Title Participants Abstract "The effects of adult children's gender composition on the care type and care network of ageing parents" "Zeynep Batur Van Liempt, Jorik Vergauwen, Dimitri Mortelmans" "Although the literature on informal care-giving for older parents shows that daughters have a higher tendency to provide care compared with sons, only a few studies have focused on the gender composition of all children or parents’ entire range of care options. Our study examines the effect of children's gender composition on informal and formal care types, as well as the informal care network. Using data from the 2015 Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (N = 40,312), we found that parents with daughters tended to use less formal care because daughters take on additional informal care-giving responsibilities. Daughters were the main care-givers among parents’ informal care networks. Further analysis indicated that daughters-in-law play an important role in the care-giving process when parents have only sons. We concluded that the presence of a daughter among the children reduces the use of formal care. The results indicated that children's gender composition is an important factor in explaining the allocation of informal care to parents." "Children's opportunities and constraints in European parent care over time" "Jorik Vergauwen" "The role of children's caregiving has received substantial attention in studies on care in old age. Previous research shows that children’s care provision is strongly intertwined with both their individual and siblings’ situation regarding employment and geographic parent-child distance. This study uses data from six waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), taking a within-family approach, to examine how caregiving is (re-)distributed between siblings over time. The provision of continuous parent care is observed more frequent and volatile in European countries with a family-based care system. The results from family fixed-effects regression models demonstrate that children working less than siblings persist in caregiving more. Living closest to parents facilitates children to keep up care efforts, while changing to living closest enhances the start of parent care. This study suggests that geographic distance is vital in the long-term organization of parent care between siblings." "Experiencing work-family enrichment as a separated parent in Australia" "Annelies Van den Eynde, Dimitri Mortelmans" "Contrary to approaching work and family as conflictual roles, a shift towards acknowledgement of the positive interaction between work and family has been detected. This research investigated whether married/cohabiting and divorced/separated parents differ in terms of work-family enrichment, considering their gender and relationship status after separation. Data from 3993 married/cohabiting and 1455 divorced/separated parents from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) database were analysed using regression analysis. The results revealed a complex interplay of relationship status and gender. Single mothers experience more work-family enrichment after a break-up than do mothers with a partner. No differences were found for fathers." "Navigating the theoretical landscape of loneliness research" "Haike Delafontaine, Dries Van Gasse, Dimitri Mortelmans" "Despite the relevance of loneliness to family scholarship, an attempt to integrate various perspectives on loneliness with relevant insights from loneliness research for understanding contemporary families has not yet been made. Although quantitative researchers have developed measures that have been fruitful in broadening insights about loneliness, they have failed to grasp its multidimensional and dynamic nature. Due to a shift in emphasis from lived experiences to correlational variables, loneliness research has been confronted with two particular problems. First, endeavors to refine previous conceptualizations of loneliness have stagnated. Second, research questions are scattered over a variety of disciplines. This article provides an integrated multidisciplinary theory from which becomes clear that a family focus is of great importance to all disciplines concerned with loneliness, because opportunities for social interaction, relational standards, and sources of loneliness depend on familial and developmental histories and the cultural orientation of the families in which individuals live." "Accepting social support in single-parent families in Belgium" "Dries Van Gasse, Dimitri Mortelmans" "Being one of the quintessential resources to bounce back from adversities, the complexities of social support in the context of transitions to single parenthood are seldom fully grasped. While many studies are limited by (quantitative) data on type and intensity of support received, in-depth qualitative data facilitates an understanding of the hurdles in the support exchange. In this study, we describe six hurdles single parents have to overcome and four perspectives single parents have of these hurdles. These results are based on a grounded theory study using 244 semistructured interviews with Flemish lone parents." "Verblijfsco-ouderschap in België" "Dimitri Mortelmans, Elke Claessens" "In vergelijking met de rest van Europa, maakte België een vroege start in het wettelijk prioriteren van verblijfsco-ouderschap. Tezamen met een maatschappelijke impuls richting het delen van de zorg voor kinderen en het onderhouden van betekenisvolle ouder-kind relaties, bracht dit een snelle popularisering op gang, waardoor België zich momenteel bij de Europese top bevindt wat betreft de prevalentie van verblijfsco-ouderschap. Ondanks het wetenschappelijk debat over de voor- en nadelen van verblijven bij beide ouders, wijst het overgrote deel van studiesop de voordelige uitkomsten van verblijfsco-ouderschap voor zowel kinderen als ouders. Hoewel de prevalentie zeker is toegenomen, is het echter nog geen absolute norm. De vraag rijst dan ook welke (praktische) beperkingen zich momenteel stellen in het succesvol delen van de zorg voor kinderen na een relatiebreuk. Deze studie brengt aan de hand van een profielanalyse op data van de European Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) kenmerken in kaart van huishoudens, ouders en kinderen met verblijfsco-ouderschap. De focus ligt op de positie van België tegenover andere landen en verblijsfco-ouderschapssituaties tegenover andere verblijfsregelingen. De resultaten wijzen, in lijn met het ruimere wetenschappelijke onderzoek, op het voortbestaan van een sociaaleconomische gradiënt, met een hogere sociaaleconomische status bij gezinnen met verblijfsco-ouderschap. In zoverre dat dit een uiting vormt van (praktische) belemmeringen, vormen deze bevindingen een belangrijk signaal voor het beleidsdiscours in het vergroten van de toegankelijkheid van verblijfsco-ouderschap en het ondersteunen van gezinnen in moeilijkere posities, teneinde het delen van de zorg voor kinderen na een relatiebreuk algemeen toegankelijker te maken." "An interplay of formal and informal care" "Benedikte Dekoker, Leen Heylen, Dimitri Mortelmans, Anja Declercq" "Defining and measuring singlehood in family studies" "Dimitri Mortelmans, Elke Claessens, Gert Thielemans" "Many authors have documented a global rise in singlehood during the past decades, expanding beyond Western or industrialized countries. Simultaneously, the number of single households is increasing, not only due to the aging of the population, but also because young adults are increasingly living solo. Whereas having no partner and solo living do not necessarily coincide, existing studies tend to overlook this distinction. In this paper, we provide conceptual clarity as to what types of singlehood can be distinguished, through a framework that builds on two dimensions: living solo and being partnered. Next, we delve into the issue of measurement. We illustrate the issues in implementing an extended singlehood framework to empirical data. To do so, we examine internationally comparative retrospective studies and prospective panel studies, and identify three levels of operationalization that current datasets achieve when identifying a redefined notion of singlehood." "Relationship dissolution among adults" "Dimitri Mortelmans" "The end of a marriage or cohabitation is an intrusive life course event witnessed within a substantial number of romantic relationships. The uncoupling of relationships has transformed the family lives of both adults and children in most Western countries for the past half-century. This chapter first looks into the phenomenon from a legal perspective delineating when a breakup is witnessed and registered. Next, we examine both the causes and the consequences of breakups. For antecedents of divorce, we focus on intergenerational inheritance of breakups, educational attainment, economic risk factors, personality, and health. We also touch upon protective factors in a relationship that decreases the risk of ending a relationship. When taking consequences into account, the chapter is limited to adults. The chapter describes the financial consequences of divorce, their health, networks and lone parenthood, and poverty after divorce. The chapter concludes with a prospect of the future of this field." "SBO-project Digital Ageing" "Ignace Glorieux, Dimitri Mortelmans, Anina Vercruyssen, Nico De Witte, An Jacobs, Werner Schirmer"