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AbstractContemporary adults often cite economic uncertainty, global warming, and increasing inequality as reasons for intending not to have children. Despite extensive research on the impact of societal pessimism on attitudes towards out‐group members, political preferences, and voting behaviors, its impact on demographic behaviors, such as fertility, has received little attention. This study examines the relationship between societal pessimism—captured through individuals' negative perception of the future of the next generation—and their likelihood of becoming a parent. Using data from the Dutch Longitudinal Internet studies for the Social Sciences (LISS), we use discrete‐time event history models to estimate the probability of becoming a parent in a given year based on respondents' self‐reported negative assessment of the future of the next generation in six distinct areas. Our results demonstrate that perceiving the future of the coming generation as worse than today is associated with a lower probability of becoming a parent. These findings suggest that surveys aimed at understanding fertility behaviors should incorporate questions about individuals' perceptions of the future, in addition to their own contemporaneous conditions.

AbstractObjectiveWe examined how adult (step)parent–child closeness is associated to the quality of other ties in the family network (i.e., parent–child dyads, parent–parent dyads).BackgroundAlthough stepfamily scholars often assume that there are associations between all dyads within a family unit, more research needs to examine this premise empirically.MethodWe used survey data on adult children and their relationships with mothers, fathers, stepfathers, and stepmothers (N = 1,022). Two methods—non‐recursive structural equation modeling (SEM), and cross‐lagged SEM—were applied to consider the bidirectionality between ties.ResultsThose who are close to their biological parent are often also close to the new partner/stepparent, which is interpreted as a household effect. Moreover, the tie between the divorced parents is strongly associated to father–child closeness but less to mother–child closeness. We also found that mother–stepmother closeness and stepmother–child closeness are correlated, as are father–stepfather closeness and stepfather–child closeness. Our findings suggested weak substitution between father–child and stepfather–child closeness (a small but significant negative association). Gender differences are visible, as ties between biological mothers and adult children seemed more independent of the family system than other parent–child ties.ConclusionsShifts in one (step)family dyad seem to create a spillover effect, also affecting other family dyads.ImplicationsFor family practitioners or counselors, it is more efficient to consider the embeddedness of parent–child closeness within the family system than to focus on one constituent member or dyad of the system.

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 1,487 Dutch adolescents. Results indicated that divorce sped up the transition to first relationship only when experienced in early adolescence. Findings are discussed in light of research on the heightened sensitivity to stress during transition periods such as the entry into adolescence.

We use representative longitudinal panel data from the Dutch European Values Survey (EVS) to study whether the COVID-19 pandemic shifted opinions about how a woman's full-time employment impacts family life. The data was collected before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2017 and in May 2020. The analysis focuses on groups whose unpaid and paid work situation changed abruptly with the COVID-19 pandemic: parents with coresident children, and those who experienced a change in paid workload that clashes with traditional gender role expectations, namely women whose workload increased and men whose workload decreased or who stopped working. We found that groups that faced an abrupt change in their paid and unpaid work routines that clashed with their previously held gender attitude changed their gender attitude in alignment with the new paid or unpaid work situation. For women in couple households with children, this meant that they saw a halt in their progression toward gender egalitarian attitudes. For those who experienced a change in paid workload that clashes with traditional gender role norms, it meant stronger progression toward gender egalitarian attitudes. The results are interpreted on the basis of cognitive dissonance theory and exposure theory and placed in the context of previous findings.