J Skopek
Biographic Data
| ID | 38914 |
|---|---|
| NAME | J Skopek |
| GIVEN NAMES | J |
| FAMILY NAME | Skopek |
| SIGNATURE | SKOPEK J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Trinity College Dublin |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2426-6263 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 30 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 207 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
The historical demography of the multigenerational family: Evidence from crowdsourced genealogies
Objective: This research note reconstructs the historical demography of the multigenerational family from preindustrial colonial America (1700) up to the end of the Gilded Age (1910) in the territory of the present-day United States and selected European regions. Background: Knowledge of the demography of multigenerational family ties is limited to the 20th and 21st centuries. By contrast, little is known about the preceding demographic history o…
Five decades of marital sorting in France and the United States – The role of educational expansion and the changing gender imbalance in education
The Role of Schooling in Equalizing Achievement Disparity by Migrant Background
Does schooling equalize achievement disparities among students with and without a migrant background? This question remains largely unanswered in sociology. We hypothesized that children of migrants would benefit more from schooling, thereby making schools engines of educational integration. Our study tests this hypothesis in the context of German primary schooling using data from the National Educational Panel Study. We compared the achievements…
Maternal education, early language skills, and mother-child interactions across three welfare states
ObjectiveThis study aims to examine the extent to which maternal education-related disparities in child language development in preschool years are mediated by differences in mother-child interaction quality, and whether this mediation varies across different sociopolitical contexts: the U.S., Germany, and Norway.BackgroundSocioeconomic disparities in language development have prompted research to investigate mechanisms underlying early language …
Structural opportunities or assortative mating? – Decomposing trends and country differences in educational sorting outcomes in marriages
This study examines within- and cross-country trends and differences in marital sorting by education in Europe. Unlike previous research on assortative mating, our study focuses on the outcomes of the partner search process. We investigate how variations in (a) structural opportunities (educational composition of potential partners) and (b) assortative mating (non-random matching by education) have shaped trends and differences in educational sor…
Childcare utilisation by migration background: Evidence from a nationally representative Irish cohort study
Scholarship has highlighted the potentially equalising effects of early childhood education and care (ECEC), which may be particularly relevant for children living in immigrant households. However, it is crucial to consider which children are more likely to experience certain types of care. Drawing on recent, nationally representative, longitudinal data from Ireland (N = 7516), this paper presents new evidence on how childcare choices differ betw…
The development of host language achievement gaps by migration background during primary school: A path model of educational inequalities
Education is key to the structural integration of immigrants and their children. While research indicates that educational inequalities by migration background are a serious issue, relatively little is known about when, how and why they develop. The current paper adds to the literature by investigating to what extent achievement gaps by migration background develop during the primary school period. Drawing on data from a national longitudinal stu…
Children of Separation: An International Profile
This study offers a comprehensive international overview of children from separated families across 13 countries, with an emphasis on the European context. We investigate changes in the number of children experiencing parental separation over birth cohorts (1960-1989) and changes in their social composition using data from the Generations and Gender Survey and official statistics. Results on absolute numbers highlight the impact of demographic sh…
Decomposing trends in educational homogamy and heterogamy - The case of Ireland
Employing Irish Census microdata, we analyze trends in educational homogamy and heterogamy between 1991 and 2016 and examine how they can be explained by concurrent trends in three theoretically relevant socio-demographic components - (a) educational attainment, (b) the educational gradient in marriage, and (c) educational assortative mating (i.e., non-random matching). Our study proposes a novel counterfactual decomposition method to estimate th…
How do institutional factors shape PhD completion rates? An analysis of long-term changes in a European doctoral program
Our paper adds to a growing literature of doctoral training by studying factors that drive time-to-completion based on a new and unique data set from an international European graduate school. While previous research focused on individual factors, we inspect the role of institutional factors and the organization of PhD programs for PhD completion. Based on a theoretical model, we elaborate hypotheses on three sets of institutional factors for the…
Academic achievement gaps by migration background at school starting age in Ireland
In today’s increasingly diverse societies, a key question is how to foster the structural integration of immigrants and their descendants. While research indicates that migrant educational underachievement is a serious issue, relatively little is known about achievement gaps at younger ages and in relatively new immigration countries. The current study sets out to estimate the size of disparities by migration background at age five (i.e. when the…
Is Social Inequality in School-Age Achievement Generated before or during Schooling? A European Perspective
Social gaps in children’s educational achievement emerge early in life and remain stable over schooling. Does social origin constantly shape achievement or is social inequality in school just an echo of inequality settled before schooling? We extend the previous research by studying the origins of social gaps in language achievement among primary-school students in Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Based on dynamic accounts of ski…
Does Schooling Decrease Socioeconomic Inequality in Early Achievement? A Differential Exposure Approach
Does schooling affect socioeconomic inequality in educational achievement? Earlier studies based on seasonal comparisons suggest schooling can equalize social gaps in learning. Yet recent replication studies have given rise to skepticism about the validity of older findings. We shed new light on the debate by estimating the causal effect of 1st-grade schooling on achievement inequality by socioeconomic family background in Germany. We elaborate a…
Socioeconomic Inequality in Children’s Achievement from Infancy to Adolescence: The Case of Germany
When in children’s lives do gaps by family socioeconomic status (SES) in cognitive skills emerge, how large are they before children enter school, and how do they develop over schooling? We study the evolution of achievement gaps by parental education from birth to adolescence in Germany. We exploit data from fifty-seven tests taken from the age of seven months to sixteen years by the National Educational Panel Study. Because Germany has one of t…
Educational Reproduction in Germany: A Prospective Study Based on Retrospective Data
This study examines educational reproduction of East and West German men and women born between 1930 and 1950. In a prospective design, we study the importance of mobility and fertility pathways of reproduction, considering not only the social reproduction of education as an attribute but also the demographic reproduction of individuals who carry this attribute. Using data from NEPS and SOEP, we introduce a method that estimates prospective model…
Advantage 'Finds Its Way: How Privileged Families Exploit Opportunities in Different Systems of Secondary Education
This article discusses key findings from eduLIFE, a cross-national project that examined the emergence of social inequalities in 17 countries characterized by different models of secondary education. First, we build upon existing international studies and propose a broader classification of forms of differentiation in secondary education. Second, we elaborate a fourfold typology of secondary education systems. Third, we provide a longitudinal and…
Conditions and Consequences of Unequal Educational Opportunities in the Life Course: Results from the Cross-National Comparative eduLife Project
Explaining Gender Convergence in Housework Time: Evidence from a Cohort-Sequence Design
This study connects two lines of research—trend studies on social change in housework time and life-course studies on individual- and couple-level change in housework time. This novel approach allowed us to link the macro-level trend of gender convergence in housework time to the micro-level mechanisms underlying it. Using long-running panel data (SOEP), we implemented a cohort-sequence design that followed two birth cohorts (1960 and 1975) of We…
Gender Convergence in Housework Time: A Life Course and Cohort Perspective
Knowledge about gender convergence in housework time is confined to changes studied across repeated cross-sections of data. This study adds a dynamic view that links broader social shifts in men’s and women’s housework time to individual life-course profiles. Using panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (1985–2015), our analysis is the first to trace changes in housework time across the entire adult life course (ages 20–90) and acr…
Who becomes a grandparent - and when? Educational differences in the chances and timing of grandparenthood
Despite recent advances, the demographic understanding of grandparenthood remains limited
Models of Secondary Education and Social Inequality: An International Comparison
Retirement and Changes in Housework: A Panel Study of Dual Earner Couples
Although the findings on changes after retirement support the time availability hypothesis, gender construction theories still take precedence in explaining the division of household labor over the life course
The Demography of Grandparenthood: An International Profile
This comparative study addressed three open questions about the demography of grandparenthood in contemporary societies: First, at what age do people become grandparents? Second, how is grandparenthood sequenced with other transitions in later life? Third, how long is the grandparent life stage? To answer these questions, we analyzed retrospective data from the United States (NSFH) and 24 European countries (GGS, ESS, DEAS). Using survival method…
Convergence or Continuity? The Gender Gap in Household Labor After Retirement
This research examined 2 hypotheses about the effect of retirement on couples' division of household labor. The continuity hypothesis posits that the gender gap in household labor remains unaffected by retirement, whereas the convergence hypothesis expects it to close. The authors tested these hypotheses using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (N = 1,302 couples). Fixed effects models revealed that male breadwinners dou…
The Delay of Grandparenthood: A Cohort Comparison in East and West Germany
This research explored the delay of grandparenthood in East and West Germany, investigating how the timing and life-course context of this transition have changed across cohorts. The authors estimated the timing of passages into the grandparent role as well as demographic overlap with worker, parent, and filial roles. Data from the German Aging Survey (N = 3,628) revealed a rise of 3 months per birth cohort (1929-1958) in the median age at grandp…
Who Contacts Whom? Educational Homophily in Online Mate Selection
Data from an online dating platform are used to study the importance of education for initiating and replying to online contacts. We analyse how these patterns are influenced by educational homophily and opportunity structures. Social exchange theory and mate search theory are used to explain online mate selection behaviour. Our results show that educational homophily is the dominant mechanism in online mate choice. Similarity in education signif…
Gender Convergence in Housework Time: A Life Course and Cohort Perspective
Knowledge about gender convergence in housework time is confined to changes studied across repeated cross-sections of data. This study adds a dynamic view that links broader social shifts in men’s and women’s housework time to individual life-course profiles. Using panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (1985–2015), our analysis is the first to trace changes in housework time across the entire adult life course (ages 20–90) and acr…
Gender and the Division of Labor in Older Couples: How European Grandparents Share Market Work and Childcare
Grandmothers provide far more childcare than grandfathers do. The present study investigated whether, and to what extent, this gender gap was explained by grandparent couples’ division of labor into market work and childcare. The analysis was based on panel data from two waves of the SHARE, comprising respondents from 10 European countries. Linear regression models yielded four main findings. First, the average trade-off between hours of market w…
Does Schooling Decrease Socioeconomic Inequality in Early Achievement? A Differential Exposure Approach
Does schooling affect socioeconomic inequality in educational achievement? Earlier studies based on seasonal comparisons suggest schooling can equalize social gaps in learning. Yet recent replication studies have given rise to skepticism about the validity of older findings. We shed new light on the debate by estimating the causal effect of 1st-grade schooling on achievement inequality by socioeconomic family background in Germany. We elaborate a…
Advantage 'Finds Its Way: How Privileged Families Exploit Opportunities in Different Systems of Secondary Education
This article discusses key findings from eduLIFE, a cross-national project that examined the emergence of social inequalities in 17 countries characterized by different models of secondary education. First, we build upon existing international studies and propose a broader classification of forms of differentiation in secondary education. Second, we elaborate a fourfold typology of secondary education systems. Third, we provide a longitudinal and…
The Delay of Grandparenthood: A Cohort Comparison in East and West Germany
This research explored the delay of grandparenthood in East and West Germany, investigating how the timing and life-course context of this transition have changed across cohorts. The authors estimated the timing of passages into the grandparent role as well as demographic overlap with worker, parent, and filial roles. Data from the German Aging Survey (N = 3,628) revealed a rise of 3 months per birth cohort (1929-1958) in the median age at grandp…
Convergence or Continuity? The Gender Gap in Household Labor After Retirement
This research examined 2 hypotheses about the effect of retirement on couples' division of household labor. The continuity hypothesis posits that the gender gap in household labor remains unaffected by retirement, whereas the convergence hypothesis expects it to close. The authors tested these hypotheses using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (N = 1,302 couples). Fixed effects models revealed that male breadwinners dou…
Who becomes a grandparent - and when? Educational differences in the chances and timing of grandparenthood
Despite recent advances, the demographic understanding of grandparenthood remains limited
Partnersuche im Internet: Bildungsspezifische Mechanismen bei der Wahl von Kontaktpartnern
Educational Reproduction in Germany: A Prospective Study Based on Retrospective Data
This study examines educational reproduction of East and West German men and women born between 1930 and 1950. In a prospective design, we study the importance of mobility and fertility pathways of reproduction, considering not only the social reproduction of education as an attribute but also the demographic reproduction of individuals who carry this attribute. Using data from NEPS and SOEP, we introduce a method that estimates prospective model…
Is Social Inequality in School-Age Achievement Generated before or during Schooling? A European Perspective
Social gaps in children’s educational achievement emerge early in life and remain stable over schooling. Does social origin constantly shape achievement or is social inequality in school just an echo of inequality settled before schooling? We extend the previous research by studying the origins of social gaps in language achievement among primary-school students in Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Based on dynamic accounts of ski…
Do Interviewers Manipulate Responses to Filter Questions? Evidence from a Multilevel Approach
First published online: 2 September 2014
Childcare utilisation by migration background: Evidence from a nationally representative Irish cohort study
Scholarship has highlighted the potentially equalising effects of early childhood education and care (ECEC), which may be particularly relevant for children living in immigrant households. However, it is crucial to consider which children are more likely to experience certain types of care. Drawing on recent, nationally representative, longitudinal data from Ireland (N = 7516), this paper presents new evidence on how childcare choices differ betw…
Conditions and Consequences of Unequal Educational Opportunities in the Life Course: Results from the Cross-National Comparative eduLife Project
Retirement and Changes in Housework: A Panel Study of Dual Earner Couples
Although the findings on changes after retirement support the time availability hypothesis, gender construction theories still take precedence in explaining the division of household labor over the life course
Children of Separation: An International Profile
This study offers a comprehensive international overview of children from separated families across 13 countries, with an emphasis on the European context. We investigate changes in the number of children experiencing parental separation over birth cohorts (1960-1989) and changes in their social composition using data from the Generations and Gender Survey and official statistics. Results on absolute numbers highlight the impact of demographic sh…
Partnerwahl als konsensuelle Entscheidung: Das Antwortverhalten bei Erstkontakten im Online-Dating
Structural opportunities or assortative mating? – Decomposing trends and country differences in educational sorting outcomes in marriages
This study examines within- and cross-country trends and differences in marital sorting by education in Europe. Unlike previous research on assortative mating, our study focuses on the outcomes of the partner search process. We investigate how variations in (a) structural opportunities (educational composition of potential partners) and (b) assortative mating (non-random matching by education) have shaped trends and differences in educational sor…
Decomposing trends in educational homogamy and heterogamy - The case of Ireland
Employing Irish Census microdata, we analyze trends in educational homogamy and heterogamy between 1991 and 2016 and examine how they can be explained by concurrent trends in three theoretically relevant socio-demographic components - (a) educational attainment, (b) the educational gradient in marriage, and (c) educational assortative mating (i.e., non-random matching). Our study proposes a novel counterfactual decomposition method to estimate th…
Academic achievement gaps by migration background at school starting age in Ireland
In today’s increasingly diverse societies, a key question is how to foster the structural integration of immigrants and their descendants. While research indicates that migrant educational underachievement is a serious issue, relatively little is known about achievement gaps at younger ages and in relatively new immigration countries. The current study sets out to estimate the size of disparities by migration background at age five (i.e. when the…
The Role of Schooling in Equalizing Achievement Disparity by Migrant Background
Does schooling equalize achievement disparities among students with and without a migrant background? This question remains largely unanswered in sociology. We hypothesized that children of migrants would benefit more from schooling, thereby making schools engines of educational integration. Our study tests this hypothesis in the context of German primary schooling using data from the National Educational Panel Study. We compared the achievements…
Partnersuche im Internet: Bildungsspezifische Mechanismen bei der Wahl von Kontaktpartnern
Partnerwahl als konsensuelle Entscheidung: Das Antwortverhalten bei Erstkontakten im Online-Dating
Who Contacts Whom? Educational Homophily in Online Mate Selection
Data from an online dating platform are used to study the importance of education for initiating and replying to online contacts. We analyse how these patterns are influenced by educational homophily and opportunity structures. Social exchange theory and mate search theory are used to explain online mate selection behaviour. Our results show that educational homophily is the dominant mechanism in online mate choice. Similarity in education signif…
Do Interviewers Manipulate Responses to Filter Questions? Evidence from a Multilevel Approach
First published online: 2 September 2014
Gender and the Division of Labor in Older Couples: How European Grandparents Share Market Work and Childcare
Grandmothers provide far more childcare than grandfathers do. The present study investigated whether, and to what extent, this gender gap was explained by grandparent couples’ division of labor into market work and childcare. The analysis was based on panel data from two waves of the SHARE, comprising respondents from 10 European countries. Linear regression models yielded four main findings. First, the average trade-off between hours of market w…
The Demography of Grandparenthood: An International Profile
This comparative study addressed three open questions about the demography of grandparenthood in contemporary societies: First, at what age do people become grandparents? Second, how is grandparenthood sequenced with other transitions in later life? Third, how long is the grandparent life stage? To answer these questions, we analyzed retrospective data from the United States (NSFH) and 24 European countries (GGS, ESS, DEAS). Using survival method…
Convergence or Continuity? The Gender Gap in Household Labor After Retirement
This research examined 2 hypotheses about the effect of retirement on couples' division of household labor. The continuity hypothesis posits that the gender gap in household labor remains unaffected by retirement, whereas the convergence hypothesis expects it to close. The authors tested these hypotheses using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (N = 1,302 couples). Fixed effects models revealed that male breadwinners dou…
The Delay of Grandparenthood: A Cohort Comparison in East and West Germany
This research explored the delay of grandparenthood in East and West Germany, investigating how the timing and life-course context of this transition have changed across cohorts. The authors estimated the timing of passages into the grandparent role as well as demographic overlap with worker, parent, and filial roles. Data from the German Aging Survey (N = 3,628) revealed a rise of 3 months per birth cohort (1929-1958) in the median age at grandp…
Models of Secondary Education and Social Inequality: An International Comparison
Retirement and Changes in Housework: A Panel Study of Dual Earner Couples
Although the findings on changes after retirement support the time availability hypothesis, gender construction theories still take precedence in explaining the division of household labor over the life course
Who becomes a grandparent - and when? Educational differences in the chances and timing of grandparenthood
Despite recent advances, the demographic understanding of grandparenthood remains limited
Explaining Gender Convergence in Housework Time: Evidence from a Cohort-Sequence Design
This study connects two lines of research—trend studies on social change in housework time and life-course studies on individual- and couple-level change in housework time. This novel approach allowed us to link the macro-level trend of gender convergence in housework time to the micro-level mechanisms underlying it. Using long-running panel data (SOEP), we implemented a cohort-sequence design that followed two birth cohorts (1960 and 1975) of We…
Gender Convergence in Housework Time: A Life Course and Cohort Perspective
Knowledge about gender convergence in housework time is confined to changes studied across repeated cross-sections of data. This study adds a dynamic view that links broader social shifts in men’s and women’s housework time to individual life-course profiles. Using panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (1985–2015), our analysis is the first to trace changes in housework time across the entire adult life course (ages 20–90) and acr…
Conditions and Consequences of Unequal Educational Opportunities in the Life Course: Results from the Cross-National Comparative eduLife Project
Socioeconomic Inequality in Children’s Achievement from Infancy to Adolescence: The Case of Germany
When in children’s lives do gaps by family socioeconomic status (SES) in cognitive skills emerge, how large are they before children enter school, and how do they develop over schooling? We study the evolution of achievement gaps by parental education from birth to adolescence in Germany. We exploit data from fifty-seven tests taken from the age of seven months to sixteen years by the National Educational Panel Study. Because Germany has one of t…
Educational Reproduction in Germany: A Prospective Study Based on Retrospective Data
This study examines educational reproduction of East and West German men and women born between 1930 and 1950. In a prospective design, we study the importance of mobility and fertility pathways of reproduction, considering not only the social reproduction of education as an attribute but also the demographic reproduction of individuals who carry this attribute. Using data from NEPS and SOEP, we introduce a method that estimates prospective model…
Advantage 'Finds Its Way: How Privileged Families Exploit Opportunities in Different Systems of Secondary Education
This article discusses key findings from eduLIFE, a cross-national project that examined the emergence of social inequalities in 17 countries characterized by different models of secondary education. First, we build upon existing international studies and propose a broader classification of forms of differentiation in secondary education. Second, we elaborate a fourfold typology of secondary education systems. Third, we provide a longitudinal and…
Does Schooling Decrease Socioeconomic Inequality in Early Achievement? A Differential Exposure Approach
Does schooling affect socioeconomic inequality in educational achievement? Earlier studies based on seasonal comparisons suggest schooling can equalize social gaps in learning. Yet recent replication studies have given rise to skepticism about the validity of older findings. We shed new light on the debate by estimating the causal effect of 1st-grade schooling on achievement inequality by socioeconomic family background in Germany. We elaborate a…
How do institutional factors shape PhD completion rates? An analysis of long-term changes in a European doctoral program
Our paper adds to a growing literature of doctoral training by studying factors that drive time-to-completion based on a new and unique data set from an international European graduate school. While previous research focused on individual factors, we inspect the role of institutional factors and the organization of PhD programs for PhD completion. Based on a theoretical model, we elaborate hypotheses on three sets of institutional factors for the…
Academic achievement gaps by migration background at school starting age in Ireland
In today’s increasingly diverse societies, a key question is how to foster the structural integration of immigrants and their descendants. While research indicates that migrant educational underachievement is a serious issue, relatively little is known about achievement gaps at younger ages and in relatively new immigration countries. The current study sets out to estimate the size of disparities by migration background at age five (i.e. when the…
Is Social Inequality in School-Age Achievement Generated before or during Schooling? A European Perspective
Social gaps in children’s educational achievement emerge early in life and remain stable over schooling. Does social origin constantly shape achievement or is social inequality in school just an echo of inequality settled before schooling? We extend the previous research by studying the origins of social gaps in language achievement among primary-school students in Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Based on dynamic accounts of ski…
Childcare utilisation by migration background: Evidence from a nationally representative Irish cohort study
Scholarship has highlighted the potentially equalising effects of early childhood education and care (ECEC), which may be particularly relevant for children living in immigrant households. However, it is crucial to consider which children are more likely to experience certain types of care. Drawing on recent, nationally representative, longitudinal data from Ireland (N = 7516), this paper presents new evidence on how childcare choices differ betw…
The development of host language achievement gaps by migration background during primary school: A path model of educational inequalities
Education is key to the structural integration of immigrants and their children. While research indicates that educational inequalities by migration background are a serious issue, relatively little is known about when, how and why they develop. The current paper adds to the literature by investigating to what extent achievement gaps by migration background develop during the primary school period. Drawing on data from a national longitudinal stu…
Children of Separation: An International Profile
This study offers a comprehensive international overview of children from separated families across 13 countries, with an emphasis on the European context. We investigate changes in the number of children experiencing parental separation over birth cohorts (1960-1989) and changes in their social composition using data from the Generations and Gender Survey and official statistics. Results on absolute numbers highlight the impact of demographic sh…
Decomposing trends in educational homogamy and heterogamy - The case of Ireland
Employing Irish Census microdata, we analyze trends in educational homogamy and heterogamy between 1991 and 2016 and examine how they can be explained by concurrent trends in three theoretically relevant socio-demographic components - (a) educational attainment, (b) the educational gradient in marriage, and (c) educational assortative mating (i.e., non-random matching). Our study proposes a novel counterfactual decomposition method to estimate th…
Sociology (25 works) · Psychology (20 works) · Economics (18 works) · Demographic economics (17 works) · Demography (14 works) · Geography (12 works) · Political science (12 works) · Developmental psychology (11 works) · Economic growth (10 works) · Population (9 works)