Pia S Schober
Biographic Data
| ID | 161955 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Pia S Schober |
| GIVEN NAMES | Pia S |
| FAMILY NAME | Schober |
| SIGNATURE | SCHOBER P S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Tübingen |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1953-1197 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 38 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 431 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 38 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 12 |
Adaptation of gender and marriage beliefs: Early relationship years and cohabitation drive partner influence
Objective: This study examines how differences in romantic partners' gender and marriage beliefs affect whether and how individuals adapt their own beliefs over time. Background: To date, research on convergence of gender and marriage beliefs in couples is limited. Applying a life course perspective, we conceptualize beliefs as dynamic and new relationships as unique contexts, where partners’ exposure to each other’s beliefs, the need to build sh…
A Dyadic Score Analysis of How Romantic Partners' Self‐Control Relates to Personal and Relational Well‐Being in Daily Life
Self‐control determines well‐being in individuals, but also plays an important role in close relationships. However, only few studies investigated self‐control in dyads before. Therefore, from a dyadic perspective, our study aims at better understanding how average levels and differences in two relationship partners' self‐control are related to their personal and relational well‐being in daily life. We evaluate three competing accounts, positing …
How perceived daycare quality shapes norms around daycare use and parental employment: Experimental evidence from Germany
Not only the quantity of formal daycare provision for young children, but also its quality has become an issue of political concern. This experimental study investigates how a hypothetical improvement in the perceived quality of daycare facilities shapes normative judgements regarding daycare use and working hours for parents with young children in Germany. The analysis is framed with theoretical concepts of ideals and accommodations of childcare…
Cracking Under Pressure? Gender Role Attitudes Toward Maternal Employment During Covid-19 in Germany
The COVID-19 pandemic posed unprecedented challenges to gender equality, particularly affecting working parents due to disruptions in daycare and school operations. It also impacted labor market opportunities for both men and women. This study investigates shifts in gender role attitudes toward maternal employment in Germany during pandemic lockdowns and subsequent periods of eased restrictions, using combined data from 2008 to early 2022. During…
Prenatal Exposure to Androgens and Gender Socialisation Effects on Children’s Academic Interests
Previous studies have documented gender differences in fields of study as well as interest in school subjects. Boys are on average more interested in mathematics, and girls show greater interest in languages. The extent to which these disparities are the result of biological or environment influences is still an open debate. On the one hand, brain organisation theory suggests that physiological and behavioural differences may be linked to prenata…
Does the Quality of Early Childhood Education and Care Centers Mitigate the Risk of Externalizing Problems? A Genetic-Sensitive Study of Preschoolers in Germany
This paper examines the extent to which quality characteristics of early childhood education and care (ECEC) experienced at ages 4–6 influence externalizing problems at ages 6–8. Based on a random sample of 713 same-sex twins (55% female, 41% with a migration background) in 364 ECEC centers in Germany, the paper not only distinguishes between detailed ECEC quality characteristics but additionally investigates whether these characteristics affect …
Multidimensional gender ideologies: How do they relate to work-family arrangements of mothers with dependent children in Poland and western Germany
This study uses a multidimensional approach to identify gender ideologies and investigate their association with work-family arrangements among mothers of dependent children in Poland and western Germany. Based on data from the Generations and Gender Survey, we apply ordinal latent class analysis and identify five gender ideology classes: (1) traditional, (2) intensive parenting, (3) ambivalent, (4) moderately egalitarian, and (5) strongly egalit…
Information intervention on long-term earnings prospects and the gender gap in major choice
This study investigates whether an intervention that provided high school seniors with information on costs and economic returns to tertiary education and on the long-term earnings prospects of college graduates from different study fields enhances the probability that male and female students opt for financially more rewarding study fields and for business-related or STEM fields with a lower share of women. It extends our understanding on the po…
Gender typicality of occupational aspirations among immigrant and native youth: The role of gender ideology, educational aspirations, and work values
The gender typicality of adolescents' occupational aspirations helps sustain occupational segregation, ultimately contributing to maintain gender stratification. According to sociological and psychological perspectives, adolescents develop occupational aspirations by drawing on their gender beliefs and work-related values. Yet few empirical studies have examined the contribution of these value orientations specifically to the gender typicality of…
Who Should Scale Back? Experimental Evidence on Employer Support for Part-Time Employment and Working Hours Norms for Couples with Young Children
This experimental study investigates how hypothetical employer support for part-time work shapes working hours norms for mothers and fathers with young children in Germany. It extends previous studies by focusing on the couple context, for instance by exploring interdependencies with each partner’s earnings potential. The analysis is framed using capability-based explanations combined with a perspective of gender as a social structure. A factoria…
Day care availability and awareness of gendered economic risks: How they shape work and care norms
Family policies not only provide money, time and infrastructure to families, but also convey normative assumptions about what is considered desirable or acceptable in paid work and family care. This study conceptualises and empirically investigates how priming respondents with brief media report-like information on existing day care policy entitlements and economic consequences of maternal employment interruptions may change personal normative ju…
A Time of Great Change: How Parents, Friends, and Classmates Shape Adolescents’ Attitudes towards the Gender Division of Labor
Parents are crucial in the construction of their children’s attitudes towards the gender division of labor. However, little is known about the extent to which parents’ influences on their children’s attitudes weaken in favor of peers during adolescence. This study explores how gender beliefs of parents, friends, and classmates shape adolescents’ attitudes towards the gender division of labor in Sweden, Germany, England, and the Netherlands. It ex…
Parental Leave Policies, Usage Consequences, and Changing Normative Beliefs: Evidence From a Survey Experiment
In this study, we conceptualize and provide novel empirical evidence on norm-setting effects of family policies by investigating how priming with parental leave policy-related information may alter normative beliefs regarding the gender division of parental leave in Germany. We implemented a survey experiment in two waves of the representative German GESIS Panel in 2019 and 2020. Respondents received one of three short evidence-based information …
Couples' Communication Behaviour and the Gender Division of Family Work Across the Transition to Parenthood
This study investigates the conceptual argument that constructive and explicit couple communication may reduce gender inequalities in couples' division of family work. We focus on the transition to parenthood which for most couples in Germany results in a shift towards a more traditional division of labour. Using 314 first-time parents from the German Family Panel, we apply growth curve models to assess whether partners' prenatal characteristics …
Breaking with traditions? How parental separation affects adolescents’ gender ideologies in the UK
It is often assumed that parental union dissolution leads to more egalitarian gender ideologies among children. Yet evidence on variations in gender ideologies by family structures is scant and based mostly on cross-sectional data. This study offers a closer examination of whether any effect of parental union dissolution can be explained by parents restructuring work and care responsibilities along more egalitarian lines after separation. Drawing…
Shared leave, happier parent couples? Parental leave and relationship satisfaction in Germany
This study investigates how parental leave policies and uptake may impact heterosexual couples’ relationship satisfaction. It focuses on Germany as an example of a country with a history of familialist policies and long maternal leaves that has recently undergone a significant policy shift. We extend the literature by examining the effects of maternal and paternal leave duration on both partners’ relationship satisfaction while distinguishing bet…
Paid parental leave and fathers’ involvement: Capturing fathers’ gender beliefs and fathering perceptions
This study examines how multidimensional gender and fathering beliefs of fathers may explain their relative involvement in childcare after considering paid leave uptake. We draw on cross-sectional survey data from one German state, which allow us to distinguish three belief dimensions: (1) gender traditionalism and essentialism, (2) fathering attitudes, and (3) fathering self-concepts and self-efficacy. By means of multiple linear regression mode…
Going Regional: Local Childcare Provision and Parental Work–Care Choices in Germany
This chapter argues that analyzing regional and local institutional variations has great potential for generating new insights on the drivers of family policy reforms as well as on mechanisms how policies affect families’ choices and well-being. Drawing on the case of Germany and focusing on early childhood education and care (ECEC) services, this chapter first describes regional variations in ECEC provision and take-up. It then reviews theoretic…
Socialisation Influences on Gender Ideologies of Immigrant and Native Youth in Germany, England, Sweden and the Netherlands
Adolescence is a crucial life course phase for identity formation, and youths' gender ideologies significantly predict gendered behaviours and longer-term transitions. With Western post-industrial societies becoming more culturally diverse, the present study provides novel cross-nationally comparative evidence on gender socialisation processes among native and immigrant youth in Sweden, Germany, England, and the Netherlands, which vary in gender …
Concerted cultivation in early childhood and social inequalities in cognitive skills: Evidence from a German panel study
Children’s conversion of cultural capital into educational success: The symbolic and skill-generating functions of cultural capital
A prominent explanation of intergenerational educational inequality is Bourdieu’s cultural reproduction theory. Indeed, previous studies have frequently shown that children’s cultural capital relates to academic outcomes. However, it remains unclear how children convert their cultural capital into achievement. While Bourdieu argued that cultural capital influences academic outcomes primarily by biasing teachers’ grades, other researchers have pro…
Early education and care quality: Does it matter for maternal working hours
This study investigates whether mothers whose children enter early childhood education and care (ECEC) centers of higher quality are more likely to work longer hours. The empirical analysis links the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) Study with the K 2 iD-SOEP extension study, which collected ECEC quality information from childcare centers across Germany. Based on a sample of 556 mothers of 628 children with a mean age of 2.6 years at center entry, the…
Shared Parental Leave: Exploring Variations in Attitudes, Eligibility, Knowledge and Take-up Intentions of Expectant Mothers in London
In April 2015, the UK introduced Shared Parental Leave (SPL), allowing mothers to transfer their maternity leave to their partners from two weeks after the birth or adoption of a child. There has been very limited research conducted on this leave policy to date and knowledge on take-up is poor. We present findings from an in-depth survey conducted with expectant mothers in two NHS trusts in England on their knowledge, views and plans around leave…
Change in the gender division of domestic work after mothers or fathers took leave: Exploring alternative explanations
This study investigates how the durations of childcare leaves taken by mothers and fathers in Germany relate to the gender division of housework and childcare after labour market return. It examines to what extent changes in economic resources because of leave take-up may account for adaptations in the division of domestic work of dual-earner couples. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (1992–2012) on about 800 couples with a first or…
Convergence or Divergence? Educational Discrepancies in Work-Care Arrangements of Mothers with Young Children in Germany
This study examines how educational differences in work-care patterns among mothers with young children in Germany changed between 1997 and 2013. Since the mid-2000s, Germany has undergone a paradigm shift in parental leave and childcare policies. Our comparative analysis of East and West Germany provides new evidence on whether the long-standing gender regime differences interact with recent developments of social class inequalities in the chang…
Maternal employment and gender role attitudes: Dissonance among British men and women in the transition to parenthood
This study examines how changes in gender role attitudes of couples after childbirth relate to women's paid work and the type of childcare used. Identifying attitude-practice dissonances matters because how they get resolved influences mothers' future employment. Previous research examined changes in women's attitudes and employment, or spouses' adaptations to each others' attitudes. This is extended by considering how women and men in couples si…
The Parenthood Effect on Gender Inequality: Explaining the Change in Paid and Domestic Work When British Couples Become Parents
This study examines the importance of prenatal characteristics of men and women in couples for how they change their time spent on housework and paid work after the transition to parenthood. We focus on both partners’ earnings and gender role attitudes as explanatory factors. Previous research explored the importance of women’s relative income and both partners’ gender role attitudes for the extent to which the division of labour becomes more tra…
Parental Leave and Domestic Work of Mothers and Fathers: A Longitudinal Study of Two Reforms in West Germany
Following two parental leave reforms in West Germany, this research explores how child care and housework time changed among couples who have just had a child. The reform in 1992 extended the low paid or unpaid parental leave period, whereas the 2007 reform introduced income-dependent compensation and two 'daddy months'. This study contributes to the literature by examining different mechanisms on how these reforms were associated with domestic w…
Convergence or Divergence? Educational Discrepancies in Work-Care Arrangements of Mothers with Young Children in Germany
This study examines how educational differences in work-care patterns among mothers with young children in Germany changed between 1997 and 2013. Since the mid-2000s, Germany has undergone a paradigm shift in parental leave and childcare policies. Our comparative analysis of East and West Germany provides new evidence on whether the long-standing gender regime differences interact with recent developments of social class inequalities in the chang…
Public Child-Care Expansion and Changing Gender Ideologies of Parents in Germany
This study investigates whether the expansion of public child care for children aged younger than 3 years in Germany has been associated with individual-level change in gender ideologies. The authors develop and test a theoretical framework of the short-term impact of family policy institutions on ideology change. The analysis links the German Family Panel pairfam (2008 to 2015) with administrative records on county-level child-care provision for…
Change in the gender division of domestic work after mothers or fathers took leave: Exploring alternative explanations
This study investigates how the durations of childcare leaves taken by mothers and fathers in Germany relate to the gender division of housework and childcare after labour market return. It examines to what extent changes in economic resources because of leave take-up may account for adaptations in the division of domestic work of dual-earner couples. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (1992–2012) on about 800 couples with a first or…
Paternal Child Care and Relationship Quality: A Longitudinal Analysis of Reciprocal Associations
This study explored reciprocal associations between paternal child-care involvement and relationship quality by following British couples from the birth of a child until he or she reached school age. It extends the literature by distinguishing between paternal engagement in absolute terms and relative to the mother and by considering relationship quality reports of mothers and fathers and family breakdown. The analysis was based on the British Mi…
Parental socio-economic status and childcare quality: Early inequalities in educational opportunity
Gender Equality and Outsourcing of Domestic Work, Childbearing, and Relationship Stability Among British Couples
This study investigates whether gender inequality in the division of housework and child care may be an obstacle to childbearing and relationship stability among different groups of British couples. Furthermore, it explores whether outsourcing of domestic labor ameliorates any negative effects of domestic work inequality. The empirical investigation uses event-history analysis based on 14 waves (1992-2005) of the British Household Panel Study. Th…
Local Day Care Quality and Maternal Employment: Evidence From East and West Germany
By investigating how locally available early childhood education and care quality relates to maternal employment choices, this study extends the literature, which mostly has focused on the importance of day care availability or costs. The authors provide differentiated analyses by the youngest child's age and for West and East Germany to examine moderating influences, such as work-care cultures, in a market with strongly state-subsidized provisio…
Early Childhood Education Activities and Care Arrangements of Disadvantaged Children in Germany
Socialisation Influences on Gender Ideologies of Immigrant and Native Youth in Germany, England, Sweden and the Netherlands
Adolescence is a crucial life course phase for identity formation, and youths' gender ideologies significantly predict gendered behaviours and longer-term transitions. With Western post-industrial societies becoming more culturally diverse, the present study provides novel cross-nationally comparative evidence on gender socialisation processes among native and immigrant youth in Sweden, Germany, England, and the Netherlands, which vary in gender …
Day-care availability, maternal employment and satisfaction of parents: Evidence from cultural and policy variations in Germany
This study investigates how the availability and expansion of childcare services for children aged under 3 years relate to the subjective wellbeing of German mothers and fathers. It extends previous studies by examining in more detail the relationship between day-care availability and use, maternal employment and parental subjective wellbeing during early childhood in a country with expanding childcare services and varying work–care cultures. The…
Expansion of Full-Day Childcare and Subjective Well-Being of Mothers: Interdependencies with Culture and Resources
This study investigates whether an expansion of state-subsidized full-day childcare may improve the subjective well-being of mothers of children under school age by acting as a boundary-spanning resource to facilitate the combination of employment and childcare responsibilities. It extends previous studies that showed contradictory results by demonstrating that the relationship with parental subjective well-being may vary by local work-care cultu…
Concerted cultivation in early childhood and social inequalities in cognitive skills: Evidence from a German panel study
Children’s conversion of cultural capital into educational success: The symbolic and skill-generating functions of cultural capital
A prominent explanation of intergenerational educational inequality is Bourdieu’s cultural reproduction theory. Indeed, previous studies have frequently shown that children’s cultural capital relates to academic outcomes. However, it remains unclear how children convert their cultural capital into achievement. While Bourdieu argued that cultural capital influences academic outcomes primarily by biasing teachers’ grades, other researchers have pro…
Are Couples with Young Children More Likely to Split Up When the Mother is the Main or an Equal Earner
This study examines how a mother being the main or an equal earner impacts the relationship stability of heterosexual couple parents, using the UK's Millennium Cohort Survey. Various theories alternatively predict that such couples experience a higher or lower risk of divorce than male-breadwinner couples. Alternatively the characteristics of these couples may predispose them to relatively higher or lower relationship stability than male-breadwin…
Shared Parental Leave: Exploring Variations in Attitudes, Eligibility, Knowledge and Take-up Intentions of Expectant Mothers in London
In April 2015, the UK introduced Shared Parental Leave (SPL), allowing mothers to transfer their maternity leave to their partners from two weeks after the birth or adoption of a child. There has been very limited research conducted on this leave policy to date and knowledge on take-up is poor. We present findings from an in-depth survey conducted with expectant mothers in two NHS trusts in England on their knowledge, views and plans around leave…
Early education and care quality: Does it matter for maternal working hours
This study investigates whether mothers whose children enter early childhood education and care (ECEC) centers of higher quality are more likely to work longer hours. The empirical analysis links the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) Study with the K 2 iD-SOEP extension study, which collected ECEC quality information from childcare centers across Germany. Based on a sample of 556 mothers of 628 children with a mean age of 2.6 years at center entry, the…
Parental Leave Policies, Usage Consequences, and Changing Normative Beliefs: Evidence From a Survey Experiment
In this study, we conceptualize and provide novel empirical evidence on norm-setting effects of family policies by investigating how priming with parental leave policy-related information may alter normative beliefs regarding the gender division of parental leave in Germany. We implemented a survey experiment in two waves of the representative German GESIS Panel in 2019 and 2020. Respondents received one of three short evidence-based information …
Shared leave, happier parent couples? Parental leave and relationship satisfaction in Germany
This study investigates how parental leave policies and uptake may impact heterosexual couples’ relationship satisfaction. It focuses on Germany as an example of a country with a history of familialist policies and long maternal leaves that has recently undergone a significant policy shift. We extend the literature by examining the effects of maternal and paternal leave duration on both partners’ relationship satisfaction while distinguishing bet…
Day care availability and awareness of gendered economic risks: How they shape work and care norms
Family policies not only provide money, time and infrastructure to families, but also convey normative assumptions about what is considered desirable or acceptable in paid work and family care. This study conceptualises and empirically investigates how priming respondents with brief media report-like information on existing day care policy entitlements and economic consequences of maternal employment interruptions may change personal normative ju…
Couples' Communication Behaviour and the Gender Division of Family Work Across the Transition to Parenthood
This study investigates the conceptual argument that constructive and explicit couple communication may reduce gender inequalities in couples' division of family work. We focus on the transition to parenthood which for most couples in Germany results in a shift towards a more traditional division of labour. Using 314 first-time parents from the German Family Panel, we apply growth curve models to assess whether partners' prenatal characteristics …
How perceived daycare quality shapes norms around daycare use and parental employment: Experimental evidence from Germany
Not only the quantity of formal daycare provision for young children, but also its quality has become an issue of political concern. This experimental study investigates how a hypothetical improvement in the perceived quality of daycare facilities shapes normative judgements regarding daycare use and working hours for parents with young children in Germany. The analysis is framed with theoretical concepts of ideals and accommodations of childcare…
Cracking Under Pressure? Gender Role Attitudes Toward Maternal Employment During Covid-19 in Germany
The COVID-19 pandemic posed unprecedented challenges to gender equality, particularly affecting working parents due to disruptions in daycare and school operations. It also impacted labor market opportunities for both men and women. This study investigates shifts in gender role attitudes toward maternal employment in Germany during pandemic lockdowns and subsequent periods of eased restrictions, using combined data from 2008 to early 2022. During…
Gender equality in paid and unpaid work: Priorities for UK policy intervention
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to summarise policy interventions and realistic strategies for achieving greater gender equality in paid and unpaid work, which were identified during a conference on “Gender equality in paid and unpaid work” held on 8 December 2009 at the Church House Conference Centre, London, UK. Design/methodology/approach The conference included four plenary talks and group discussions. The paper is based on the presentat…
Maternal employment and gender role attitudes: Dissonance among British men and women in the transition to parenthood
This study examines how changes in gender role attitudes of couples after childbirth relate to women's paid work and the type of childcare used. Identifying attitude-practice dissonances matters because how they get resolved influences mothers' future employment. Previous research examined changes in women's attitudes and employment, or spouses' adaptations to each others' attitudes. This is extended by considering how women and men in couples si…
Paternal Child Care and Relationship Quality: A Longitudinal Analysis of Reciprocal Associations
This study explored reciprocal associations between paternal child-care involvement and relationship quality by following British couples from the birth of a child until he or she reached school age. It extends the literature by distinguishing between paternal engagement in absolute terms and relative to the mother and by considering relationship quality reports of mothers and fathers and family breakdown. The analysis was based on the British Mi…
Early Childhood Education Activities and Care Arrangements of Disadvantaged Children in Germany
Gender Equality and Outsourcing of Domestic Work, Childbearing, and Relationship Stability Among British Couples
This study investigates whether gender inequality in the division of housework and child care may be an obstacle to childbearing and relationship stability among different groups of British couples. Furthermore, it explores whether outsourcing of domestic labor ameliorates any negative effects of domestic work inequality. The empirical investigation uses event-history analysis based on 14 waves (1992-2005) of the British Household Panel Study. Th…
The Parenthood Effect on Gender Inequality: Explaining the Change in Paid and Domestic Work When British Couples Become Parents
This study examines the importance of prenatal characteristics of men and women in couples for how they change their time spent on housework and paid work after the transition to parenthood. We focus on both partners’ earnings and gender role attitudes as explanatory factors. Previous research explored the importance of women’s relative income and both partners’ gender role attitudes for the extent to which the division of labour becomes more tra…
Are Couples with Young Children More Likely to Split Up When the Mother is the Main or an Equal Earner
This study examines how a mother being the main or an equal earner impacts the relationship stability of heterosexual couple parents, using the UK's Millennium Cohort Survey. Various theories alternatively predict that such couples experience a higher or lower risk of divorce than male-breadwinner couples. Alternatively the characteristics of these couples may predispose them to relatively higher or lower relationship stability than male-breadwin…
Parental Leave and Domestic Work of Mothers and Fathers: A Longitudinal Study of Two Reforms in West Germany
Following two parental leave reforms in West Germany, this research explores how child care and housework time changed among couples who have just had a child. The reform in 1992 extended the low paid or unpaid parental leave period, whereas the 2007 reform introduced income-dependent compensation and two 'daddy months'. This study contributes to the literature by examining different mechanisms on how these reforms were associated with domestic w…
Local Day Care Quality and Maternal Employment: Evidence From East and West Germany
By investigating how locally available early childhood education and care quality relates to maternal employment choices, this study extends the literature, which mostly has focused on the importance of day care availability or costs. The authors provide differentiated analyses by the youngest child's age and for West and East Germany to examine moderating influences, such as work-care cultures, in a market with strongly state-subsidized provisio…
Expansion of Full-Day Childcare and Subjective Well-Being of Mothers: Interdependencies with Culture and Resources
This study investigates whether an expansion of state-subsidized full-day childcare may improve the subjective well-being of mothers of children under school age by acting as a boundary-spanning resource to facilitate the combination of employment and childcare responsibilities. It extends previous studies that showed contradictory results by demonstrating that the relationship with parental subjective well-being may vary by local work-care cultu…
Day-care availability, maternal employment and satisfaction of parents: Evidence from cultural and policy variations in Germany
This study investigates how the availability and expansion of childcare services for children aged under 3 years relate to the subjective wellbeing of German mothers and fathers. It extends previous studies by examining in more detail the relationship between day-care availability and use, maternal employment and parental subjective wellbeing during early childhood in a country with expanding childcare services and varying work–care cultures. The…
Parental socio-economic status and childcare quality: Early inequalities in educational opportunity
Change in the gender division of domestic work after mothers or fathers took leave: Exploring alternative explanations
This study investigates how the durations of childcare leaves taken by mothers and fathers in Germany relate to the gender division of housework and childcare after labour market return. It examines to what extent changes in economic resources because of leave take-up may account for adaptations in the division of domestic work of dual-earner couples. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (1992–2012) on about 800 couples with a first or…
Convergence or Divergence? Educational Discrepancies in Work-Care Arrangements of Mothers with Young Children in Germany
This study examines how educational differences in work-care patterns among mothers with young children in Germany changed between 1997 and 2013. Since the mid-2000s, Germany has undergone a paradigm shift in parental leave and childcare policies. Our comparative analysis of East and West Germany provides new evidence on whether the long-standing gender regime differences interact with recent developments of social class inequalities in the chang…
Public Child-Care Expansion and Changing Gender Ideologies of Parents in Germany
This study investigates whether the expansion of public child care for children aged younger than 3 years in Germany has been associated with individual-level change in gender ideologies. The authors develop and test a theoretical framework of the short-term impact of family policy institutions on ideology change. The analysis links the German Family Panel pairfam (2008 to 2015) with administrative records on county-level child-care provision for…
Shared Parental Leave: Exploring Variations in Attitudes, Eligibility, Knowledge and Take-up Intentions of Expectant Mothers in London
In April 2015, the UK introduced Shared Parental Leave (SPL), allowing mothers to transfer their maternity leave to their partners from two weeks after the birth or adoption of a child. There has been very limited research conducted on this leave policy to date and knowledge on take-up is poor. We present findings from an in-depth survey conducted with expectant mothers in two NHS trusts in England on their knowledge, views and plans around leave…
Going Regional: Local Childcare Provision and Parental Work–Care Choices in Germany
This chapter argues that analyzing regional and local institutional variations has great potential for generating new insights on the drivers of family policy reforms as well as on mechanisms how policies affect families’ choices and well-being. Drawing on the case of Germany and focusing on early childhood education and care (ECEC) services, this chapter first describes regional variations in ECEC provision and take-up. It then reviews theoretic…
Socialisation Influences on Gender Ideologies of Immigrant and Native Youth in Germany, England, Sweden and the Netherlands
Adolescence is a crucial life course phase for identity formation, and youths' gender ideologies significantly predict gendered behaviours and longer-term transitions. With Western post-industrial societies becoming more culturally diverse, the present study provides novel cross-nationally comparative evidence on gender socialisation processes among native and immigrant youth in Sweden, Germany, England, and the Netherlands, which vary in gender …
Concerted cultivation in early childhood and social inequalities in cognitive skills: Evidence from a German panel study
Children’s conversion of cultural capital into educational success: The symbolic and skill-generating functions of cultural capital
A prominent explanation of intergenerational educational inequality is Bourdieu’s cultural reproduction theory. Indeed, previous studies have frequently shown that children’s cultural capital relates to academic outcomes. However, it remains unclear how children convert their cultural capital into achievement. While Bourdieu argued that cultural capital influences academic outcomes primarily by biasing teachers’ grades, other researchers have pro…
Early education and care quality: Does it matter for maternal working hours
This study investigates whether mothers whose children enter early childhood education and care (ECEC) centers of higher quality are more likely to work longer hours. The empirical analysis links the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) Study with the K 2 iD-SOEP extension study, which collected ECEC quality information from childcare centers across Germany. Based on a sample of 556 mothers of 628 children with a mean age of 2.6 years at center entry, the…
Paid parental leave and fathers’ involvement: Capturing fathers’ gender beliefs and fathering perceptions
This study examines how multidimensional gender and fathering beliefs of fathers may explain their relative involvement in childcare after considering paid leave uptake. We draw on cross-sectional survey data from one German state, which allow us to distinguish three belief dimensions: (1) gender traditionalism and essentialism, (2) fathering attitudes, and (3) fathering self-concepts and self-efficacy. By means of multiple linear regression mode…
Breaking with traditions? How parental separation affects adolescents’ gender ideologies in the UK
It is often assumed that parental union dissolution leads to more egalitarian gender ideologies among children. Yet evidence on variations in gender ideologies by family structures is scant and based mostly on cross-sectional data. This study offers a closer examination of whether any effect of parental union dissolution can be explained by parents restructuring work and care responsibilities along more egalitarian lines after separation. Drawing…
Shared leave, happier parent couples? Parental leave and relationship satisfaction in Germany
This study investigates how parental leave policies and uptake may impact heterosexual couples’ relationship satisfaction. It focuses on Germany as an example of a country with a history of familialist policies and long maternal leaves that has recently undergone a significant policy shift. We extend the literature by examining the effects of maternal and paternal leave duration on both partners’ relationship satisfaction while distinguishing bet…
Gender typicality of occupational aspirations among immigrant and native youth: The role of gender ideology, educational aspirations, and work values
The gender typicality of adolescents' occupational aspirations helps sustain occupational segregation, ultimately contributing to maintain gender stratification. According to sociological and psychological perspectives, adolescents develop occupational aspirations by drawing on their gender beliefs and work-related values. Yet few empirical studies have examined the contribution of these value orientations specifically to the gender typicality of…
Psychology (31 works) · Economics (25 works) · Sociology (24 works) · Work-Family Balance Challenges (23 works) · Demographic economics (22 works) · Political science (21 works) · Developmental psychology (18 works) · Medicine (15 works) · Social Psychology (14 works) · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics (13 works)