Networked lives: Probing the influence of social networks on the life course

Social network research is well-equipped to help life course scholars produce a deeper and more nuanced approach to the principle of "linked lives," one of the cornerstones of the field. In this issue on Networked Lives, nine original articles and two commentaries generate new theories, empirical findings and methodological applications at the intersection of the fields of social networks and life course research. In this introduction, we reflect on these advances, highlighting key findings and challenges that await scholars in building more robust synergy between the two fields. Social networks emerge as key structural forces in life courses, yet there is much to learn about the mechanisms through which their effects on people's lives come about. There is a need to study further how networks evolve through the rhythm of life events, and to analyze broader and more complex networks that capture the roles and influences of relations beyond intimate or family ties. These papers demonstrate that there is much to be gained in probing how individuals are linked to and unlinked from others over time, and in carrying conceptual and methodological advances across social network and life course studies.

"Unlinked lives": Elaboration of a concept and its significance for the life course

This article introduces the concept of "unlinked lives" and illustrates its significance for scholarship on the life course. There are many lessons to be learned about human interdependence by focusing not on relationships that are formed and then maintained, but instead on relationships that are lost or ended by choice or circumstance, such as through changes in institutional affiliations, social status and positions or places. Unlinked lives carry important social meanings, are embedded in complex social processes, and bring consequences for the wellbeing of individuals, families, and societies. To develop this concept, we put forward nine key propositions related to when and how unlinkings happen as processes, as well as some of the consequences of being unlinked as a status or outcome. The coupling of "unlinked lives" with "linked lives" offers a crucial avenue for advancing life course theories and research, integrating scholarship across multiple life periods and transitions, and bridging the two now-distinct traditions of intellectual inquiry on the life course and on social networks.

Revisiting the caregiver stress process: Does family caregiving really lead to worse mental health outcomes?

While the act of caregiving is often characterized as a stressful experience detrimental to mental health, recent studies are challenging this view by reporting robust health and well-being benefits linked to family caregiving. The current study attempted to provide an explanation of this apparent paradox by focusing on the role played by family health problems in the association between being a caregiver and mental health. Framed within the life course perspective and focusing on caregiving provided to aging mothers, the current study aimed 1) to demonstrate how the linkage between caregiving and depression reported in earlier studies may be misleading and 2) to further investigate whether caregiving to an aging mother may lead to any mental health benefits. Using longitudinal data drawn from the nationally representative US Health and Retirement Study, I follow adult children 50 and older who had a living mother during the observation period (N = 4812; 18,442 person-wave observations). A series of within-between random effects models were estimated to explicate how health conditions of aging mothers (i.e., disability and dementia) and caregiving transitions of adult children were associated with changes in depressive symptoms of adult children. Findings demonstrated that caregiving transitions were unrelated to depressive symptoms among adult children once the model controlled for the confounding effects of having their mother experience disability and dementia. Further, caregiving behavior was found to buffer the direct detrimental effect of maternal disability on adult children's depressive symptoms. This study adds to the growing body of research that cautions against characterizing caregiving as a chronic stressor detrimental to mental health and further echoes earlier calls for a more balanced portrayal of caregiving in policy reports and research literature.

Offspring hospitalization for substance use and changes in parental mental health: A Finnish register-based study

Prior research indicates that parental psychiatric disorders increase their offspring's risk of substance use problems. Though the association is likely bidirectional, the effects of an adult child's substance use on parental mental health remain understudied. We examined parents' psychotropic medication use trajectories by parental sex and educational attainment before and after a child's alcohol- or narcotics-attributable hospitalization. We identified Finnish residents, born 1979-1988, with a first hospitalization for substance use during emerging adulthood (ages 18-29, n = 12,851). Their biological mothers (n = 12,283) and/or fathers (n = 10,765) were followed for the two years before and after the hospitalization. Psychotropic medication use was measured in three-month periods centered around the time of child's hospitalization, and the probability of psychotropic medication use at each time point was assessed using generalized estimating equations logit models. Among mothers, the prevalence of psychotropic medication use increased during the year before, peaked during the 0-3 months after hospitalization, and remained at a similarly elevated level until the end of follow-up. The prevalence among fathers increased gradually and linearly across follow-up, with minimal changes evident either directly before or after the hospitalization. Parents' educational attainment did not modify these trajectories. Our results highlight the importance of considering linked lives when quantifying substance use-attributable harms and underscore the need for future research examining the intergenerational spillover effects of substance use in both directions, particularly in mother-child dyads.

The impact of hearing loss on trajectories of depressive symptoms in married couples

Hearing loss is a prevalent chronic stressor among older adults and is associated with numerous adverse health outcomes. The life course principle of linked lives highlights that an individual's stressors can impact the health and well-being of others; however, there are limited large-scale studies examining hearing loss within marital dyads. Using 11 waves (1998-2018) of the Health and Retirement Study (n = 4881 couples), we estimate age-based mixed models to examine how 1) one's own hearing, 2) one's spouse's hearing, or 3) both spouses' hearing influence changes in depressive symptoms. For men, their wives' hearing loss, their own hearing loss, and both spouses having hearing loss are associated with increased depressive symptoms. For women, their own hearing loss and both spouses having hearing loss are associated with increased depressive symptoms, but their husbands' hearing loss is not. The connections between hearing loss and depressive symptoms within couples are a dynamic process that unfolds differently by gender over time.

Nest leaver or home stayer? Sibling influence on parental home leaving in the United Kingdom

Studies have suggested that the timing of leaving one's parental home can be influenced by a number of factors, such as gender, educational background, and parental characteristics. However, despite empirical evidence showing that siblings may influence one another's life course decisions, intragenerational effects on leaving home have not been adequately studied. In this study, we investigated the extent to which an event of a sibling leaving is associated with one's decision to leave the parental home and how demographic sibling characteristics may impact on the association. We also tested whether the number of siblings who left the parental home first is related to one's timing of leaving. Using data from "Understanding Society: The U.K. Household Longitudinal Study", we studied the process of leaving the parental home among 22,719 children and their siblings. The results indicated a positive relationship between leaving of a sibling and the own event of leaving. When siblings are brothers and have a small age gap, and when the nest-leaving sibling is older than the at-risk children, this relationship is even stronger. Finally, the more nest-leaving siblings one has, the less likely one is to stay at home. The findings provide evidence for cross-sibling effects on parental home leaving, underscoring the role of intragenerational associations with respect to life course events.

The Negative Impact of Adult Children's Marital Dissolution on Older Parents' Mental Health in South Korea

OBJECTIVE

Little is known about whether and the extent children's marital dissolution deteriorates older parents' mental health. This study examines the association of children's marital dissolution with parents' mental health, and whether children's gender and intergenerational contact and support moderate such an association in South Korea, where family lives are strongly linked under the Confucian collectivistic legacy.

METHODS

We apply fixed effects models on 15,584 parent-child dyads nested in 5,673 older parents (45-97 years in Wave 1) participating in the four waves of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA), conducted from 2006 to 2012.

RESULTS

In South Korea, a son's transition to marital dissolution is associated with higher levels of parents' depressive symptoms. Frequent parent-son contacts of at least once a week, living with a son, and increasing financial transfers from parents to a son tend to reduce the negative association of the son's marital dissolution with parents' depressive symptoms.

DISCUSSION

The findings imply that a son's transition to marital dissolution, as a later-life stressor, is detrimental to parents' mental health in a patrilineal Asian cultural context. The study also highlights the importance of intergenerational bonding in mitigating the negative impact of children's marital dissolution upwardly transmitted to their older parents.

Debt Problem of One Partner and Depressive Morbidity in the Other: A 2-Year Follow-up Register Study of Different-Sex Couples in Sweden

This study sets out to examine whether depressive morbidity varies by status of financial indebtedness of a spouse or cohabiting partner. For this purpose, individuals aged between 20 and 60 with a different-sex spouse/cohabiting partner with a registration date for a debt at the Swedish Enforcement Authority (SEA) during 2017 (n = 6979) are followed-up for a 2-year period for prescriptions of antidepressants and compared with a sample from the general Swedish population (n = 29,708). The analysis is based on penalized maximum likelihood logistic regressions. Both women and men were more likely to suffer from depressive morbidity if the spouse/cohabiting partner had been registered at the SEA in 2017 and was still active for a debt in the SEA's register in 2018 (OR 1.31 and OR 1.57, respectively), irrespective of their own health, employment, socioeconomic status, and other background variables. This also held true for men if a wife/cohabiting partner had been registered at the SEA in 2017 but was no longer active for a debt in the SEA's register in 2018 (OR 1.29). For women, on the other hand, only those with no history (11-year period) of prescription of psychotropic medications were also at an enhanced risk of depressive morbidity if a husband/cohabiting partner had gone from being registered for a debt at the SEA in 2017, to not being registered as active for a debt in the SEA's register in 2018 (OR 1.24). The results reinforce the importance of acknowledging that negative effects of financial indebtedness extend beyond the individual debtor.

Take a sad song and make it better: Spousal activity limitations, caregiving, and depressive symptoms among couples

OBJECTIVES

Framed around key concepts of the life course perspective, we examined the linkages between spousal activity limitations, caregiving transitions, and depression among married couples. The key study objectives were 1) to demonstrate how the caregiving-depression link widely reported in earlier research may have been over-stated, and 2) to investigate whether caregiving yields mental health benefits by weakening the link between spousal activity limitations and depressive symptoms.

METHODS

We used longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (2004-2016) to examine a national sample of coupled individuals (6,475 couples; 57,844 person-wave observations). A series of longitudinal actor-partner interdependence models were used to estimate within-person associations between spousal activity limitations, caregiving transitions, and depressive symptoms among coupled individuals.

RESULTS

Findings demonstrated that spousal activity limitations function as a confounder for the association between caregiving transitions and depressive symptoms. Results further provided evidence that transitioning into a caregiving role in the context of spousal activity limitations alleviated symptoms of depression for the caregiver.

CONCLUSION

The findings provide an explanation for the extended longevity benefit reaped by caregivers increasingly reported in recent population studies. Implications for policy, practice, and future research are discussed.

Health shocks and couples' labor market participation: A turning point or stuck in the trajectory?

A health shock can have lasting consequences for the employment of not only the individuals experiencing it, but also their spouses. In this article, we complement the individual approach to the impact of health shocks with a dyadic perspective and show how employment opportunities and restrictions within couples are interdependent in the face of severe illness. We investigate whether the association between male spouses' health shocks and couples' employment trajectories depends on household specialization and both spouses' education. Multichannel sequence analysis is applied to retrospective life-course data from the Survey for Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe for couples with health shocks and their matched controls (N = 1022). By identifying typical employment trajectories, we find that health shocks are negatively associated with trajectories where both spouses continue in full-time employment and positively with trajectories where the man retires while the woman continues working and where both spouses retire simultaneously. Couples' trajectories differ according to the spouses' combined education levels. Findings suggest that health shocks may exacerbate economic inequalities within and between couples.

Do children influence their mothers' decisions? Early child development and maternal employment entries after birth

This study investigates whether early child development influences mothers' decisions regarding when to return to the labor market in Germany. Previous research has examined how institutional, individual and household factors affect maternal work interruption durations after childbirth. This study extends the literature by focusing on the impact of children on mothers' return-to-work behavior after childbirth and by examining mechanisms that might explain this impact. The study builds on data from NEPS Starting Cohort 1, the first large-scale newborn panel study in Germany, which provides measures on four different aspects of early child development, sensorimotor skills, habituation, regulatory capacity and negative affectivity, as well as information on mothers' labor market behavior and household settings. The analytical sample consists of 2,548 mothers with valid child information and contains data from the first four panel waves of the study until the child is 3 years old. The results from discrete-time event history models indicate a differentiated pattern of effects of child development indicators: higher sensorimotor skills and lower regulatory capacity are weakly associated with earlier maternal employment, while habituation and negative affectivity are unrelated to mothers' work behavior. Effects are the strongest among mothers returning to part-time work and among those with a medium level of education.

Childhood family structure and complexity in partnership life courses

This study investigated the associations between childhood living arrangements and complex adult partnership trajectories. The authors defined first union dissolution as the event initiating a complex partnership life course, and measured the level of complexity using a weighted cumulative index of subsequent partnership episodes. The analyses were based on a representative sample of the German population born in 1971-73 from the German Family Panel and used multivariate hurdle models to estimate the probability of experiencing the initiation of a complex partnership trajectory, as well as the level of complexity. Results showed that respondents who did not grow up with both biological parents (i.e. those who experienced an alternative family structure) had both a greater likelihood of experiencing the dissolution of their own first union, and followed more complex subsequent partnership trajectories. These associations varied across types of (alternative) family structures experienced during childhood and according to the level of parental partnership (in)stability. This study contributes to our understanding of contemporary partnership complexity and its precursors using a long term life course theoretical and methodological frame. We acknowledge that continuities and disruptions in the development of adult (complex) partnership trajectories can be linked to a growing diversity of family structure in childhood. Thereby, we expand knowledge on intergenerational interdependencies of family instability and complexity beyond the reproduction of the event of union dissolution.

Does Children's Union Dissolution Hurt Elderly Parents? Linked Lives, Divorce and Mental Health in Europe

Previous research has shown that parent's union dissolution has negative consequences for individuals' well-being, parent-child relationships and children's outcomes. However, less attention has been devoted to the effects in the opposite direction, i.e. how children's divorce affects parents' well-being. We adopted a cross-country, longitudinal and multigenerational perspective to analyse whether children's marital break-up is associated with changes in parents' depressive symptoms. Using data from 17 countries and 5 waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (2004-2015), fixed effect linear regression models were estimated to account for time-constant social selection processes into divorce/separation. The results show that across European contexts parents' depressive symptoms increased as one of their children divorced. Furthermore, we found that parents living in more traditional societies, such as Southern European ones, experienced higher increases in depression symptoms when a child divorced than those living in Nordic countries. Overall, the findings provide new evidence in support of both the notion of "linked lives" and a normative perspective of family life course events.

Geographical Distances Between Separated Parents: A Longitudinal Analysis

Using detailed geocoded microdata from the British Household Panel Survey and longitudinal random-effects models, we analyse the determinants and trajectories of geographical distances between separated parents. Findings of particular note include the following: (1) post-separation linked lives, proximities and spatial constraints are characterised by important gender asymmetries; (2) the formation of new post-separation family ties (i.e. new partners and children) by fathers is linked to moves over longer distances away from the ex-partner than for mothers; (3) the distribution of pre-separation childcare responsibilities is relevant for determining post-separation proximity between parents; and (4) most variation in the distance between ex-partners occurs in the immediate period following separation (approximately the first year), suggesting that the initial conditions around separation can have long-lasting implications for the types of family life, ties and contact experienced in the years after separation.

Racial/Ethnic Discrimination and Mental Health in Mexican-Origin Youths and Their Parents: Testing the "Linked Lives" Hypothesis

PURPOSE

Using a life course perspective, the present study tested the concept of "linked lives" applied to the problem of not only how racial/ethnic discrimination may be associated with poor mental health for the target of discrimination but also how discrimination may exacerbate the discrimination-distress link for others in the target's social network-in this case, the family.

METHODS

The discrimination-distress link was investigated among 269 Mexican-origin adolescents and their parents both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. It was hypothesized that parents' discrimination experiences would adversely affect their adolescent children's mental health via a moderating effect on the target adolescent discrimination-distress link. The converse was also hypothesized for the target parents. Multilevel moderation analyses were conducted to test the moderating effect of parents' discrimination experiences on the youth discrimination-distress link. We also tested the moderating effect of youths' discrimination experiences on the parent discrimination-distress link.

RESULTS

Parents' discrimination experiences significantly moderated the longitudinal association between youths' discrimination stress appraisals and mental health, such that the father's discrimination experiences exacerbated the youth discrimination-depression link. Youths' discrimination stress appraisals were not a significant moderator of the cross-sectional parent discrimination-mental health association.

CONCLUSIONS

Implications of these findings are discussed from a linked lives perspective, highlighting how fathers' discrimination experiences can adversely affect youths who are coping with discrimination, in terms of their mental health.

Parental health limitations, caregiving and loneliness among women with widowed parents: longitudinal evidence from France

We investigate how daughters' feelings of loneliness are impacted when widowed parents develop health limitations, and when daughters take on personal care tasks in response. Using longitudinal data from daughters of widowed parents drawn from the French Family and Intergenerational Relationships Study (ERFI, 1485 observations nested in 557 daughters), we assess (a) whether health limitations of widowed parents are associated with daughters' feelings of loneliness regardless of whether or not daughters provide personal care and (b) whether there is an effect of care provision on loneliness that cannot be explained by parental health limitations. Fixed effect regression analyses show that widowed parents' health limitations were associated with raised feelings of loneliness among their daughters. No significant additional effect of providing personal care to a widowed parent was found. Prior research on the impact of health limitations of older parents on the lives of their adult-children has focused mostly on issues related to informal caregiving. Our findings suggest that more attention to the psychosocial impact of parental health limitations-net of actual caregiving-on adult children's lives is warranted.