Virtually, all large-scale family surveys in the United States and Europe have yielded a positive view of family ties in contemporary societies. The present study examines whether surveys like these are affected by selective nonresponse. Are people with negative family ties less likely to participate in surveys, and if so, to what extent does this…

This study examined the association of friendships and popularity with adolescents' first-time involvement in a romantic relationship (referred to as romantic relationship debut). The aim of this article was twofold: first, to disentangle the unique effects of friendships and perceived popularity; second, to separate same- and cross-gender peer…

Objective: Parental divorce has strong impacts on children. Evidence-based programs to support young children after parental divorce are rare. The U.S.-developed Children of Divorce Intervention Program (CODIP) is one of these. CODIP's effectiveness outside the U.S. setting is to be further replicated. This study aimed at cultural adaptation of…

Objective: This study examined the influence of community unemployment and divorce rate on child help-seeking behavior about violence and relationships via a telephone and Internet helpline. Methods: Time series analysis was conducted on monthly call volumes to a child helpline ("De Kindertelefoon") in the Netherlands from 2003 to 2008…

We investigate which partner of a 2-gender couple moves out after separation. We test hypotheses on the impact of differences between the partners in the costs of moving out and resources, using data from the Divorce in the Netherlands survey (N = 1,537 ex-couples who separated between 1972 and 1998). Ex-partners initiating the separation were…

Over the last few decades, the role of children in conversations about post-divorce arrangements has become more prominent. Children are approached as active participants in the (post-)divorce process rather than just victims of matrimonial and post-matrimonial discord. In accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, children have…

This study examined the effect of parental divorce on the time it took adolescents to initiate their first romantic relationships. Individual differences in temperament and pubertal development and the age of the adolescent at the time of divorce were also taken into account. Hypotheses were tested using event history analysis with a sample of…

This study examines long-term effects of parental divorce on sibling relationships in adulthood and the role of predivorce parental conflict. It used large-scale retrospective data from the Netherlands that contain reports from both siblings of the sibling dyad. Results show limited effects of parental divorce on sibling contact and relationship…

We investigated how intergenerational congruence in family-related attitudes depends on life course stage in young adulthood. Recent data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study were used; the present sample included 2,041 dyads of young adults and their parents. Findings are discussed in terms of the elasticity in intergenerational attitude…

In this study, we investigated if the association between parental divorce and depressive symptoms changes during early adolescence and if developmental patterns are similar for boys and girls. Data were collected in a prospective population cohort of Dutch adolescents (N = 2,149), aged 10 - 15 years. Outcome variables were self-reported and…

There are well-known gender differences in the form and content of extended family relationships. This paper examines how fathers and mothers differ in the support they receive from children and how this depends on whether the parents divorce, become widow(er)s, enter a new relationship, and have new children. The guiding hypothesis is that…

In this article life history data from the U.S. National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), and the Dutch survey on Older Adults' Living Arrangements and Social Networks (NESTOR-LSN) are used to shed light on the various pathways leading to and associated with childlessness, and the proportions of men and women who have followed a…

Using survey data on 1,718 ever-divorced men and women in the Netherlands, the authors describe the motives people give for their divorce. The authors distinguish motives regarding three types of issues: relational issues, behavioral problems, and problems about work and the division of labor. They observe three important trends: the normalization…

Via a simultaneous analysis of different life course pathways (marital, occupational, and childbearing histories) and different outcomes, this article addresses the question When does childlessness matter in late life and how? Survey data from Amsterdam (N = 661) and Berlin, Germany (N = 516) are used. Lifelong childlessness results in smaller…

This study examines whether the financial and time pressures associated with spouses' working lives play a role in the relation between work and divorce during the first years of marriage. Using retrospective data from the Netherlands, the results show that divorce is more likely when the husband works on average fewer hours and the wife more…