Population Association of America Annual Meeting 2016

31 March - 2 April 2016 - CPC Members attended the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, in Washington DC.

CPC Members were delighted to have the opportunity to present a range of papers and posters to a large audience, of over 2,000 PAA members including demographers, sociologists, economists and public health professionals, in the United States, and also to take part in sessions as discussants.

Here is a flavour of some of the 17 presentations CPC staff made at the conference:

Jane Falkingham and Maria Evandrou presented the paper 'Help Me to Help You? Reciprocity Between Adult Children and Older Parents over the Lifecourse'. The paper examines the effect of receiving help from your parents in early adulthood, on the chances of you supporting your parents in later life. The results show that you are more likely to help your parents in later life if they supported you as a young adult. Although where higher levels of care is given in later life, children (especially daughters) are influenced more by the altruistic responsibility to provide help than whether the parent gave them help as a young adult. These findings, which can be seen in full in our Working Paper, are of particular interest to those who want to understand more about population ageing and changes in policy around health and social care provision.

'"Does Marriage Matter?" Revisited: The Fertility, Mortality and Stability of the Swedish 1989 Marriage Boom Cohort'. In Sweden there is little difference legally and socially between marriage and long-term cohabitation. However in 1989 a policy change caused a three-fold increase in marriages. In this paper Jennifer Holland and Brienna Perelli-Harris compare the cohort who married in 1989 with cohorts who married prior to and after the policy change to see if marriage increases relationship stability, childbearing and mortality rates. This work leads on from previous work done by CPC which you can read here.

Ann Berrington's paper 'Understanding Childlessness from a Prospective Life Course Perspective: Unrealised Intentions and Subsequent Interpretations of Childlessness' looks at the reasons behind childlessness in the UK. The study , which can be found here, observed those who were yet to have children by age 42, these participants were then invited to give their reasons for remaining childless. Of those who responded, very few said they had not had children due to their career, which is contrary to many assumptions made in the media. This paper takes into account partnership history and investigates if postponing childbearing is the cause for an increase in childlessness.

'Comparing the Benefits of Cohabitation and Marriage for Health and Happiness in Mid-Life: Is the Relationship Similar Across Countries?' In this paper Brienna Perelli-Harris and her team have sought to understand if there is a difference in the health and life satisfaction of those who are in a long-term marriage and long term co-habiting couples. This study, which looked at data from several countries, found that those in a marriage rated themselves as happier and healthier than co-habiting people in countries where cohabitation is less regulated. More about this topic can be found in our Briefing Paper 'Is marriage or cohabitation better for mental well-being?'

'Ethnic Differences in Returning Home: Explanations from a Life Course Perspective'. Ann Berrington discussed her research with Tom Kleinepier and Lenny Stoelsraijer on returning home among young adults in Holland. The research compares the experience of the native Dutch population with second generation migrants finding that native Dutch adults were less likely than second-generation groups to return home. Differences were also discovered between migrant groups, with Turkish and Moroccan young adults less likely to return home due to a relationship break-up.

'The Fluidity of Children's Living Arrangement and the Impact on Their Caregiving Dynamics in Communities with High HIV Prevalence in South Africa'. This paper finds that more than 90% of children in rural South Africa experienced a minimum of one change in who their primary caregiver was between 2008 and 2012. A smaller proportion of children experienced multiple changes in their primary caregiver. It is thought that these finding may be due to a high level of adult migration for work purposes along with the HIV epidemic. These results highlight difficulties for policy makers and programmes trying to identify children's caregivers.

A list of all session involving CPC Members can be seen here

For further details of the programme, including details of specific sessions please see the Population Association of America 2016 Annual Meeting website.

Posted 24/03/2016 20:26