Projects
Family dynamics and inequality
Project contributors: Berrington A, Stone J,
This Project is part of the following research programme/s:
Overview
This work is studying family dynamics and inequality in three ways:
Firstly, the team are using panel data from Understanding Society to examine the relationships between family dynamics and social inequality in the UK.
A second strand of the project uses Labour Force Survey data to examine the increasing inequalities faced by young adults as they make their transitions to adulthood in the context of austerity.
Finally, US scholars have argued that the increasing diversity in family dynamics, parenting structure and behaviour is fuelling the intergenerational transmission of poverty: In the US lower educated women are more at risk of entering a partnership at earlier ages, of experiencing non-marital childbearing, partnership dissolution and mulitpartnered fertility compared to higher educated women. Using a long time series of retrospective partnership and fertility histories, we investigate whether a similar divergence has taken place in Britain. This work is being carried out in collaboration with Eva Beaujouan and Maria Winkler-Dworak from the Vienna Institute for Demography.
Publications & Activities
Austerity and inequalities in transitions to adulthood
Housing in young adulthood: Changing choices, constraints and challenges (2017). (Places for People, London)
Authors: Berrington A,
Austerity, familialism, and conceptualisations as to the age at which adulthood is reached
EPC 2016 (2016). (Mainz, Germany)
Authors: Berrington A, Wakeling P, Duta A,
Child Poverty and Social Mobility: Lessons for Research and Policy
(2016).
What are the implications of increasing family diversity on children's life chances? How is family change influencing social inequality? A one day conference organised by CPC's Professor Ann Berrington and Dr Susan Harkness (University of Bath) explores the issues.
The conference brings together academics and decision makers to help improve our understanding of both the causes and consequences of declining social mobility and child poverty in Britain. Speakers will assess the influence that family change has on these trends and consider how best policy makers might now respond.
Berrington A, (2017) Chapter 3 - Childlessness in the UK in Childlessness in Europe: Patterns, Causes and Contexts
Springer, 57-76.
Cohabitation trends and patterns in the UK
ESRC Centre for Population Change (2015).
Authors: Berrington A, Stone J,
Commitment and the changing sequence of cohabitation, childbearing, and marriage: Insights from qualitative research in the UK
Demographic Research (2015). 33 (12) 327-362
Authors: Berrington A, Perelli-Harris B, Trevena P,
Diverging Expectations for Family Transitions in Young Adulthood Among UK Second Generation
PAA Annual Conference (2018). (Sheraton Denver Downtown)
Authors: Berrington A,
Education and Diverging Family Trajectories in Britain: New Insights From Microsimulation
European Consortium for Sociological Research (ECSR) 2016 Conference (2016). (University of Oxford)
Authors: Berrington A, Beaujouan E, Winkler-Dworak M,
Education and diverging family trajectories in Britain: new insights from microsimulation
EPC 2016 (2016). (Mainz, Germany)
Authors: Winkler-Dworak M, Beaujouan E, Berrington A, Spielauer M,
Ethnic Differences in Returning Home: Explanations from a Life Course Perspective
Population Association of America, Washington D.C., 2016 (2016). (Marriott Wardman Park, Washington D.C.)
Authors: Berrington A, Kleinepier L, Stoeldrijer L,
Ethnic differences in aspirations and realities in the transition to adulthood
BSPS 2017 conference (2017). (University of Liverpool)
Authors: Berrington A,
Ethnic differences in returning home: explanations from a life course perspective
Journal of Marriage and Family (2017). 79 (4) 1023-1040
Authors: Kleinepier T, Berrington A, Stoeldraijer L,
Expectations for family transitions in young adulthood among the UK second generation
University of Southampton, CPC (2018). Series Number: 89.
Authors: Berrington A,
Family building in the UK: Insights from combining retrospective and panel data
Workshop on Family Formation and Change (2016). (British Academy, London)
Authors: Stone J,
Housing and transition to higher order births in the UK
International Population Conference 2017 (2017). (Cape Town)
Authors: Berrington A, Stone J,
Income, welfare, housing and the transition to higher order births in the UK
University of Southampton, CPC (2017). Series Number: 86.
Authors: Stone J, Berrington A,
Individual Housing Circumstances, Local Housing Markets, and Progression to Higher Order Births in the UK
PAA Annual Conference (2018). (Sheraton Denver Downtown)
Authors: Stone J, Berrington A,
Inequalities in transitions to adulthood
Child Poverty and Social Mobility: Lessons for Research and Policy Family Change and Social Inequality workshop (2016). (University of Southampton)
Authors: Berrington A,
Understanding Childlessness from a Prospective Life Course Perspective: Unrealized Intentions and Subsequent Interpretations of Childlessness
Population Association of America, Washington D.C., 2016 (2016). (Marriott Wardman Park, Washington D.C.)
Authors: Berrington A,
Understanding changing partnership dynamics in the UK – a mixed method demographic approach
British Sociological Association Meeting on Romantic relationships in a time of ‘cold intimacies’ (2017). (Canterbury)
Authors: Berrington A,
Understanding the educational polarisation of family experiences in the UK
CED Seminar Series (2017). (CED Barcelona)
Authors: Berrington A,
Understanding third and fourth births in Britain: What role do increased immigration and multiple partnerships play?
Southampton, CPC (2017). Series Number: 83.
Authors: Berrington A, Stone J,
Media
European childlessness is on the rise Mercatornet. 2017
Ann Berrington's research on perpetual postponers is mentioned in an article on the mercatornet website.
If only more people could be like Whoopi Goldberg - and realise they don't need or want monogamy The Telegraph. 2017
Article posted by The Telegraph titled If only more people could be like Whoopi Goldberg - and realise they don't need or want monogamy mentions the Centre for Population Change.
Identikit of moms 2.0: always connected; they decide (and sometimes pay) for the whole family Dlifestyle website. 2016
Article on the Dlifestyle website (d.repubblica.it) titled "Identikit delle mamme 2.0:sempre connesse, decidono (e a volte pagano) per tutta la famiglia" which translates as "Identikit of moms 2.0: always connected, they decide (and sometimes pay) for the whole family" cites Agnese Vitali's research on breadwinner families.
Degree-educated women are having fewer children Financial Times. 2016
Letter titled "Degree-educated women are having fewer children" written on the Financial Times website by Hilary Phelps mentions Ann Berrington.
Forty and Fifty-somethings BBC Radio 4. 2016
Radio interview "Forty and Fifty-somethings" broadcast on BBC Radio 4 features Jane Falkingham and Ann Berrington.
Your Money and Your Life – Thirty-somethings BBC Radio 4. 2016
Ann Berrington was interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 Moneybox programme titled "Your Money and Your Life – Thirty-somethings" on BBC Radio 4.
Your Money and Your Life – Twenty-something BBC Radio 4. 2016
Ann Berrington was interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 Moneybox programme titled "Your Money and Your Life – Twenty-somethings" on BBC Radio 4.
Happy families? Male acceptance of equality in the home could define the future The Conversation. 2016
Article on The Conversation, "Happy families? Male acceptance of equality in the home could define the future"
The strange case of the missing baby The Economist. 2016
Article on The Economist online, "The strange case of the missing baby"
