant interaction between gender for the association between relationship satisfaction and self-rated mental well-being. First, contrary to our expectations, we found that the association between relationship conflict and relationship satisfaction was stronger for childless men than for childless women.
Interestingly, no gender differences were found in the relationship between partner support and relationship satisfaction. Another major finding of our work concerned the association between relationship satisfaction and self-reported mental and physical well-being. Consistent with our hypothesis, we found that the association between relationship satisfaction and health was stronger for childless men than for childless women, and that this
Using a rich couple-level data set, we showed that the relationship between relationship conflict and relationship satisfaction was stronger among the childless men than among the childless women.
Literature
But regardless of the underlying mechanisms, our research shows that when childless men are dissatisfied with their romantic relationship, they are at risk for physical and mental maladjustment. As mentioned earlier, the optimal way to test for possible gender differences in the link between relationship dynamics and relationship satisfaction, and between relationship satisfaction and well-being, is to use couple-level fixed effects. Given the very limited variability in the constructs of interest we observed within our units of analysis (i.e., the partnerships) and because of concerns about the possibility of inflated standard errors, we elected to run random effects models (Allison 2009).
In other words, we cannot rule out the possibility that what we are seeing, for example, is a gender difference in the impact of mental and physical well-being on relationship satisfaction. Furthermore, we found that the childless men who reported experiencing low relationship satisfaction were also in poorer physical and mental health than the childless women. It therefore appears that access to fatherhood could become even more selective in the future (see, for example, Rønsen and Skrede 2006).
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Fertility and Women’s Old-Age Income in Germany
- Introduction
- Institutional Background
- Data, Variables, and Methods .1 Data
- Variables
- Methods
- Descriptive Results
- Mothers’ Labour Market Participation in Eastern and Western Germany
- The Earnings of Mothers Compared to the Earnings of Childless Women
- Multivariate Analysis
- Determinants of Lifetime Credit Points
- Determinants of Lifetime Credit Points Including Child- Related Pension Points
- Couples’ Pension Income
- Conclusion
After German reunification, maternal employment patterns continued to diverge in the two parts of the country, with full-time employment rates remaining higher in East than in West Germany. The last and main step in our research is the analysis of women's lifetime income according to the number of children they have and the region where they live. Income levels of older women in East and West Germany also differed due to differences in women's employment patterns in the GDR and East Germany.1.
During 1991, the maximum pension insurance credit was equivalent to 75% of the average national income. Gross wages registered in VSKT are also linked to the average official income of the given calendar year. To account for East–West differences in earnings dynamics and employment patterns, all models are estimated separately for East and West German women.
At the age of 35, only about 30% of women with two children and 20% of women with three or more children are employed. The dashed line is again an indicator of the set value of average gross income. At first glance, the graph seems to show that women's earnings in East Germany almost never reached the level of the national average, regardless of the number of children they had.
Therefore, the scale on the left side of the graph shows different levels of gross income for 2013. As we can see in the table, in western Germany the average personal insurance old-age pension of a childless woman was higher than that . of the average mother (865 euros against 684 euros). This is because the effects of low income are stronger than the effects of child rearing benefits provided for in the pension insurance scheme.
While the average mother with one child worked most of her life, she received only 60% of the national average income. Not surprisingly, mothers with two or more children had gross incomes that were one-third to one-quarter of the national average income. The policy awarding mothers the equivalent of the national average income for each child-rearing period appears to have imposed a childlessness penalty on East German women.
As a consequence of the latest pension insurance reform, motherhood has thus become a positive factor for old-age income in eastern Germany.
Childlessness and Intergenerational Transfers in Later Life
- Introduction
- Social Consequences of Childlessness: Patterns of Support
- Parenthood as a Continuum
- Analytic Approach, Data, and Variables
- Results
- What Childless People Give
- What Childless People Receive
- Conclusions
As noted above, much prior research on childless people has treated nonparents and parents as two homogeneous groups, distinguishing only between those who had and those who did not have living children at the time of the interview. First, we report some descriptive statistics about the support networks of the six types of parents/nonparents. For example, they were less likely than biological parents to provide support to others, and 17% of childless respondents in our sample provided financial support in the 12 months prior to the interview, and more than 30% helped with household chores. work or personal care – a proportion very close to that of biological parents.
One of the most overlooked topics in the study of the childless elderly is the extent to which they contribute to others (relatives and non-relatives) and to society in general. Most previous research on older non-parents has focused on the challenges they face later in life. In other words, among parents who lived away from their children or had lost contact with them, mothers' transference behavior was similar to that of natural mothers, while fathers' transference behavior was in the middle of full. childless men and natural fathers.
The weakness of the relationship between parental statuses and the provision of social support is further confirmed by. However, the results of the current analysis provide only weak support for this hypothesis. It appears that the two latter groups of fathers are located between the two extremes of the financial transfer behavior of natural fathers and fully childless men.
As mentioned above, most previous research on the social networks of the childless has focused on what they lack in terms of informal social support. While both fully childless men and fathers who have lost contact with their children are more likely than natural parents to receive social support, among women neither subgroup is. In other words, motherhood status does not affect the likelihood of receiving help from outside the household.
In summary, when we look at the likelihood of receiving support, we find that none of the different groups of parents and non-parents are disadvantaged compared to biological parents, with some even more likely to have received support. On the other hand, some weakness can be observed in the support networks of non-parents if we focus on the intensity of support received: men and women who are completely childless received a significantly lower amount of social support than biological parents. . Two of the most misleading are that childless elders are only or primarily at the end of intergenerational exchanges and that they are all the same species.
Patterns and determinants of service use: Comparisons of childless older adults and older parents living with or apart from their children.
