Changing Families And Their Lifestyles (Mansholt)

Changing families and their lifestyles M a n sh o lt p u b l i c a t i o n se ri e s - Vo l u m e 5 Wageningen Academi...

Author: Hester Moerbeek | Anke Niehof | Johan van Ophem

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Changing families and their lifestyles

M a n sh o lt p u b l i c a t i o n se ri e s - Vo l u m e 5

Wageningen Academic P u b l i s h e r s

edited by: Hester Moerbeek Anke Niehof Johan van Ophem



edited by: Hester Moerbeek Anke Niehof Johan van Ophem

Mansholt publication series - Volume 5

Wageningen Academic P u b l i s h e r s

ISBN: 978-90-8686-051-7 e-ISBN: 978-90-8686-624-3 DOI: 10.3920/978-90-8686-624-3 ISSN 1871-9309 Illustration cover: Hans Borkent, Nusanet / East West Graphics First published, 2007 © Wageningen Academic Publishers The Netherlands, 2007

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned. Nothing from this publication may be translated, reproduced, stored in a computerised system or published in any form or in any manner, including electronic, mechanical, reprographic or photographic, without prior written permission from the publisher, Wageningen Academic Publishers, P.O. Box 220, 6700 AE Wageningen, the Netherlands, www.WageningenAcademic.com The individual contributions in this publication and any liabilities arising from them remain the responsibility of the authors. The publisher is not responsible for possible damages, which could be a result of content derived from this publication.

Mansholt Publication Series The Mansholt Publication Series (MPS) contains peer-reviewed textbooks, conference proceedings and thematic publications focussing on social changes and control processes in rural areas and (agri)food chains as well as the institutional contexts in which these changes and processes take place. MPS provides a platform for researchers and educators who would like to increase the quality, status and international exposure of their teaching materials or of their research output. The Series is named after Sicco Mansholt (1908-1995), who was Minister of Agriculture in The Netherlands from 1945 until 1958. From 1958 until 1972 he was Commissioner of Agriculture and Vice-President of the European Commission. MPS is supported by the Mansholt Graduate School of Social Sciences (MG3S) and CERES Research School for Resource Studies for Development. The quality and contents of the Series is monitored by an interdisciplinary editorial board. MPS is published and marketed internationally by Wageningen Academic Publishers. The Mansholt Publication Series editors are: Prof. Wim Heijman Prof. Kees de Hoog Dr. Arjen E.J. Wals Prof. Leontien Visser

Contents General introduction Hester Moerbeek, Anke Niehof and Johan van Ophem 1. Formation and dissolution of families 2. Stratification and inequality 3. Consumer and household behaviour 4. Leisure time 5. Hygiene, health and society References

15 16 17 19 20 21 22

Formation and dissolution of families Are the effects of different family forms on children’s educational performance related to the demographic characteristics and family policies of modern societies? Geetha Garib, Teresa Martin Garcia and Jaap Dronkers Abstract 1. Introduction 2. Relevant literature 3. Conceptual framework 4. Selection of countries for comparison 5. Method 6. Results 7. Conclusion and discussion References Appendix Farmer looking for a wife: marital behaviour of the farming population in nineteenth-century Netherlands Frans van Poppel, Peter Ekamper and Hanna van Solinge Abstract 1. Introduction 2. Marriage patterns and behaviour of historical populations: an overview of the literature 3. Methods 4. Results 5. Conclusion and discussion References


27 27 27 29 30 32 32 36 46 48 50 51 51 51 53 57 61 72 73

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Families, divorce and social class: the position of children, mothers, and fathers Ed Spruijt Abstract 1. Introduction 2. Divorce (after marriage or cohabitation) figures in the Netherlands 3. Number of children of divorce 4. Legislation regarding divorce 5. Consequences of the law of January first, 1998 6. The research project Youth and Families 2006 7. Divorce and social class 8. Involving children in the divorce process 9. Play and talk group CIDS (Children In Divorce Situation) 10. Conclusions 11. Recommendations References

77 77 77 78 79 79 80 81 81 84 85 86 87 88

Stratification and inequality Status symbols, distinction and difference: a contribution to the sociology of household consumption Ynte K. van Dam Abstract 1. Introduction 2. Historical notions on status and symbols 3. Class and caste 4. Distinction and status 5. Empirical research 6. Results 7. Conclusion 8. Discussion Acknowledgements References

8

93 93 93 94 95 96 97 98 103 104 105 105


Welfare, income and socio-economic benchmarking Wim Heijman Abstract 1. Introduction 2. The world in your pocket 3. World income distribution 4. The theory 5. Testing the hypothesis that GDP per head determines the level of consumption of the composite goods 6. Results of benchmarking 7. Conclusion and discussion Acknowledgements References Appendix 1: from h to g. Appendix 2: The utility maximising model

107

Diversity among the elderly, diversity in approach Katrien Luijkx and Carolien de Blok Abstract 1. Introduction 2. Research methods 3. Needs in the domains of housing, welfare, and care 4. Who takes care 5. Lifestyle 6. Diversity among elderly 7. Diversity in approach References

123

The family as social capital: the influence of parents’ friends on occupational prestige Hester Moerbeek Abstract 1. Introduction 2. The remaining influence of family background: are we a society in transition or is it part of the life cycle? 3. Data and operationalisations 4. Influence of friends of the family versus own friends 5. Conclusions and discussion References


107 107 108 109 110 112 116 117 118 118 119 120

123 123 125 128 132 134 135 136 138 141 141 141 143 145 146 149 150

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Combating social reproduction: how Frisian children can benefit from the agenda of the new Dutch minister for Youth & Family Kees Verhaar and Yvonne van Westering Abstract 1. Introduction 2. Fryslân: a deprived area? 3. Characteristics and potential influence of Frisian culture 4. Youth and family: current policy as an impetus for change 5. A cultural debate References

153 153 153 154 156 160 162 164

Consumer and household behaviour ‘Hidden persuaders’, values and gender codes in students’ selections of ads and commercials Anke Niehof Abstract 1. Introduction 2. The students and their selection 3. The contents of the selection: commodities as messages 4. Concluding notes Acknowledgements References Economic motivations, task division, family type and financial management of Dutch households Johan A.C. van Ophem and Gerrit Antonides Abstract 1. Introduction 2. Theory 3. Data and method 4. Results 5. Discussion References

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169 169 169 170 173 181 182 182 185 185 185 186 188 189 198 199


From pedestrian fare to gourmet trend: the case of Salicornia europaea L., a traditional gathered wild sea shore vegetable Lisa L. Price Abstract 1. Introduction 2. Botanical and environmental aspects of Salicornia europaea L. 3. Nutritional value of Salicornia europaea L. and traditional diets 4. Saltwater agriculture: the growth in cultivation of Salicornia europaea L. 5. The growth in gastronomic and gourmet interest in the species 6. Discussion and conclusions References From citizen to consumer to citizen-consumer: the development of the welfare state and consumer society Anton Schuurman Abstract 1. The development of the welfare state in the twentieth century 2. The limits of the welfare state: globalization and individualization 3. Neo-liberalism 4. The development of the consumer society 5. The limits of the consumer society 6. The new citizen-consumer References

201 201 201 202 204 206 206 209 210 213 213 213 215 217 219 221 223 226

Leisure time The impact of horse ownership on activities in the domestic setting Gerda Casimir Abstract 1. Horses and horse riding as leisure activity 2. Present-day equestrian sports 3. Horse riding is a gender issue 4. The domestic context 5. A survey of the impact of horse ownership on other activities 6. Target group 7. Details of the survey 8. The Icelandic horse owners 9. Motivations of Icelandic horse people 10. Activities with and time spent on Icelandic horses 11. Expenditures and activities in relation to Icelandic horses


231 231 231 232 233 235 236 236 237 238 240 240 242

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12. The impact of (Icelandic) horses on other activities and resources in the domestic setting 13. Involvement of household members 14. Gender aspects in the Icelandic horse world 15. Conclusions and discussion References (Leisure) time paths of Dutch families: a theoretical time-space exploration and a methodological exercise Jan W. Te Kloeze Abstract 1. Introduction 2. Time-space theory I: a preliminary interpretation 3. Time-space theory II: a refinement 4. Time-space paths of Dutch families: an empirical illustration 5. The first analysis 6. The second analysis: an exercise 7. Conclusion 8. Discussion References Paradise by the hurricane lamp: a theoretical and empirical investigation into primitivism in nature camping Jaap Lengkeek Abstract 1. Introduction 2. A brief history 3. Counter-structure 4. Leaving home and being ‘there’ 5. Different realities: the interviews 6. Different realities: the survey 7. Counter-structure reconsidered: conclusions 8. Some final remarks References

12

242 243 244 246 248 251 251 251 253 255 257 259 260 264 265 265 269 269 269 270 272 275 279 284 288 289 290


Hygiene, health and society Lifestyle and health Maria Koelen Abstract 1. Introduction 2. Lifestyle in health education 3. Snake in the grass 4. Towards a broader perspective of health and lifestyle 5. Conclusion References

295 295 295 296 297 299 300 300

On the interference between sustainable domestic technology and home hygiene 303 Paul M.J. Terpstra Abstract 303 1. Sustainable development in the domestic domain 303 2. Domestic machine textile laundering 304 3. Domestic machine dish-washing 308 4. Conclusions and discussion 312 References 313 Running people, healthy people? Lenneke Vaandrager Abstract 1. Introduction 2. Health benefits 3. Injuries 4. Heart failure 5. Sociological explanations for the growth of running 6. Running as a status symbol 7. Running and our strength of mind 8. A better society through running? 9. Conclusion and discussion References

315

Epilogue Hester Moerbeek, Anke Niehof and Johan van Ophem

327

About the authors

331

Keyword index

333


315 315 317 318 319 319 322 323 323 324 325

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General introduction Hester Moerbeek, Anke Niehof and Johan van Ophem This volume comprises contributions from several fields of study in the social sciences: family sociology, family economics, consumer studies, social history, leisure studies, health-andsociety studies, and even (domestic) technology. The different disciplinary angles intersect at the level of the research subjects: families, households and consumers. Together they reflect a broad field of study that has always had its own particular niche in Wageningen, namely household and consumer studies (see Casimir, 2003, for the history of household sciences at Wageningen University). Although the title of this volume contains the word families, in fact the concepts of family and household are often used interchangeably, and they can both be found in this volume. However, they refer to different sets of activities and relationships, and whether the one concept is used or the other also depends on the context. The papers in this volume mainly deal with the Dutch and European context, in which the predominant form of household is the one based on the nuclear family. Had the geographic scope been broader, the terms household and family would have acquired more different connotations. As Chant (1997: 281) notes, ‘household’ has been the preferred term in developing societies ‘because the members of individual residential units are often embedded within strong networks of wider family and kin and it accordingly makes little sense to confine “family” to small domestic groups. Alternatively, people in Northern countries often have less contact with relatives beyond the immediate household or their natal families and so the concept of family becomes prioritised in a household setting.’ In this volume the term family is used where perhaps in another context the term household would have prevailed. In the Dutch language there is not so much ground for confusion, as the family in the sense of the domestic unit is denoted by a separate term (gezin), which distinguishes it from the wider family group (familie in Dutch). Still, the use of the term household versus that of family (in the sense of gezin) implies a different emphasis. The term household refers more particularly to activities that entail use and allocation of jointly-managed resources. The term family (gezin) carries the connotation of persons related to each other by blood or marriage, who because of this are bound by emotional ties and moral obligations. The term family household comprises both and when in this volume the terms of either household or family are used, they apply to the family household. A second theme that runs through this volume is that of consumption patterns and is captured by the word lifestyles in the title. Giddens (2000: 246, 333) relates the concept of lifestyle to the Weberian notion of class and predicts an increasing diversification of lifestyles in western societies. We define lifestyle as a set of integrated consumption practices that give form to or express a certain cultural identity and social position, and see these practices as embedded in the domestic context. The consumer is not just an isolated individual but a Changing families and their lifestyles

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Hester Moerbeek, Anke Niehof and Johan A.C. Van Ophem

member of a domestic unit (though sometimes comprising only one person) of which the social position and cultural identity are expressed in consumer behaviour that is based on an actual or aspired lifestyle. At the same time, the level of resources a household can command also sets limits on its expenditures and a household’s composition and phase in the life course (cf. Pennartz and Niehof, 1999) to a large extent determine the relative importance of different kinds of consumer goods and the way time, including leisure time, is spent. Consumers are also part of social networks and peer groups, and the lifestyle orientations prevailing in those intersect with the predominant lifestyle of the domestic group of which they are a member. Lifestyle choices as expressed in consumer behaviour are layered and reflect the different commitments, affiliations and aspirations of individuals. In this way, lifestyle is connected to the purchase of consumer goods, as well as to leisure, domestic production and hygiene and health behaviour. The papers in this book are aligned according to several sub-themes. These are: formation and dissolution of families, stratification and inequality, consumer and household behaviour, leisure time, and hygiene, health and society. In the following sections the contributions will be briefly discussed according to the sub-theme under which they were subsumed. 1. Formation and dissolution of families In the space of time between the formation and the dissolution of a family household, different forms of family households emerge. Up till the 1970s in the Netherlands (and in other industrialized societies) the development of the family household – starting from its formation up till its dissolution – was fairly predictable, following the more or less standardized ‘modernized family life cycle’ (Murphy and Staples, 1979). Since then, a process of de-standardization has set in (Cheal, 1991), both in terms of socio-cultural diversity and the ways in which families are formed and dissolve. For Dutch family life at the end of the 20th century, it was concluded that continuity of traditional family values and role division as well as a ‘modern’ tendency towards an egalitarian family could be observed (Van der Avort et al., 1996). The research in the Dutch villages Arkel and Kedichem yielded a socio-cultural classification of family households into the modern-Western family, the transitional family, and the post-modern family (Te Kloeze et al., 1996). The classification links family type to the extent to which certain norms and values – e.g. those pertaining to gender equality and religion – are adhered to, as well as social characteristics and phase in the family life course. It was also applied to family leisure-spending patterns (Te Kloeze and De Hoog, 1999). The contributions in this section together deal with multiple family forms, family formation, and the consequences of family dissolution by divorce. The first contribution to the theme, by Geetha Garib, Teresa Garcia and Jaap Dronkers, investigates the effects of different family forms on children’s educational performance. The paper addresses the achievement gap between school-age children living with a single mother, mother and male guardian, mother and father, or both parents plus other adult 16


General introduction

family. Nineteen countries in Europe, North-America and the Pacific-Rim were included in the comparison, to see whether there are cross-cultural differences in the achievement gap. The countries covered have different welfare regimes (Esping-Anderson, 1990), hence different family policies. One of the conclusions of the authors is that family policies indeed make a difference to the educational performance of children, especially in the case of children of single mothers, which corroborates the argument by De Hoog (2000) about the importance of good family policies. The paper by Frans van Poppel, Peter Ekamper and Hanna van Solinge addresses the issue of family formation, more specifically partner choice, and applies it to marriages in the agrarian sector. Partner choice has been a classic theme in Dutch family sociology (cf. De Hoog, 1982, 1991). By using a data set that includes more than one million marriages conducted in five Dutch provinces during 1881-1922, Van Poppel et al. take up the question raised by De Hoog (1988) of whether or not there is support for the thesis of Hofstee (1962) about the demise of the agrarian-artisanal marriage pattern in the Netherlands. In their analysis they include the aspects of level of celibacy, age at marriage, age difference between bride and groom, remarriage, and the geographical distance between the marriage partners. While confirming the general trend observed by Hofstee, they conclude that the farming population held on to the ‘agrarian-artisanal marriage pattern’ much longer than the other social classes did. Another important theme in family sociology, namely that of divorce, is the subject of the paper by Ed Spruijt. The paper addresses the relationship between divorce and class, but the key question in the paper concerns the influence of the type of divorce and the living arrangement after divorce on the well-being of the children, mothers and fathers involved. During the period under study, in January 1998, a new law was implemented that aimed at more equal treatment of fathers and mothers and better care of the interests of children. Spruijt reviews research on its consequences for the well-being of the post-1998 ‘divorce children’. At the end of the paper the importance of mediation and counselling is emphasized, as was done by De Hoog and de Jongh (2005) in a recent article. 2. Stratification and inequality Stratification of society and the explanations thereof have been central themes in sociology ever since Marx and Weber entered the scientific discourse. The fact that not every person has the same life chances, but that those chances are unequally distributed over races, classes, gender, etcetera, has been intriguing sociologists over the ages in their quest for underlying mechanisms and probable policy issues that may diminish inequalities. Where neo-Marxists and neo-Weberians in sociology have concentrated on solving the issue of unequal chances, Bourdieu stepped in to explain why certain differences between groups are human creations. A means for distinction, as it were. His view on the allocation Changing families and their lifestyles

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of resources and life chances has been at the basis of a lot of research into lifestyles and class distinctions. Rather than raising issues on how to repair gaps between those with many resources and those with less, he has pointed the way to an explanation of why differences will continue to exist, simply because they are a means for class distinction, which will always be sought out by people. Stratification, and the several forms of inequality stemming from it, is one of the themes of this volume. That inequalities are not merely a national issue within countries but also worldwide, is nicely illustrated by the contribution of Wim Heijman. Apart from his contribution, the research in this book mainly concentrates on stratification within Dutch society. Stratification may occur based on financial position, social position, level of care, social capital, and so on and so forth (see, for instance, Van Ophem and De Hoog, 1997). The diversity of the research field of stratification and inequality is illustrated by the several contributions on this theme in this book alone. In his contribution, Ynte van Dam continues the line of research as instigated by Bourdieu. He gives his view on ‘status goods’ in a new era of youth culture. The old means of distinction, as used by the upper class in earlier years, is not prevailing. A whole new line of cultural goods has arisen, which he captures under the term of ‘bling-bling’. His contribution is a beautiful illustration of how not only upper classes aim for distinction. The so-called lower classes have also found their ways of doing so. In the paper by Heijman a whole different line of research into stratification is illustrated. His contribution focuses on the global distribution of income, and whether this is a suitable indicator for the distribution of welfare. A model of the Average Global Consumer was developed, showing that income is indeed a suitable indicator for welfare for six composite goods. Furthermore, this led to a global socio-economic benchmark system to indicate whether a country is under- or over-performing with respect to the supply of these composite goods. By illustrating global stratification, this contribution fits the theme quite nicely. A subsequent, very interesting view on inequality is given in the paper on diversity among elderly. This contribution by Katrien Luijkx and Carolien de Blok shows that sometimes a stratum is seen as uniform where it is not. In this chapter a new view is given on the group of ‘elderly’. Most policy on housing, welfare and care has perceived the elderly as being one category. It is shown that the elderly are, however, a very diverse group with varying needs and preferences in the aforementioned domains of housing, welfare, and care. Thus diversity is shown within a perceived stratum, which makes this contribution very worthwhile and directly relevant for policymakers. The contribution by Hester Moerbeek shows that, although equal opportunities for education have been created in the Netherlands, this has not lead to equal chances for obtaining occupational status. Although the influence of social background was hypothesized to disappear or at least largely diminish, the family of origin still is an important factor in the labour market. The effect has however been sought in the wrong direction. Until now family 18



background was measured using the father’s education and occupational status. Moerbeek shows that the effect of social background on status can be translated into inequalities in families’ social capital, first attained by the parents, and later on by people themselves. The last contribution on this theme is given by Kees Verhaar and Yvonne van Westering. They point at a group of Dutch that are lagging behind in a socio-economic sense, namely the Frysians. They raise the issue of social reproduction in relation to Frysian culture. It is proposed that norms and values relating to this culture imply the acceptance of the lower socio-economic performance of Fryslân and thus of the Frisians – resulting in the transfer of this level of economic performance as ‘normal’ in the education of the Frisian youth. Their contribution is in line with neo-Marxist and neo-Weberian research, looking for solutions for inequalities within societies. 3. Consumer and household behaviour In her contribution Anke Niehof looks at the ‘hidden persuaders’, values and gender codes in students’ selections of ads and commercials. She used analyses of advertisements and commercials conducted by 220 Wageningen University students as a requirement for the course Lifestyles and Consumption Patterns during the period 2002-2006. Her analysis focuses on messages conveyed by the advertised goods and services and the gender codes that are implied. She identifies both conventional gender codes, such as masculine toughness and feminine beauty, and deviating gender codes and images, e.g. male beauty and the mother in the driver’s seat of the car on a family outing. In their paper, Johan van Ophem and Gerrit Antonides focus on the effects of partner attributes and family type on economic family decision-making processes and household financial management. The data they analyse are the fruits of close research co-operation of the authors with the NIBUD (Netherlands Institute for Household Budgeting). The results indicate that, in accordance with the literature, females tend to be more risk averse than males. It appeared that married people were more risk averse than cohabiting people, implying marriage as a rather safe choice. Households where both partners are economical show more prudence in their financial behaviour than those in which partners are spending freely. This result is confirmed by the analysis of family type and financial behaviour. Looking at the relationship between family type – traditional, modern/egalitarian or individualized – and household financial management, they find that a household of the individualized family type is less inclined to behave in a financially prudent way. Anton Schuurman addresses in his contribution the issue of the search for new role divisions between the state and the market, new public/private arrangements, and new roles for citizens and consumers. With the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, the answer seemed to be: more market. The reason for this answer was already prepared after the 1970s by liberal and conservative ideologues and the development of consumer society in the twentieth Changing families and their lifestyles

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century. Increasingly people were addressed as consumers rather than as citizens. In the view of Schuurman, this belief in the market is too naïve. Schuurman provides historical background to the discourse on the search for new public/private arrangements. In her contribution Lisa Price puts a wild sea shore vegetable, Salicornia europaea L, in the limelight. She firstly describes the botanical and environmental aspects of the plant and goes on to examine the literature on its nutritional value. The topic fits into the trend for a growing interest in saltwater agriculture and the current cultivation of Salicornia europaea L and its promotion for the market. At the end of the paper she examines the growing gastronomic and gourmet interest in the plant by looking at a selection of internet sites that include discussions by chefs, web-based culinary news articles, and recipes to prepare in the at-home kitchen. 4. Leisure time Since the process of industrialisation, society has been presented with new issues that did not previously exist. When the home was still the main working place, men would work on their land or in their companies, whilst women kept house and took care of the children. After industrialisation, home life and working life became increasingly separated. Together with this process of the evolution of a labour market, new issues of time allocation arose. People, men first, started working for bosses and the new concept of the working week with a pre-set number of working hours was born. Besides hours spent at work, hours of the day remained that people could use for entertainment and relaxation. Hence, leisure time was there to be filled. Given certain constraints, people are free to spend the hours of a day that remain after work as they wish. And where people have freedom, choices have to be made. Given the constraints that people have to earn money for a living (which gives room for sayings like: ‘I work for a living, rather than live for my work’) and that a day only has 24 hours, time is allocated to hobby’s, vacation, play, sports, etcetera. And, again, where people have choices, sociologists will become interested in which choices they make and why. It is on this very interesting theme of leisure time that part of this book concentrates. The fact that this theme is very diverse of nature is nicely illustrated by the diversity of the three contributions related to it. Leisure time is partly about choices made about time allocation (see, for instance, De Hoog, Soeters and Te Kloeze, 1996). It is also about actual choices for pastimes. Therefore there is a contribution about the (more or less serious) hobby of horseback riding. Another contribution focuses on camping and a subculture arising from that. A third contribution is on time-space decisions made within households. In her contribution, Gerda Casimir reports on her research on horse ownership and its impact on activities in the domestic setting. She states that riding horses, and moreover owning horses, is more than a hobby or a sport: it is a way of life. She investigates to what extent the ownership of leisure horses influences daily life. Attention is paid to general developments in horse-riding and to gender aspects of equestrian sports. The outcomes of 20



her survey show an impact of horse ownership on other purchases and activities, ranging from times of meals to holiday destinations, from cars and houses to tack and machines, thus showing that owning horses can indeed safely be called a way of life. In his paper, Jan Willem te Kloeze presents us with his view on leisure-time paths of Dutch families. His contribution discusses time-space theory in general, focusing on family and household situations, gender, and their relationship with time-space behaviour including leisure. Furthermore, he discusses some methods in time-space research. All this in answering the question on how partners from families behave in time and space, and whether there are differences related to their origin (urban – rural, low versus high status). By using Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis, this chapter also contributes to the methodological discussion on how to analyse time-space paths. The last contribution to this theme is given by Jaap Lengkeek. He describes a theoretical and empirical investigation of primitivism in nature camping. He states that the desire to go back to nature resembles a quest for paradise lost. Outdoor recreation in the countryside may highlight nostalgia for a place where time passes slowly and where cosmic time defines the rhythm of day and night as well as the rhythm of the seasons. In order to understand and interpret the experiences of the Dutch Tourist Camping Club the theoretical approach goes back to a phenomenological tradition, a fundamental understanding of tourist experiences and even to the pilgrimage metaphor. The main research questions are: how did nature campers come to enter the world of nature camping? What are the perceptions of this particular kind of nature camping? In what respect do they experience their camping differently from everyday life? In answering these questions, this chapter provides view on leisure time different from the two previous ones, thus adding to the scope of research into leisure time in this book. 5. Hygiene, health and society Hygiene is not just the battle against microbes nor is health merely the absence of disease. Choices and behaviour that affect hygiene and health are made in a social context and are influenced by cultural definitions of hygiene and of what is supposed to be healthy or unhealthy. Apart from being informed by education, hygiene and health behaviour are also influenced by perceived causalities and folk models of etiology, so-called ‘emic’ views. The latter may cause behaviour that is intended to produce positive health effects to have no effect on health whatsoever or even have negative effects (Niehof, 2004). The reverse can also happen. Women’s cleaning behaviour in the house to have the house look nice and make the bathroom tiles shine, has an aesthetic purpose but a positive outcome in terms of hygiene (cf. Niehof and Voncken, 1999). Since the classic book by Mary Douglas (1988), cleanliness is seen as a socio-cultural construct as much as an objectively measurable variable. The health and hygiene behaviour of individuals is related to lifestyle and is embedded in the domestic context. Curtis (1998) argues that public health interventions should be designed from the Changing families and their lifestyles

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perspective of the household and should take into account what people know, do, and want, and what additional support they need to improve their health. Spaargaren and Van Vliet (2000) take this argument a bit further by stating that for interventions and new technologies to be acceptable to households and be followed up they should be socio-culturally compatible (lifestyle), take into account households’ time and space constraints, as well as comply with prevailing standards of comfort, cleanliness, and convenience. The three papers in this section of the book together touch on several aspects of the discussion above. In her paper on health and lifestyles Maria Koelen discusses the phenomenon that people are blamed for their bad health on account of their unhealthy lifestyle. She questions the narrow view of health behaviour as just individual behaviour and lifestyle as an individual choice and looks into the relevant interactions and the (involuntary) influence of environmental factors. The second paper in this section, by Paul Terpstra, looks at household behaviour from the perspective of its sustainability, more specifically at laundering and dishwashing behaviour. The results of research on the hygienic effects of different cleaning styles are reviewed. For laundering behaviour a comparison is made between two northern European countries (Norway and the Netherlands) and two southern European countries (Spain and Greece). The differences found in the levels of contamination by micro-organisms can partly be explained by differences in laundering practices but – at the same time – leave a lot of questions unanswered. For some of these the answers lie beyond the immediate context of people’s actual laundering behaviour, such as selection of the temperature and the type of detergent used. Spain appears to be a particularly interesting case in this respect. In the third paper Lenneke Vaandrager poses the topical question of why people run. If they run because they think running is healthy, the question is whether it indeed is – bearing in mind the possible gap between intended health behaviour and actual heath effects (see above). Vaandrager quotes Midas Dekkers (2006) as saying that the strong belief in the health advantages of exercise is built on quicksand. But people may also run for other reasons. As Vaandrager shows, running can be motivated by social and personal factors (lifestyle) and may have effects far beyond those related to health effects. The phenomenon of running has to be placed in the context of societies where the ideal person should have a slim, muscular, and healthy body (cf. De Hoog, 2007), in spite of all the temptations of consumer society. References Casimir, G.J., 2003. 50 jaar Huishoudwetenschappen: Verslag van een studiedag op 12 maart 2003. Wageningen: KLV Kring Consumentenstudies. Chant, S., 1997. Women-headed Households: Diversity and Dynamics in the Developing World. Houndmills: Macmillan Press.

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Cheal, D., 1991. Family and the State of Theory. New York: Harvester/Wheatsheaf. Curtis, V., 1998. The Dangers of Dirt: Household Hygiene and Health. PhD Thesis Wageningen University. De Hoog, K., 1982. Partnerselectie bij Huwelijkssluiting in Nederland. PhD Thesis Wageningen [Agricultural] University. De Hoog, K., 1988. De boer en de huwelijksmarkt. Tijdschrift voor Huishoudkunde 9(2): 33-7. De Hoog, K., 1991. Relatiemarkt en partnerkeuze. In: E. Spruijt (ed.), Psychologie van het gezin, pp. 81-97. Utrecht: Stichting Teleac. De Hoog, K., A. Soeters and J.W. Te Kloeze, 1996. Integreren door middel van vrije tijd? Vrijetijdsbesteding en integratie van Turkse gezinnen in een Arnhemse wijk. Vrijetijdstudies 14(4): 19-33. De Hoog, K., 2000. Het belang van een expliciet gezinsbeleid. Bevolking en Gezin 29: 141-56. De Hoog, K., 2007. Het gezin in de fuik: overgewicht en het moderne gezinsleven. In: H. Dagevos and G. Munnichs (eds), De Obesogene Samenleving, pp. 77-84. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. De Hoog, K. and W. De Jongh, 2005. Mediation en het ouderschapsplan. Tijdschrift voor Familie en Jeugdrecht 27: 98-103. Dekkers, M., 2006. Lichamelijke Oefening. Amsterdam: Contact. Douglas, M., 1988. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Ark. [First published 1966.] Esping-Anderson, 1990. The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press. Giddens, A., 2000 [1997]. Sociology. [Third Edition.] Cambridge: Polity Press. Hofstee, E.W., 1962. De groei van de Nederlandse bevolking. In: A.N.J. den Hollander (ed.), Drift en Koers. Een Halve Eeuw Sociale Verandering in Nederland, pp. 13-84. Assen: Van Gorcum. Murphy, P.E. and W.A. Staples, 1979. A modernized family life cycle. Journal of Consumer Research 6: 12-22. Niehof, A., 2004. A micro-ecological approach to home care for AIDS patients. Medische Antropologie 16(2): 245-65. Niehof, A. and N. Voncken, 1999. Hygiene in the Netherlands. An inquiry into ideas and habits of people regarding hygiene. H & C Working Paper no. 9901, Wageningen University. Pennartz, P. and A. Niehof, 1999. The Domestic Domain: Chances, Choices and Strategies of Family Households. Aldershot etc.: Ashgate. Spaargaren, G. and B. Van Vliet, 2000. Lifestyles, consumption and the environment. The ecological modernisation of domestic consumption. Environmental Politics 9(1): 50-76. Te Kloeze, J.W., K. De Hoog, M. Van Bergen and M. Duivenvoorden, 1996. Tussen Vrijheid en Gebondenheid: Het Postmoderne Gezin Ontdekt. Leuven, Apeldoorn: Garant. Te Kloeze, J.W. and K. De Hoog, 1999. Between freedom and commitment: The postmodern family discovered: A sociological study of typologies and leisure domains in the Netherlands. Loisir et Société / Society and Leisure 22(1): 171-86. Van der Avort, A., P. Cuyvers and K. De Hoog, 1996. Het Nederlandse Gezinsleven aan het Einde van de Twintigste Eeuw. Den Haag: Nederlandse Gezinsraad. Van Ophem, J.A.C. and K. De Hoog, 1997. Nuclear families and the changing income procurement role of married women. Associations, Journal of Legal and Social Theory 1(2): 119-35.


23

Formation and dissolution of families

Are the effects of different family forms on children’s educational performance related to the demographic characteristics and family policies of modern societies? Geetha Garib, Teresa Martin Garcia and Jaap Dronkers1 Abstract We have investigated the gap in the math and reading achievements of 15-year-old pupils who live with a single mother, with a mother and a male guardian, or with father, mother and other family adult versus those pupils who live with two parents in 19 countries across Europe, North-America and the Pacific-Rim. Reminiscent of an earlier more restricted study (Pong et al., 2003) we have found significant differences in the gaps in math and reading achievements between the groups in these countries, controlling for a broad range of characteristics of parents and pupils. Following a multilevel analysis in which we included country characteristics on family policy and on demography, we have found single motherhood to be less detrimental where family policy (especially maternity leave) decreases the achievement gap between pupils from single-mother and two-parent families. However, this single-mother and two-parent achievement gap is greater in countries where the percentage of single-parent families is larger. We conclude, just as Pong et al. (2003), that national family policies combined with a less laissez-faire policy towards the formation of single-parent families can diminish the negative academic outcomes of singlemotherhood. 1. Introduction Only very recently has research started to investigate the educational consequences of single motherhood cross-nationally. This comparative research is essential if we are to understand the relative importance of public policy, which may mitigate or exacerbate the challenges associated with living with a single mother, and the relative importance of demographic factors, which may influence the characteristics of single mothers. In this study, we investigate how the relationship between four different family forms (both parents, single mother; recomposed; extended) and children’s academic achievement varies according to social security systems and demographic characteristics of the 19 countries across Europe, North America and the Pacific Rim from the PISA data. We specifically test whether the achievement gap between children living with a single mother, a mother and a stepfather or both parents and another family member and those residing with both parents is smaller in those countries that make greater investments in family policy and that have lower divorce-ratios. 1 This

is the product of a multilevel seminar given at the European University Institute in 2002 by the third author. The first version was presented at the second conference of the European network for empirical and comparative research on the sociological aspects of divorce, Tilburg (Netherlands), November 13-16, 2003.


27

Geetha Garib, Teresa Martin Garcia and Jaap Dronkers

We address three related questions in this study. Firstly, how varied is the gap in academic achievement between children who live in the four family forms cross-nationally? Secondly, do academic differences between children from these four family forms persist after family resources and characteristics are taken into account? Thirdly, and most importantly, does the achievement gap between children from the four family form vary by demographic characteristics and national family policies? Our study is the successor to an analogous study by Pong et al. (2003), who investigated the same question with less rich data from 11 countries. Our study extends this earlier research in four directions: 19 instead of 11 countries; more independent variables to control for parental resources; not only math and science outcomes, but also reading; and four family forms instead of two. Until recently, students of divorce assumed that there were no significant differences between countries regarding the size of differences in well-being between children from various family forms. A recent example is Pryor and Rodgers (2001: 59, 61, 64, 233), who compare outcomes of children from separated and intact families of studies in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand. Despite their restricted sample of four countries, they repeat their conclusion (no significant differences between countries in the amount of differences between children from separated and intact families) time and again. Pong et al. (2003) analyse 11 countries and found significant differences between the educational achievements of children from different family forms. However, to obtain more reliable estimates one would like to have more countries. In this study we analyse 19 different countries across Europe, North America and the Pacific-Rim. Pong et al (2003) had only four parental background variables (number of books; number of possessions; immigrant status; household size) in their dataset (TIMSS, 1995) to control for differences in social background between the family forms. Our dataset PISA 2000 has much more parental background and school-related variables. Thus we have more reliable estimates of differences between family forms, which cannot be explained by differences in the social background. Pong et al. (2003) had only two, closely related educational outcomes as dependent variables (math and sciences score). The PISA data has also reading score as an indicator of educational achievement. The larger range of indicators to measure differences between family forms can improve the validity of the results. Pong et al. (2003) compared only the differences between two family forms (two parents, single mother). Our dataset allows for the inclusion of two more family forms. Unfortunately, just like Pong et al. (2003), our dataset does not contain any information on the causes of the current family-form, neither of their duration. Particularly in the case of single-motherhood this is problematic. Single-motherhood may be due to divorce or 28


Effects of different family forms on children’s educational performance

separation, to the death of a husband, or to non-marital childbearing and childrearing without the presence of a male. As said, our data do not allow us to differentiate between these causes of single-motherhood, but all single-mother families in this study share a common characteristic. There is a biological mother in the family whom the focal child identifies as a biological mother. Furthermore, our data does not allow us to differentiate between two-parent families and cohabiting unions in which both the biological parents of the focal child are present. The lumping of these two types of two-parent families may be reasonable in many European countries where cohabitation is common and where cohabiting parents behave like married couples. 2. Relevant literature We will not repeat the literature on the relationship between living in a single-mother household and educational outcomes. Pong et al. (2003) summarize this literature. New relevance, which would change the outcome of that summary, has not been published since. The conclusions of Pong et al. (2003) were the following. Single motherhood is associated with lower math and science achievement among young children. With only two exceptions (Austria, Iceland), the single- and two-parent family achievement gap is found within each country, as well as for all countries combined, for both math and science subjects. The largest math and science performance gap among all countries is found in the U.S. and in New Zealand. Family resources, although they are crudely measured with four variables, did not account for this significant achievement gap. The achievement gap between singleand two-parent families is narrowed where there are family policies aimed at equalizing economic resources between single-parent and other families. This relationship is generally weak, although it is particularly strong in the case of policies of family/child allowances and parental leave. This finding confirms their observation that countries having more generous family policies show smaller or no achievement gap by family structure. For example, Pong et al found no achievement gap in Austria, which has a history of a social protection system with relatively large universal family allowances. The U.S. has never provided any family or child allowances. To some extent the investment in national family policies explains why Austria ranks at the top but why the U.S. and New Zealand rank last in the academic resilience of children from single-parent homes. However, the achievement gap is greater in countries where single-parent families are more common. The latter result is consistent with the family conflict hypothesis (Amato and Keith, 1991). This hypothesis assumes that the unwillingness of parents to maintain their relationship is larger in countries with a higher level of divorce and thus single mothers. In these countries parents will split up with a lower level of family conflict and their children will benefit less from the divorce (less serious family conflict) but they will suffer only the negative consequences (greater psychological stress).


29


3. Conceptual framework As we have relied heavily on the conceptual framework of Pong et al. (2003), outlined in Figure 1, we will briefly summarize it here. They hypothesize that different policy environments can influence the relationship between single motherhood and children’s academic achievement by changing a family’s disposable income and parental time inputs. According to Becker’s theory of household production (Becker, 1981), children’s education is a form of consumer good that is produced by parents using two types of household inputs: money income and parental time. Consistent with this economic framework, Coleman (1988) distinguished three family background factors that influence children’s education: financial capital, human capital, and social capital. As a form of financial capital, family income was positively related to children’s educational attainment and achievement (Hill and Duncan, 1987; Schneider and Coleman, 1993). A large amount of literature on social stratification has in many countries established the connection between parents’ education (human capital) and their children’s educational attainment (see, for example, Shavit and Blossfield, 1993). However, Coleman (1988) theorized that parents’ human capital could not be transmitted to children without the support of social capital. Social capital, according to Coleman, consists of the relationship between children and adults that enhances children’s education. Building social capital requires parents to communicate and interact with their children frequently, as well as to forge relationships and networks with other adults in school and in the community (Schneider and Coleman, 1993). Consequently, parents who spend more time with their children could forge greater social capital, thereby enhancing their children’s school success. Parental inputs of time, especially from the mother, have been shown to be positively associated with children’s educational achievement (Leibowitz, 1974).

Family-form situation

Child outcomes

Income (Financial capital) Family policy

Time inputs (Social capital)

Academic achievement outcomes

Demographic context

Figure 1. The relationship between family policy, demographic contexts, family situation, and child achievement outcomes.

30



Countries with supportive family policies offer a range of generous provisions, such as child and family allowances, child benefits and family transfers, tax benefits to lone parents, and maternity-leave benefits. In these countries, single mothers have greater economic resources for their children’s education than do their counterparts in nations with weaker family policies. Single mothers also receive more free time from work to care for their infants or young children, which may promote children’s cognitive development. Based on the conceptual frameworks offered by household production and social capital theories, we expect that children residing in single-parent families in countries with stronger family policies are less likely to suffer from educational disadvantage than would be the case in countries with weaker family policies. National family policies vary across countries with different demographic characteristics. In fact, the demography of a nation and its family policy are likely to be reciprocally related. On the one hand, generous family policies may encourage cohabitation and non-marital childbearing and eventually produce greater proportions of single-parent families when cohabiting unions dissolve. Alternatively, where single mothers are politically organised, they demand greater resources from the government. In both cases, the proportion of single-parent families may be positively associated with the generosity of the nation’s family policies towards single mothers. On the other hand, the growth in single-parent families could reduce the tolerance and sympathy towards single mothers, and subsequently trigger policy stringency. In this situation, the prevalence of single motherhood may be negatively associated with the generosity of family policies. Regardless of the direction of the association, we need to take into account a country’s concentration of single motherhood as we examine the role of family policy, because the national proportions of single-parent families may influence children’s school achievement. Two alternative explanations can be given for the relationship between national proportions of single-parent families and the national achievement disadvantage of children living in single-parent homes. Recent empirical research suggests that, as divorce becomes prevalent, the nature of marital dissolution will change. When divorces were rare, only the extremely dissatisfied would seek a divorce, typically families with high parental conflict. When divorces became prevalent, many more moderately dissatisfied individuals would also divorce their spouses. Compared to conflict-ridden marriages ending in divorce, families with little parental conflict that end in divorce may be more damaging to children’s psychological wellbeing. As a possible consequence, in nations where divorce rates are high, children from single-parent homes only have the negative consequences of the parental divorce (greater psychological stress) and fewer of the positive ones (less serious parental divorce) than do their counterparts in countries where divorces are relatively rare, who have both the negative and positive consequences of parental divorce. Goode (1962) already developed a comparable argument about cross-national differences in the characteristics of divorcees and non-divorcees. In societies with high barriers against Changing families and their lifestyles

31


divorce (juridical, religious and financial) only persons from the higher classes have enough resources to overcome these barriers, and thus in these societies members of the higher classes divorce more often than members of the lower classes. In societies with no barriers against divorce persons with the highest probability of family problems (child-rearing, unemployment, housing) and with the fewest resources (financial, cognitive, social) to solve these problems will more likely divorce. Persons from the lower classes have a higher probability of having family problems and have fewer resources to solve them. There are indications that Goode’s argument is still valid: the relationship between female education and divorce or separation is positive in countries with low divorce rates, while this relation is negative in countries with high divorce rates (Härkönen and Dronkers, 2006). Thus, to the extent that single motherhood results from divorce, the correlation between a country’s percentage of single-parent families and the academic achievement disadvantage of children from single-parent homes is likely to be positive. 4. Selection of countries for comparison In our comparative study, we attempt to control for cultural influence by selecting countries sharing similar Western cultural traditions and social institutions. We selected 19 industrialized countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and US. The basis of selection was to have enough variation between the various types of welfare states (Esping-Anderson, 1990), in order to test the effect of various welfare regimes. The inclusion of Anglo-Saxon and continental-European nations was necessary given their different culture relating to sexual relations and gender differences. Finally, inclusion of protestant and catholic countries was necessary given the different values and norms regarding marriage and divorce, but also the role of these churches in building different welfare-state regimes. We excluded all Eastern European countries with more than one missing demographical or family-policy indicator. Divorce and separation levels in the Eastern European societies underwent important changes during the 1990’s due to the far-reaching political transformations, and including them by using more recent indicators might lead to flawed estimations. 5. Method 5.1 Data Our analysis is based on the PISA 2000 survey organized by the OECD, under the project title The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment. This research aimed at providing internationally comparable measurement on the performance of 15-year-old students. The database comprises data collected in 2000 in 32 countries. Information on these aggregated measures is available from the Manual for the PISA 2000 Database (OECD, 32



2000a) as well as from the PISA 2000 Technical Report (2000b), including their reliability and internal consistency. The strength of the PISA 2000 data is its cross-national comparability. The OECD/CERI has developed a scheme to compare the outcomes of various educational systems by making use of the experiences of earlier efforts to cross-nationally compare educational results (like TIMSS, which was used by Pong et al., 2003). By using a multilateral approach to develop this scheme, a one-sided measurement has been avoided and its results are widely recognized throughout the OECD countries. A weakness of the PISA 2000 data is the cross-sectional nature of the collected data. It is a one-moment picture of the 15-year-old students: we don’t know anything about their further development, nor about their earlier education experiences and outcomes. 5.2 Variables 5.2.1 Academic achievement For this analysis, we decided to use two of the three possible dependent variables on students’ performance. The survey contained measures on students’ reading, mathematics and science abilities; we will use the reading and the maths scales as dependent variables in the analysis in order to have one measure which is of a more cultural character, and one measure which is of a more cognitive character. Both performance measures were constructed by applying weighted maximum likelihood estimates (see Warm, 1985) and were translated into scales with a mean of 500 and a standard deviation of 100. We will include the measurement error term variables in our multilevel analysis to control for the possible measurement error of the performance variables. 5.2.2 Family form The student is asked to indicate who usually lives at home with him/her. There are eight possibilities and for each of these the student has to indicate whether this applies to him/ her: mother, other female guardian (e.g., stepmother or foster mother), father, other male guardian (e.g., stepfather or foster father), brother(s), sister(s), grandparent(s), others. Four combinations were large enough in the various countries to treat them as a distinctive family form: father and mother only; father, mother and other family adult; mother and male guardian; single mother. We prefer to not only analyse the coefficients of singlemotherhood, but also those of mother and male guardian (as the most common form of the recomposed family, mostly after a divorce) and of father, mother and other family adult. By including these other family forms in our analysis, we hope to avoid a biased picture of single-motherhood. Again, we do not know the causes of the current family forms. Singlemotherhood or mother and male guardian may be due to divorce or separation, to the death of a husband, or to non-marital childbearing.


33


5.3 Sociological and demographic characteristics of students and parents Most of the independent variables used to predict students’ achievement are combined indices, developed by PISA. These were standardized in such a way as to have a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1 at the international level of all countries. The first set of independent variables involves students’ as well as their parents’ social and demographic characteristics. We will differentiate between males and females in the analysis. Despite a slight variation, we will control for school grade and age (measured in months in the data). In keeping with established traditions of social mobility and status attainment research, we will include father’s and mother’s occupation and education as indicators of social origin. Occupation is measured in the data by the international socio-economic index (ISEI) (Ganzeboom et al., 1992), while education is measured with the ISCED scale (OECD, 1999). Further information on family background is number of siblings. The PISA survey provides information on how frequently parents discuss political and social issues, books, films, and television programs with their offspring. PISA has combined these individual items into an index labeled Parents’ academic interest. Similarly, students were asked to report on how frequently parents discuss school issues with them, eat together with them around the table or spend time talking to them at all. PISA combines these variables in an index labeled Parents’ social interest. The survey included questions on visiting museums, art galleries, going to the theatre, classical music concerts, or ballet, which are combined into the scale Students’ cultural activities. The PISA index on Family cultural possession is based on having classical literature, books of poetry, and works of art at home. As a direct measure of parental income is quite unreliable given that it is the students in the school who report on it, a Family wealth index has been constructed based on the presence of dishwasher, television, cellular phone, motorcar, computer, and a link to the Internet at home. Students’ educational circumstances at home are measured by the index Home educational resources, and considers whether or not the student has a desk, a quiet place for study at home, and if the family has a dictionary, textbooks, and calculators. Finally, it also matters whether parents work with students on their schoolwork and help them to do their homework. The frequency of these events, as reported by the students, is measured by the Family educational support index. 5.4 Behavioral and attitudinal characteristics of students and parents The behavioral and attitudinal characteristics of students and parents related to education and school is the next set of independent variables. Students were asked to report how much time they spend doing their homework for languages, mathematics and science, combined into the index for Time spent on homework. Students were asked to report on how much interest teachers show in their learning progress, how frequently teachers let them express their own opinion in school or how frequently teachers help them to understand school materials. The PISA Teacher support index is based on these items. Further questions were asked about how well students get along with teachers, how much teachers are interested in students, how much they listen to what students have to say, and how fairly they treat 34



students. PISA combined these questions in the Teacher-student relationship index. The School disciplinary climate index is based on students’ responses to the questions about whether the teacher has to wait until students sit down quietly at the beginning of the class, if students do not start to work when the class begins, if students do not listen to what the teacher says, and if there is noise or disorder in the class. Another aspect to be considered is how much the teacher wants students to work hard, how much he/she tells them they can work better, how much he/she dislikes if students do not work well. Students’ responses to these questions are combined in the Achievement pressure index. An overall indicator of the student-school relationship emerges from the questions on how much the student feels an outsider in the school or feels awkward in the place, how easily he/she can make friends there, how much he/she feels liked by the other students, or how lonely he/she feels. The PISA index entitled Sense of belonging in the school provides combined information on this. 5.5 Indicators of family policy and demography The second data source consists of the country-specific family policy and demographic indicators. These include important maternal and parental leave policies, policies of child and family allowances, and tax benefits to single mothers. Demographic indicators include the prevalence of single motherhood, divorce, and teenage motherhood. Because this research analyses 19 nationally representative samples of young children surveyed in 2000, the policies most relevant to these children would be those found between the late-1980s and mid-1990s. Thus, we focus on national family policies from this period. This data is collected from books and websites (see for more information the added appendix from Pong et al. (2003). 5.6 Analytical strategy We build a three-level random-effects HLM model (Bryk and Raudenbush 1992). The unit of analysis at the second level is the student, and the unit of analysis in the third-level model is the nation within which the student is nested: Achievementijk = βjk0 + βjk1(family-form)jk + βjk2(other)jk + e0ijk3(error-term)jk

(1)

βjk0 = γ00 + γ01(family policy)k + γ02(demographic context)k + Ujk0,

(2)

βjk1 = γ10 + γ11(family policy)k + γ12(demographic context)k + Vjk1

(3)

Unlike the fixed-effects model where all coefficients are specified as fixed, here some coefficients are specified as random. We assume that the parameter residuals Ujk0 and Vjk1 are unrelated to the γs. Ujk1 may not be specified, if there is no estimated parameter variance of βjk1. Our primary interest is to estimate γ11 and γ12, which are predictors of βjk1 - the achievement gap between children from single-parent families and their counterparts from Changing families and their lifestyles

35


two-parent homes. We examine the covariates of various family policies and the demographic context of single motherhood and report the coefficients of γ11 and γ12. We have 19 cases at the third or country level. With this number we are above the minimum number for running a random coefficient model (Snijders and Bosker, 1999: 43-4). At the second or student level we have either reading or mathematics weighted likelihood estimates as the dependent variable, and the standard deviation of the error of this estimate. The variance at the first or lowest level is fixed at 1.00. This results in a measurement model of the second level of the students (see Hox, 2002). It gives a more reliable estimation of the true score of the students, because the model takes the measured error into account. This procedure results in a three-level model (student; country) with a measurement model at the lowest level. 6. Results 6.1 Descriptive analysis In Table 1 we present the average scores on reading and math of the pupils from the four family forms for each country separately. On the whole the average scores of pupils living with both parents only are the highest, while the average scores of pupils living with both parents and a grandparent are the lowest. The average scores of pupils living with a single mother or living with a mother and a male guardian are between these two extremes and the difference between the scores of pupils from these two family forms is not very large. Although the differences between the scores of pupils from the different families are significant and substantive, they are only one third of the standard deviation of the reading and math scores (father, mother & family adult) and one sixth of the standard deviation for pupils with a single mother or a mother with a guardian father. This means that the differences between the scores of pupils from different family forms are interesting, but that their importance vis-à-vis other sociological factors should not be exaggerated. The deviances between the scores of pupils with father and mother and the scores for the three other family forms for each country separately give the cross-national variation. Pupils of mother and male guardian families from Italy have relatively high scores on both reading and math, while pupils from the same family form from Belgium, France, New Zealand and the US score relatively low on both achievement tests. Pupils of single-mother families from France, the Netherlands, the UK and the US score also relatively low on both tests, compared to pupils of the same family form from other countries. These differences suggest that there are indeed cross-national differences in the relationship between family forms and the educational achievement of children. However, these deviations of Table 1 do not prove cross-national differences in this relationship. Table 2 shows that clear differences also exist in the sociological and demographic 36



Table 1. Dependent variables: Means of reading and math scores by family-form and country, the standard deviation in parentheses and deviance from scores of pupils with those of pupils with father and mother only.

504.7 (98.7)

Belgium

527.2 (106.8)

Canada

535.1 (97.3)

Denmark

509.0 (97.4)

Finland

553.7 (88.9)

France

553.7 (88.9)

Germany

505.2 (107.7)

Greece

482.3 (97.7)

Ireland

533.4 (92.7)


519.3 (107.1) -15.8 498.0 (91.0) -6.7 500.8 (111.9) -26.4 519.7 (94.8) -15.4 484.1 (108.7) -24.9 535.8 (100.7) -12.7 488.0 (99.7) -65.7 489.6 (114.5) -15.6 447.6 (104.1) -34.7 510.9 (93.0) -22.5

Father and mother only

499.3 (112.5) -35.8 498.8 (103.0) -5.9 470.6 (123.2) -56.6 492.3 (103.0) -42.8 466.8 (105.4) -68.3 559.0 (84.6) 5.3 459.4 (105.9) -94.3 487.2 (106.2) -18.0 463.0 (97.1) -18.7 517.7 (102.4) -15.7

535.6 (90.9) 511.6 (95.0) 533.7 (101.1) 531.9 (95.2) 523.9 (83.4) 539.2 (82.1) 539.2 (82.1) 506.9 (96.9) 458.2 (101.5) 508.5 (83.6)

Father, mother and other family adult Single mother

Austria

506.4 (97.9) -28.7 498.3 (90.3) -6.4 485.8 (109.2) -41.4 510.8 (91.7) -24.3 489.1 (107.4) -19.9 548.5 (80.2) -5.2 495.2 (86.7) -58.5 486.7 (103.1) -18.5 474.2 (78.1) -8.1 516.9 (96.7) -16.5

Mother and male guardian

535.1 (102.6)


Australia

Math score



Reading score

510.2 (87.4) -25.4 497.8 (89.4) -13.8 495.0 (99.3) -38.7 509.8 (85.4) -22.1 499.4 (89.7) -24.5 521.6 (73.5) -17.6 499.2 (103.7) -40.0 489.0 (94.2) -17.9 420.4 (94.1) -37.8 499.5 (79.7) -9.0

510.3 (112.8) -25.3 506.0 (94.7) -5.6 495.3 (109.5) -38.4 501.9 (89.5) -30.0 493.2 (88.9) -30.7 540.9 (81.1) 1.7 481.1 (102.5) -58.1 494.8 (104.7) -12.1 441.4 (106.7) -16.8 490.8 (88.6) -17.7

517.5 (97.5) -18.1 499.1 (88.1) -12.5 507.4 (105.4) -25.9 513.7 (86.0) -18.2 502.1 (94.9) -21.8 522.6 (86.1) -16.6 501.1 (90.6) -38.1 490.2 (97.8) -16.7 447.6 (109.6) -10.6 483.1 (89.8) -25.4

37


Table 1. Contimued.

550.1 (87.5)

New Zealand

547.5 (101.4)

Norway

515.6 (103.7)

Portugal

482.1 (94.6)

Spain

503.6 (86.6)

Sweden

525.0 (92.9)

UK

536.5 (102.6)

US

534.8 (98.1)

Total

526.8 (98.0)

N

39,289

38

483.3 (93.1) -16.3 517.7 (103.0) -32.4 519.7 (110.7) -27.8 489.6 (102.5) -26.0 475.5 (88.2) -6.6 490.6 (85.4) -13.6 500.4 (96.0) -24.6 499.3 (99.9) -37.2 488.9 (93.4) -44.9 509.3 (98.1) -17.5 6,923


480.1 (94.5) -19.4 506.0 (101.8) -44.1 470.7 (111.0) -76.8 482.9 (110.4) -42.7 461.4 (102.5) -10.7 490.8 (91.3) -13.4 486.9 (103.1) -38.1 480.9 (117.9) -55.6 474.1 (98.6) -60.7 489.9 (101.5) -36.9 6,482

468.6 (92.4) 573.6 (83.3) 551.4 (93.2) 509.3 (91.8) 468.4 (89.8) 489.7 (89.4) 517.9 (92.1) 537.6 (90.0) 519.8 (97.9) 522.2 (92.5) 39,289


The Netherlands

505.5 (83.2) 6.0 534.3 (79.8) -15.8 518.4 (99.6) -29.1 494.8 (96.0) -20.6 477.5 (103.4) -4.6 490.9 (95.5) -13.3 498.5 (84.4) -26.5 524.8 (95.6) -11.7 497.6 (97.2) -37.2 509.3 (93.7) -17.5 3,699


499.5 (91.9)


Italy

Math score



Reading score

476.3 (88.7) 7.7 553.7 (74.3) -19.9 521.2 (83.2) -30.2 475.1 (94.6) -34.2 453.1 (97.8) -15.3 476.3 (105.8) -13.4 494.2 (81.5) -23.7 523.8 (84.3) -13.8 483.4 (90.8) -36.4 505.3 (88.5) -16.9 3,699

458.0 (92.2) -10.6 530.8 (113.2) -42.8 492.7 (97.4) -58.7 496.8 (91.3) -12.5 457.2 (94.4) -11.2 475.7 (88.1) -14.0 491.7 (107.9) -26.2 496.0 (97.2) -41.6 475.1 (89.4) -44.7 489.2 (96.2) -33.0 6,482

455.9 (94.1) -12.7 527.1 (118.2) -46.5 525.2 (98.5) -26.2 482.5 (88.4) -26.8 451.3 (92.8) -17.1 468.3 (98.3) -21.4 498.4 (98.6) -19.5 506.5 (94.9) -31.1 475.7 (90.5) -44.1 503.4 (93.8) -18.8 6,923



Table 2. The characteristics of the pupils and their parents in the various family forms: means and standard deviations. Father and mother only Sex

1.5 (.5) School grade 9.8 (.7) Number of siblings 1.8 (1.2) Father‘s or mother’s ISEI 45.2 (17.2) Mother’s education 4.6 (1.4) Parents‘ academic interest .03 (1.0) Parents‘ social interest -.0 (1.0) Pupils cultural activities .0 index (1.0) Family cultural possession -.1 index (1.0) Family wealth index .3 (.8) Family educational support .0 index (1.0) Home educational .1 resources index (.9) Time spent on homework .1 (1.0) Teacher support index .1 (1.0) Teacher-student .1 relationship index (1.0) Disciplinary climate .1 (1.0) Achievement pressure .1 index (.9) Sense of belonging in the .1 school (1.0)



Father, mother and Single mother other family adult

1.5 (.5) 9.7 (.8) 2.5 (1.6) 42.6 (16.0) 4.6 (1.3) -.07 (1.0) -.2 (1.0) -.1 (1.0) -.2 (1.0) .3 (.8) -.2 (.9) -.1 (1.0) -.1 (1.0) .2 (1.0) .0 (1.0) .1 (1.0) .1 (1.0) .1 (1.1)

1.6 (.5) 9.7 (.7) 1.8 (1.3) 42.2 (16.2) 4.2 (1.5) .02 (1.0) .0 (1.0) .0 (1.0) -.0 (1.0) .3 (.9) -.0 (1.0) .1 (1.0) .0 (1.0) .1 (1.0) .0 (1.0) .1 (1.0) .1 (1.0) .0 (1.0)

1.5 (.5) 9.7 (.8) 1.9 (1.4) 44.1 (16.9) 4.5 (1.4) -.04 (1.0) -.2 (1.0) -.0 (1.0) -.1 (1.0) -.2 (.8) -.2 (.9) -.2 (1.1) -.1 (1.0) .1 (1.0) -.0 (1.0) -.1 (1.0) .1 (1.0) -.0 (1.0)

39


characteristics of these four family forms. Parents from father and mother families tend to have a higher occupational status score, higher academic and social interest, a higher cultural activity and possession level, greater family wealth, stronger educational support, and more educational resources. On the whole single-mother families have the lowest scores on these resources, although sometimes the lowest position is for the father, mother and other familyadult family form. Therefore the differences in achievement scores, as shown by Table 1, can be (partly) explained by these resource differences between the four family forms and thus Table 1 might give an exaggerated picture of the differences in educational achievement of pupils from the four family forms. Therefore, Table 1 cannot prove cross-national differences in the relationship between family form and educational achievement, because these crossnational differences may be partly explained by the different sociological characteristics of the four family forms between the countries. In Table 3 we present both the demographical characteristics and the key indicators of the family policies of the countries in the study. The precise coding and sources for these indicators are given in Pong et al. (2003). In a few cases one characteristic or indicator of a country was not available. We estimated the value of that missing characteristic or indicator, using all other observed values of that country and all other countries. The estimated values are given in Table 3 between parentheses. No country has more than one missing characteristic or indicator. 6.2 Results from multi-level analysis Our multilevel analyses, as shown in Table 4, have four steps, both for reading and math score as a dependent variable. The first model is a regression with three family forms (mother and male guardian; single mother; father, mother and other family adult) as dichotomous variables and the father and mother family form as a reference category. The coefficients of these three dichotomous variables give the difference between the score of pupils from that family form and that of pupils with father and mother. A negative coefficient means that the score of the pupils of that family form is lower than that of pupils with father and mother. Given the results from Table 1, which are analogous to those of model 1, it will be no surprise that these three coefficients are negative. These coefficients are significant, because they are larger that twice their standard deviations. Model 2 adds the sociological and demographic characteristics of parents and students to the regression. Adding these characteristics, which all have significant coefficients, decreases the strength of the three family-form variables considerably. Therefore, a part of the lower score on reading and math of pupils from single mother, mother and male guardian or father, mother and other family adult is caused by their less favourable economic and social conditions. But the still significant coefficients of model 2 also show that pupils of these three family forms still score lower on reading and math, even if they share the same economic and social conditions as pupils with father and mother. 40


Greece

Germany

France

Finland

Denmark

Canada

Belgium

Austria

Australia


Sources: see Pong et al. (2003)

Ireland 26.7 423 0 6 0.48 20 80 66

34.4 914 7.4 16 2.35 16 100 96

19.8 603 2.1 25 2.65 14 0 116

35.5 684 9.1 21 2.54 38 100 139

20.8 (272) 4.9 13 1.24 14 100 22

23.8 (135) 0.3 7 0.8 16 100 31

39.6 808 7.2 18 2.53 65 75 29

27.6 855 6.3 21 2.97 18 45 131

20.1 232 0 21 4.57 12 0 73

0.3 0.25 0.1 0.08 1.98 1.53 0.37 0.54 0.01 0.06 0.08 0.57 (0.20) 1.31 0.16 0.04 2.57 0.48 0.28 (0.68) 0.45 0.19 0.19 0.55 0.8 0.21 0.04 0.04 0.08 0.12 0.09 (0.00) 0.46 0.1 0.05 1.31 0.07 0

25.2 217 3 11 0 14 70 174

Italy

19.5 77 3.2 11 0.74 16 50 13

Netherlands

27.5 528 4.9 19 2.04 14 100 59

New Zealand

31.9 1305 7.1 12 2.01 16 84 6

Norway

33.8 383 6.2 16 2.7 44 80 260

Portugal

33.9 1012 5.2 19 2.63 28 90 136

Spain

30.6 25.5 318 10.4 2.4 11 20 3.45 2.7 15 15 80 55 144 (97)

Sweden

29.9 1012 11.3 15 2.11 16 100 30

UK

17.7 511 3.4 18 4.34 52 0 237

USA

Social expansions per GDP Family transfers per child Children allowances % lone-parent families Crude divorce rates 1994 Maternity leave Maternity leave benefits Relative child benefit loneparent & 2 kids Family services 1992 Maternity & parental leave 1992

Country

Table 3. Family policies and demographic characteristics by country (between parenthesis estimations).


41


Table 4. The unstandardized regression coefficients of the four family-form variables on the two dependent variables reading and math score Model 1), after controlling for social and economic characteristics of parents and students (model 2), intermediary variables (model 3) and significant interaction variables between family form & family policies and demographic characteristics and related main effects of family policies and demographic characteristics (model 4). Standard deviations between parenthesis. Reading score Model Family form Mother and father only (ref.) Mother and male guardian Single mother

1

2

Math score 3

4

1

2

3

4

1.00

1.00

1.00

1.00

1.00

1.00

1.00

1.00

-17.8 (1.5) -16.4 (1.2) Father and mother and -27.2 grandparent (1.2) Social and economic characteristics Sex

-4.7 (1.3) -8.1 (1.1) -17.6 (1.1)

-7.0 (1.3) -10.2 (1.0) -16.5 (1.0)

-5.7 (2.4) -8.7 (1.8) -16.4 (2.1)

-19.6 (1.3) -16.1 (1.0) -17.9 (1.1)

-8.1 (1.2) -7.8 (1.0) -13.1 (1.0)

-10.0 (1.2) -9.9 (.9) -12.3 (1.0)

-10.2 (1.2) -1.2 (3.2) -24.3 (2.5)

School grade Age in months Number of siblings Father‘s or mother’s ISEI Mother’s education Family wealth index Family cultural possession index Home educational resources index

42

-24.7 -21.9 -21.9 (.7) (.6) (.6) 45.2 40.1 40.1 (.7) (.6) (.6) -.7 -.7 -.7 (.1) (.09) (.09) -5.5 -4.5 -4.5 (.3) (.2) (.2) .8 .7 .7 (.02) (.02) (.02) 6.6 6.2 6.2 (.3) (.3) (.3) -1.5 .1 .1 (.4) (.4) (.4) 11.4 6.9 6.9 (.4) (.4) (.4) 9.0 7.6 7.6 (.4) (.4) (.4)

13.4 15.0 15.0 (.6) (.6) (.6) 37.4 33.3 33.3 (.6) (.6) (.6) -.8 -.9 -.9 (.1) (.1) (.1) -3.4 -2.7 -2.7 (.3) (.2) (.2) .6 .6 .6 (.02) (.02) (.02) 5.6 5.3 5.3 (.3) (.3) (.3) 1.0 2.3 2.3 (.4) (.4) (.4) 6.6 3.8 3.8 (.3) (.3) (.3) 8.2 7.8 7.8 (.4) (.3) (.3)



Table 4. Continued. Reading score Model

1

2

Math score 3

4

1

2

3

4

Behavioral and attitudinal characteristics Parents‘ academic interest Parents‘ social interest

10.8 10.8 7.3 7.3 (.4) (.4) (.4) (.4) 1.7 1.7 -.6 -.6 (.4) (.4) (.4) (.4) Pupils cultural 6.6 6.6 5.5 5.5 activities index (.3) (.3) (.3) (.3) Family educational -18.3 -18.3 -14.4 -14.4 support index (.3) (.3) (.3) (.3) Time spent on 8.6 8.6 6.3 6.3 homework (.3) (.3) (.3) (.3) Teacher support index -1.7 -1.7 -3.5 -3.5 (.4) (.4) (.4) (.4) Teacher-student 4.7 4.7 5.0 5.0 relationship index (.4) (.4) (.4) (.4) Disciplinary climate -3.7 -3.7 -2.1 -2.1 (.3) (.3) (.3) (.3) Achievement pressure -4.2 -4.2 -3.7 -3.7 index (.3) (.3) (.3) (.3) Sense of belonging in -.4 -.4 -1.6 -1.6 the school (.3) (.3) (.3) (.3) Significant interactions family form & family policies and demographic characteristics % lone-parent -.7 -.5 families* Single (.2) (.2) mother Maternity leave* .2 .2 Father, mother and (.03) (.03) other family adult Maternity leave* .1 Single mother (.03) Family policies and demographic characteristics % lone-parent families 1.4 3.2 (1.3) (1.3) Maternity leave .1 .4 (.2) (.2) -2*loglikelihood (IGLS) 670,382 656,156 651,529 651,491 656,982 646,956 643,629 643,591


43


In Model 3 we add behavioural and attitudinal characteristics of parents and pupils to the regression. One might interpret these characteristics as intermediary variables between the social and economic conditions of families, the different family forms and the educational achievement. As one can see, these characteristics are significant in explaining variation in educational achievement, but they do not decrease the negative coefficients of the three family forms. On the contrary, adding these behavioural and attitudinal characteristics strengthens the negative effects of the family forms ‘mother and male guardian’ and ‘single mother’. This suggests that these two family forms on average score higher on these positive behavioural and attitudinal characteristics than in the comparable father and mother familyform, and that this higher level of positive behavioural and attitudinal characteristics partly compensate the negative consequences for the educational achievement of pupils living in these two family forms. Model 3 is our final model for the individual variables. First we tested whether there is a significant variance in the coefficient of the three family forms at the country level. The multi-level programme allows us to measure the significance of the random slope of the three family-form variables of Model 3. The slopes of the ‘father, mother and other family adult’ variable and the ‘single-mother’ variable differ significantly in the reading equation between the countries, although the former far more then the latter.2 In the math equation only the slope of the ‘father, mother and other family-adult’ variable varies significantly.3 There is thus enough variation in the effect of the various family forms to test whether family policy and demographic context affect them. Our next step is to add, one by one to the regression of Model 3, the demographical characteristics and the family policy indicators at the third country level, both as a main effect (γ01(family policy)k) or γ02(demographic context)k) and as interaction variable with family form (γ11(family policy)k) or γ12(demographic context)k).We added the main effect and the corresponding interaction variable one by one, because adding the main effect and interaction variables of all demographical characteristics and the family policy indicators would need more degrees of freedom than we have at the country level. The coefficients of the interaction variables of these 20 multi-level regressions are given in Table 5. We don’t give the coefficients of the corresponding main effects, because they are not the focus of our study. There are only a limited number of significant interaction variables. The largest number of significant interaction variables is for the ‘single-mother’ variable. The interaction variables ‘single mother & maternity leave’, ‘single mother & % lone-parent families’, ‘single mother & crude divorce rates’, ‘single mother & relative child benefit lone-parent’, and ‘single-mother & family transfer per child’ are significant for the reading equation. The 2 Variance of 121.9 with a standard deviation of 50.0 for ’father, mother & other family adult’ and a variance of

32.6 with a standard deviation of 17.6 for ’single mother’.

3 Variance of 45.7 with a standard deviation of 22.2 for ’father, mother & other family adult’ and a variance of

10.9 with a standard deviation of 8.9 for ’single mother’.

44



Table 5. The unstandardized coefficients of the interaction variables between family form & family policies and demographic characteristics added to the relevant model 3. Standard deviations between parentheses.

Maternity leave Maternity leave benefits Relative child benefit lone-parent & 2 kids Family services 1992 Maternity & parental leave 1992

Single mother

Crude divorce rates 1994

Father, mother and other family adult

% Lone-parent families


Child allowances

Single mother

Family transfers per child

Father, mother and other family adult

Social expenditure per GDP

Math score


Reading score

.05 (.2) -.003 (.004) -.2 (.4) -.6 (.2) -2.5 (1.5) .06 (.04) -.05 (.09) -.009

.2 (.2) -.004 (.003) .5 (.3) -1.3 (.2) -6.2 (.9) .2 (.03) -.002 (.1) -.07

-.2 (.2) -.006 (.003) -.1 (.3) -.7 (.2) -3.5 (.9) .1 (.03) -.06 (.07) -.02

-.04 (.2) -.002 (.003) -.2 (.4) -.4 (.3) -2.1 (1.5) .06 (.04) -.1 (.1) -.02

.2 (.2) -.002 (.003) -.6 (.3) -.8 (.2) -3.8 (.9) .2 (.03) .1 (.1) -.04

.03 (.2) -.002 (.003) -.1 (.3) -.6 (.2) -2.0 (.9) .07 (.03) .04 (.06) .001

(.02) -.7 (1.9) -2.05 (4.1)

(.01) .4 (2.0) .8 (4.3)

(.01) -2.4 (1.4) .1 (3.1)

(.02) -.6 (1.7) -1.5 (3.8)

(.02) 2.0 (1.8) 5.1 (4.0)

(.01) -.4 (1.3) 3.7 (2.9)

same holds for the math equation, except for the last two. If an interaction variable is negative, this means that the negative effect of single mother increases: this is the case with all interaction variables, except the first. For instance, this means that an increase of 1% of lone-parent families in a population decreases the reading scores of pupils with a single mother by 0.7. A few significant interaction variables are found with the variable ‘mother and male guardian’: ‘mother and male guardian & social expenditure’, and ‘mother and male Changing families and their lifestyles

45


guardian & % lone-parent families’ for the reading equation, but for the math equation the latter is insignificant and the former has the opposite sign. Only the interaction variable ‘mother and male guardian & % lone-parent families’ is significant in the reading equation, but this is not true for the math equation. Model 4 of Table 4 is our final model. We added the variables ‘% lone-parent families’, ‘maternity leave’, ‘divorce crude rates’, ‘maternity leave’ and ‘relative child benefit lone parent’ as main effects and the corresponding significant interaction variables with the three family forms to the two equations. We deleted the insignificant interaction variables and those main effects which no longer had a significant corresponding interaction variable. The result of this procedure is Model 4 of Table 4. The interaction variable ‘% lone-parent families & single mother’ is significant for both the reading and math equation, and its sign means that the negative effect of single-motherhood on the educational achievement of her children increases with the increase of the percentage of lone-parent families in a population. Also the interaction variable ‘maternity leave & father, mother and other family adult’ is significant for both the reading and math equation, and its sign indicates that the negative effect of the family-form father, mother and other family adult becomes smaller with more weeks maternity leave. A comparable effect is also found for the interaction variable ‘maternity leave & single mother’, but only for the reading equation. The main effects of maternity leave and % lone-parent families are not significant in the reading equation, but are significant in the math equation. 7. Conclusion and discussion The first conclusion we can draw from this study is that the relationship between familyform and educational achievement is not equal in all the 19 countries, and is still not equal after controlling for social background of parents and pupils and their behavior and attitudes towards school. This is an important outcome because it confirms the former result of Pong et al. (2003), also if one uses a larger number of countries (19 in stead of 11), a larger variety of variables to control for the social and cultural background of parents and pupils and a different outcome indicator (not only math and science, but also reading). In particular the family forms ‘father, mother and other family adult’ and ‘single mother’ have no equal effects in these 19 countries. This conclusion runs clearly against earlier results (Pryor and Rodgers, 2001) claiming that there are no significant differences between countries in the magnitude of differences between children from separated and intact families. The main cause of this difference is the restriction of most divorce research to a few Anglo-Saxon countries, which vary too little in their family policy and demographic characteristics in order to have significant differences.

46



We can explain these differences by taking into account the percentage of lone-parent families and the generosity of maternity leave in these societies4. One percent more loneparent families in a society decreases the reading score of pupils with a single mother by 0.7 points and the math score by 0.5. The range of 15 percent lone-parent families between the lowest (Italy: 6) and the highest country (US) thus produces a difference of 10.5 points for reading and 7.5 points for math for Italian pupils with single mothers compared to the single-mother pupils in the US with the same sociological and demographic characteristics. The same holds for maternity leave. One week more maternity-leave in a society increases the reading scores of pupils living with father, mother and other family adult by 0.2 points and the reading score of pupils with single mothers by 0.1 point. The range of 40 weeks between Australia and the USA thus produces a higher score of eight points for Australian pupils with father, mother and other family adult and four points for pupils with Australian single mothers in Australia compared to pupils in the US with the same sociological and demographic characteristics and living in the same family form. The high percentage of lone-parent families and the low level of maternity leave in the US thus partly explains the low average score of US pupils in the cross-national comparison of educational outcomes. Pong et al. (2003) report the same demographical context and family-policy indicator as relevant for explaining cross-national differences in effects of single-motherhood on the educational achievement of her children. It is also interesting that only maternity leave has a significant effect on the coefficient of single-motherhood and the family form ‘father, mother and other family adult’, but not the other more traditional family- and social policy indicators, like social expenditure, family transfers, child allowances, child benefits, etc. Maternity leave can be interpreted as an indication of public generosity for working and single mothers to stay with their children, if that is necessary. Are these other more traditional family and social policy instruments only helpful for the traditional nuclear family with one or 1.5 breadwinner? Are the children of single mothers most helped if their mothers have sufficient time available for them? Finally, the most important result of this study is the one showing that family policy has a significant effect on children’s educational achievement and thus on the standing of that society in the world. Social policy can make a real difference, both for children and for society as a whole.

4 Maternity leave can be interpreted as an indication of public generosity for working and single-mothers to stay

with their children, if that is necessary.


47


References Amato, P.R. and B. Keith, 1991. Parental Divorce and Adult Well-being: A Meta-analysis. Journal of Marriage and Family 53: 43-58. Baker, M., 1995. Canadian family policies: Cross-national comparisons. Toronto: University of Toronto. Becker, G., 1981. A Treatise on the Family. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. Bradshaw, J., S. Kennedy, M. Kilkey, S. Hutton, A. Corden, T. Eardley, H. Holmes and J. Neale, 1996. The employment of lone parents: A comparison of policy in 20 countries. York, UK: Family Policy Studies Centre. Bryk, A.S. and S.W. Raudenbush, 1992. Hierarchical Linear Models: Application and Data Analysis. Newbury Park: Sage. Coleman, J.S., 1988. Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology 94: 95-120. Esping-Andersen, G., 1990. The three worlds of welfare capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press. Cornia, G.A. and S. Danziger, 1997. Child poverty and deprivation. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Ganzeboom, H.B.G, P. De Graaf, D.J. Treiman and J. De Leeuw, 1992. A standard international socioeconomic index of occupational status. Social Science Research 21: 1-56. Gauthier, A.H., 1996. The state and the family. A comparative analysis of family policies in industrialized countries. Oxford: Clarendom Press. Goode, W.J., 1962. Marital satisfaction and instability: A cross-cultural class analysis of divorce rates. In: R. Bendix and S.M. Lipset (eds), Class, Status, and Power, pp. 377-87. New York: The Free Press. Härkönen, J. and J. Dronkers, 2006. Stability and Change in the Educational Gradient of Divorce. A Comparison of Seventeen Countries. European Sociological Review 22: 501-7. Hill, S.H. and G.J. Duncan, 1987. Parental family income and the socioeconomic attainment of children. Social Science Research 16: 39-73. Hox, J., 2002. Multivariate Analysis. Techniques and Applications. Mahwah (NJ), London: Lawrence Erlbaum. Leibowitz, A., 1974. Home investment in children. Journal of Political Economy 83: 111-31. Lesthaeghe, R., 2000. Europe’s demographic issues: Fertility, household formation, and replacement migration. Paper presented at the Joint conference of the British Society for Population Studies and the Nederlandse Vereniging voor Demografie, the University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands OECD, 1999. Classifying educational programmes. Manual for ISCED97 implementation for OECD countries. Paris: OECD. OECD, 2000a. Manual for the PISA 2000 Database. Paris: OECD. Available at: http://www.pisa. oecd.org/. OECD, 2000b. PISA 2000 Technical Report. Paris: OECD. Available at: http://www.pisa.oecd. org/ Pong, S., J. Dronkers and G. Hampden-Thompson, 2003. Family Policies and Children’s School Achievement in Single- Versus Two-Parent Families. Journal of Marriage and Family 65: 681-99.

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Pryor, J. and B. Rodgers, 2001. Children in Changing Families. Life after Parental Separation. Oxford: Blackwell. Schneider, B. and J.S. Coleman, 1993. Parents, Their Children, and Schools. Boulder: Westview Press. Shavit, Y. and H.P. Blossfeld, 1993. Persistent Inequality: A Comparative Analysis of Educational Stratification in Thirteen Countries. Boulder: Westview Press. Snijders, T.A.B. and R.J. Bosker, 1999. Multilevel Analysis. An Introduction to Basic and Advanced Multilevel Modelling. London/Thousand Oaks/New Delhi: Sage. United Nations, 1996. Demographic yearbook. New York: United Nations. United Nations, 2000. Demographic yearbook. New York: United Nations. Warm, T.A., 1985. Weighted Maximum Likelihood Estimation of Ability in Item Response Theory with Tests Finite Length. Oklahoma City: US Coast Guard Institute.


49


Appendix from Pong et al., 2003 Country-level variables Demographic variables % Lone-parent families

Crude divorce rates

Description

Source

Lone-parent families as a percentage of all families in the early 1990s

Bradshaw et al. (1996), Table 1.2. Figure for Canada comes from Baker (1995) United Nations (1996), Table 14 United Nations (2000)

Divorce per 1,000 average population, 1994

% Births to mothers Births to mothers under 20 as a percentage under 20 of all births in 1993-1998 Family policy variables Family / Child allowances Cash benefits for a family with two children over the period of 1986-1990, measured as the percentage of average male manufacturing wage in 1990. Universal child benefits Monthly values of non-means-tested child to lone parents benefits paid to a lone parent with 2 children aged 7 and 8, relative to average male earnings, in Sterling purchasing power parities, 1994. Benefits in tax & security Differences in tax and social security per to lone parents month paid by lone parents as compared with the payments by married couples, in Sterling purchasing power parities, 1994, for parents with average earnings and with two children aged 7 and 8. Family transfers per child Family transfers in cash per child under 15 years of age in 1984. Social Expenditure per Government social expenditure as GDP percentage of GDP, 1990 Maternity leave benefits Benefits as a percentage of female worker salary, 1996.

50

Gauthier (1996), Table 10.1, p. 166

Bradshaw et al. (1996), Table 5.1. Figure for Canada comes from Phipps (1999), p.57 Bradshaw et al. (1996), Table 5.4

Cornia and Danziger, Table 4.3 Cornia and Danziger, Table 4.1 Lesthaeghe (2000)


Farmer looking for a wife: marital behaviour of the farming population in nineteenth-century Netherlands Frans van Poppel, Peter Ekamper and Hanna van Solinge Abstract In the past few years, the position of Dutch farmers on the marriage market has received a lot of attention in the media. Using large-scale micro-data on more than 1 million marriages in five Dutch provinces, we examine hitherto hardly-studied aspects of the marriage pattern of the agricultural population in the Netherlands in the nineteenth and early twentieth century: the ages at which marriages were contracted, the age differences between spouses, the frequency of remarriage, and the geographic origin of spouses. We compare marriage patterns of those who earn their living in agriculture, with that of the rest of the population. With this article we will try to shed more light on an issue that has been raised before in an article by De Hoog (1988), namely whether or not there is support for Hofstee’s (Hofstee, 1962) conclusion that the agrarian-artisanal marriage pattern has disappeared from the Netherlands. 1. Introduction During the second half of the nineteenth century the age at marriage in the Netherlands declined by some 1.0-1.5 years. At the same time the proportion of males and females contracting a marriage increased from around 85 to more than 90 percent. These changes might look futile; nonetheless, they were considered to be a fundamental change in the marriage pattern and a central aspect of the first demographic transition. It was the Wageningen sociologist E.W. Hofstee who formulated an influential theory on these changes in the Dutch marriage pattern. In a series of articles he argued that in an agrarian and artisanal economy, marriage had to be delayed until a business, a farm, a workshop, a cottage or at least a dwelling became available. In most cases, this occurred only at the father’s death. Late marriage and high proportions of never-married men and women were the result. A shift away from this restrictive nuptiality pattern – the so-called agrarian-artisanal stage – occurred as the result of the ‘proletarisation’ of a large section of the rural population. During the Industrial Revolution employment outside the family-related artisanal workshops or agricultural enterprises increased very fast, the result being that an ever larger section of the population became both economically independent and capable of establishing a household at an earlier age. The weakening of the bond between employers and employees made it meaningless to postpone marriage until a permanent status had been attained. As a consequence of this process of proletarisation, agricultural and industrial workers broke loose from the traditional marriage pattern and it became increasingly common for them to marry young. Celibacy rates decreased as well in this so-called ‘proletarian phase’ (Hofstee, 1954; Hofstee, 1981). In a later stage, in which marital fertility was brought under Changing families and their lifestyles

51

Frans van Poppel, Peter Ekamper and Hanna van Solinge

control, the corrective function of the old marriage pattern became obsolete and a more natural tendency to marry earlier emerged. According to Hofstee (1962), from 1890 on the agrarian-artisanal pattern disappeared, even among farmers, due to the wider use of old (extended nursing, coitus interruptus, abortion, abstinence, douching) and more modern methods of contraception (the pessarium occlusivum, condoms, jellies, safe periods, and sterilization), and the increasing job opportunities outside agriculture. Key elements in Hofstee’s theory are the frequency with which and the ages at which marriages among farmers were contracted. The empirical basis of Hofstee’s work, however, was rather limited. Given the –at that time– limited availability of micro-level data, Hofstee had to rely on very crude macro indicators, which offered only limited possibilities for the examination of differential marriage behaviour for farmers, rural workers, artisans or other social classes. Hofstee’s work was mainly descriptive, and the underlying sociological aspects of marriage as one of the key institutions in society remained largely untouched. We argue that insight into how and when couples were formed is essential for understanding matrimonial life. Demographic factors such as age difference between husband and wife, the degree to which marital dissolution is followed by remarriage and the degree to which spouses are selected from nearby or more far-off regions are not only relevant because they have demographic consequences, these characteristics may also determine the type of relationships that are established in the household: the organization of family labour, the distribution of roles within the household, the power and sexual relationship between men and women, etc. In this contribution we will address some of the underlying sociological aspects of marriage. Using large scale micro-data from the GENLIAS-project5, we will examine hitherto hardlystudied aspects of the marriage pattern of the agricultural population of the Netherlands in the nineteenth and early twentieth century in relation to that of two other social class groups: farm labourers and the non-farming population. In a mainly descriptive and exploratory way, four characteristics of that marriage pattern will be studied: the ages at which marriages were contracted, the age differences between spouses, the frequency of remarriage, and the geographic origin of spouses. With this article we will try to shed more light on an issue that has been raised before in an article by De Hoog (1988), i.e. whether or not the agrarian-artisan marriage pattern has disappeared from the Netherlands. And if so, when that took place? The organization of this contribution is as follows. Section 2 provides an overview of the research literature on marriage patterns and marital behaviour in historical populations. The main focus in this section is on the differences between those earning their living in agriculture and the rest of the population. The data and measures that are used will be 5

For more information see: http://www.genlias.nl/en/page0.jsp

52


Farmer looking for a wife

discussed in section 3. Section 4 presents the results. The final section evaluates the findings in the light of the leading research question: was Hofstee right to conclude that the agrarianartisan marriage pattern had disappeared from the Netherlands since 1860-1870? 2. M arriage patterns and behaviour of historical populations: an overview of the literature From the various occupational censuses that were held in the nineteenth and early twentieth century we know that definitive celibacy rates among farmers, labourers in agriculture and the rest of the population varied considerably. Between 89.5 and 91.6 percent of the farmers born in the period 1829-1915 had once been married (Figure 1). Among labourers in agriculture on the other hand quite a large proportion never married. The proportion ever married even decreased over time; from 84.1 percent in birth cohort 1829-38 to 77.6 percent in birth cohort 1871-80. For the population as a whole, between 88.2 and 89.4 percent of males born between 1829 and 1880 had once contracted a marriage. For the birth cohort 1906-15 this was even 93.3 percent (Frinking and Van Poppel, 1979). 2.1 Age at marriage The age at which people contracted their marriage was of great social significance. At least until the beginning of World War II, marriage was considered to be the event which signified the final farewell to youth, more so than leaving school, entering the workforce or leaving the 100 90 80

Percentage

70 60 Farmers Farm labourers Total population

50 40 30 20 10 0 1829-38

1839-48

1849-58

1861-70

1871-80

1881-90 1891-1900 1906-15

Birth cohort Values for 1881-90 and 1891-1900 have been interpolated

Figure 1. Percentage ever-married males by social class of husband and birth cohort.


53


family of origin (Modell et al., 1976). The age at marriage was the outcome of a calculation of costs and benefits by the couple, their close relatives, and friends. Marriage was not only desired for the emotional benefits of family life or access to legitimate sexual intercourse, but also for material benefits, guaranteed social security and support in old age. In marriage individuals could satisfy their psychological, sexual and social needs but they knew that if marriage occurred at the wrong time or to the wrong person, there would be serious consequences in terms of socio-economic position and personal happiness (Macfarlane, 1986). To establish a new household a couple had to have saved enough and had to have the skills necessary to run a household. Acquiring the resources and skills necessary for marriage was a protracted process for both potential partners, but the length of time involved varied over time and between different social groups (Wrigley et al., 1997). How did this work out for the farmers and workers in agriculture? Farmers were expected to marry when they were settled in some business or farm which enabled them to support a family. Often one had to wait until the death of the father or mother before being able to take over a family holding or could only buy one at a later age. Control of the farm could also pass to a new couple when the parents were still alive. In that case, the heir agreed to provide for his parents and, if present, his unmarried siblings. As a consequence, men were only able and ready to marry at a rather late age. The main socio-economic resource a woman brought into marriage related to her capacity to perform domestic labour. Physical resources, such as energy and good health, that were vital for being able to help with harvesting, giving birth to and rearing children, were highest at relatively young ages. On the other hand, experience, which went hand in hand with age, was valued high among farmers. This may have dampened the preferences for young brides to some extent. Contrary to farmers, agricultural labourers could already have established the means to manage their own household at a relatively young age. Their age profile of income - rapidly increasing during adolescence and continually decreasing after the first stage of adulthood - made them comparatively more attractive at a younger age (Oppenheimer, 1988; Tilly, 1984). Like other wage earners, they lacked possessions and prospects to acquire these and thus were not forced to postpone getting married. In judging the consequences of the decision whether or not to marry and in balancing the costs and advantages of marriage, the wider economic situation played an important role. In periods of lowered real wages and with uncertain prospects for employment marriage might be postponed or cancelled. A continued period of increased wages and opportunities for labour might lead to a shortening of the period normally necessary to accumulate the savings for marriage and thus to lower ages at marriage (Macfarlane, 1986).

54



2.2 Age differences The respective ages of the bride and groom were an important concern in nineteenth century society. Popular proverbs and sayings like ‘Young with old is like hot with cold’, ‘A young wife is an old man’s coffin’ and ‘Young women are the horses on which old men ride to hell’ reflected the low degree of tolerance of these ‘May-December’ marriages among the population at large (De Cock, 1911). In the nineteenth century, particularly in rural areas, rough music (charivari) was quite common as a sign of protest against marriages between older men and much younger women or old women and much younger men (Meertens, 1961). Marriage between couples who were ill-matched in age was seen as a reversal of the natural order, whereas couples in which the husband was much older were praised because of the allegedly higher fertility of those unions (Segalen, 1983). Historians have viewed the level of age heterogamy between spouses as an important indicator of the nature of the relationship between men and women. Large age differences were assumed to lower the standard of marital sexuality and to cause a lack of synchrony in the lifecycles of spouses (Mitterauer and Sieder, 1982). Large age differences were said to reinforce the husband’s ability to demand submission from his younger bride during marriage and were considered indicative of a lower status of women (Bras and Todd, 1981; Hochstadt, 1982; Ware, 1981). Sieder (1978) emphasized that large age differences between spouses also had consequences for their daily relations and style of communication. The experience of belonging to the same age cohort contributed to commonality in daily experiences and conversation between the couple and to romantic love as a basis for partner choice (Shorter, 1975). Large age differences in favour of the male also implied large age differences between father and child, and were likely to strengthen his parental authority over the children. Several authors have argued that age differences between spouses were particularly outspoken among farmers. Schlumbohm (1991), found in nineteenth-century Germany larger age differences among propertied peasant couples than among the land-poor or landless ones. Bonneuil (1992) on the other hand concluded from a sample of French marriages during the nineteenth century that large age differences between spouses were much less common among farmers or agricultural labourers. 2.3 Remarriage In the nineteenth century, mortality was still very high and many marriages were terminated after a very short duration by the death of one of the spouses. This was a disaster for the household. Remarriage was regarded as a ‘first line of defence, entered into in order to safeguard the continued existence of the surviving members of the household’ (Sogner and Dupâquier, 1981). Whether or not a marriage was the first one for both partners or whether one of the spouses had been married before could have a strong effect on the relationship between the couple, their children and the wider family (Van Poppel, 1992). Remarriages following the loss of a spouse resulted in a complex family structure in which children were Changing families and their lifestyles

55


co-residing with stepparents and stepsiblings and were affiliated with three different families. According to Segalen (1983) these new alliances implied a different kind of relationship from that prevailing in a first marriage; remarrying men understood that their wife was indispensable to them to look after the farm and to care for the (step)children. One might assume that in such a situation husbands would impose their authority over their wives to a lesser degree. Remarriage was the rule in rural society, especially for men. The system of production hinged around the co-operating couple. The division of labour on the farm was based upon a complementarity of sex roles. Both husband and wife had their own parts to play in the production unit of the farming household and a widow or widower could not continue without the aid of a partner of the opposite sex. A widower’s situation was perhaps more difficult than that of a widow as the male sex role was more rigid than the female (Gaunt and Lofgren, 1981). Grigg (1977) argued that urban residents did not feel the same pressure to remarry as farmers as it was not necessary there to have a couple at the head of every household. 2.4 Spatial distance between marriage partners Information on the geographical proximity of marriage partners has been widely used to study the geographical range of social and economic activities of people and as a measure for the spatial distribution of the knowledge of people and places around the home base (Coleman and Haskey, 1986). Sociologists have used time trends in marriage horizons as an index of the modernization of Western societies. The fundamental economic, social and cultural changes in Western Europe during the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth century were supposed to result in a broadening of people’s horizons resulting in a decline in people’s preference for members of their own community. In nineteenth-century society, it was physically very difficult for individuals to maintain a courtship over a distance of more than a few kilometres from their own village: connections were rather bad and transport opportunities very limited. Five kilometres - an hour’s walk for a young countryman - was perhaps the greatest distance that the average man was prepared to walk to and fro at fairly frequent intervals (Renard, 1984; Rosenthal, 1985). Historical studies on the relationship between social class and the geographic origin of the marriage partners reveal large differences in ‘marriage fields’ between agricultural and non-agricultural communities: marriage among the agricultural population was geographically much more tightly circumscribed than in the rest of the population. Ogden (1980) pointed to the fact that those ‘in industrial, commercial or service occupations had greater opportunities and need to travel both locally and further a-field and, except on relatively rare social occasions, or trips to the local market, the peasant tended to be rooted to the soil’. Given the strong tendency to marry within a particular occupational or social group, the opportunity to do so was naturally restricted by size of these groups in the nineteenth-century village. So, limited availability of marriage partners within one’s own community may also have led to the search for a partner over longer distances. 56



Agricultural labourers were also more tied to their area. They were constrained by low wages and the operation of local and regional labour markets. Compared with the agricultural population, the other social classes are assumed to have been more mobile. The upper and middle class possessed the time and money to travel far and often, and had more knowledge of further-off areas, giving them an advantage in getting in touch with areas further away from their place of birth, and thus selecting their marriage partners from a much wider area. They disposed of wider means of communication and participated in a geographically more extensive political, economical and friendship network. Skilled and unskilled manual workers outside agriculture might have been stimulated by the operation of regional labour markets to search for a partner further away than the agricultural population. 3. Methods 3.1 Data This study is based on data collected directly from Dutch marriage certificates. These certificates provide information on age at marriage, marital status and occupation of the spouses are they are available for the entire period from the beginning of the Civil Registration (1811-1812) up to 1922, the final year for which the marriage certificates were publicly accessible. The data have been collected within the framework of the socalled GENLIAS-project. With the help of a large number of volunteers, the information on the marriage certificates has been entered into a database. Data entry was restricted to information essential for reconstructing a family tree, such as the date and place of marriage, the names and ages of the bride and groom, the names of the bride’s and the groom’s parents, the places of birth of the bride and groom, the marital status of bride and groom, and the occupation of bride and groom. For this study, we used the complete information for five of the eleven Dutch provinces: Gelderland, Groningen, Limburg, Overijssel and Zeeland. The data represent 35 percent of all marriages contracted in the Netherlands in the period 1812-1922, and might be considered to provide a fairly accurate description of Dutch marriages in that time period. As Table 1 shows, the total sample was fairly evenly distributed over the selected provinces. Couples living in rural areas at the time of marriage dominate the sample.6 Farmers made up 19 percent and workers in agriculture 24 percent of the sample; a large majority of the grooms belonged to the skilled and unskilled workers outside agriculture (45%). The percentage of farmers was relatively high (21-27 percent) in Limburg, Overijssel, and Gelderland. In Groningen and Zeeland the percentage of farmers was around 10 percent. Much of this difference was a result of the scale of farming. Limburg, Overijssel and Gelderland were regions where small-scale farming dominated at the time. In connection with this 6 In most cases, the place where the marriage was contracted was the woman’s place of residence. Marriages had

to be contracted in the place of residence of one of the spouses.


57


Table 1. Descriptive statistics. Number Status groom Farmers Farm labourers Non-agricultural population Period of marriage 1812-19 1820-29 1830-39 1840-49 1850-59 1860-69 1870-79 1880-89 1890-99 1900-09 1910-22 Region Limburg Zeeland Overijssel Gelderland Groningen Place of residence Rural Urban First marriage/Remarriage for males First marriage Remarriage Age at marriage for males 14-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-49 50+ Total sample

Percentage of sample for each variable:

191,328 233,306 613,120

18.4 22.5 59.1

42,435 57,079 63,191 70,483 82,616 92,288 99,072 94,759 109,695 125,714 200,064

4.1 5.5 6.1 6.8 8.0 8.9 9.5 9.1 10.6 12.1 19.3

171,730 157,214 218,618 288,720 201,472

16.5 15.1 21.1 27.8 19.4

360,891 676,863

34.8 65.2

898,076 139,678

86.5 13.5

10,399 249,768 366,166 196,398 93,975 81,055 39,993 1,037,754

1.0 24.1 35.3 18.9 9.1 7.8 3.9

Source: GENLIAS and ISIS database.

58



development, it is understandable that provinces that had large-scale farming were also the provinces where large numbers of (unskilled) farm workers found employment. The regions selected in this study have a highly diverse socio-economic structure, and manifest large differences in family structure and family relations. There is a vast body of literature on the differences in economic structure between the economic heartland, that is the (urban) part of the provinces of South and North Holland, the highly productive agricultural coastal provinces (Zeeland and Groningen) and the eastern and southern Netherlands, in our case the provinces of Limburg, and Overijssel (e.g., Bieleman, 1992; De Vries and Van der Woude, 1997; Van Zanden, 1985). In general, the provinces of Holland, Groningen and Zeeland had far more intensive contacts with the outside world through the well-developed transportation network, the seaports, and their highly market-oriented agricultural activities. In addition, the level of literacy differed considerably across the various provinces. In Groningen and Zeeland, the economy was almost entirely dependent on agriculture, with large-scale and productive farms producing specialized primary products. The economy of Zeeland started to change after 1900 when industrialization took place. Some decades earlier, the Groningen peat districts had become an area of important industrial development; industrial activities here were based mainly on agricultural products. In the eastern and southern provinces, agriculture was for a long period the most important activity. Yet, farms in the provinces of Overijssel, Gelderland and Limburg were much smaller, the infrastructure less well developed and the productivity of land and labour in these inland regions was almost half that of the coastal provinces of Holland, Groningen and Zeeland. From the end of the nineteenth century, coal mining became an important economic activity in Limburg and in the capital city of Maastricht large-scale industries developed for the first time in the Netherlands. In the province of Overijssel, from 1860-1870 on, cotton-spinning, together with bleaching works and machine manufacturing became very prominent in the Twente district. 3.2 Measures for age, age differences and geographic origin of spouses Our discussion of the age at marriage is based on two quantitative measures. In the first place the typical (or mean) age at which this transition occurred. Life events – such as marriage – are subject to age norms. Age norms defining and sanctioning the proper age to marry actually encompass a range of behaviour, allowing some freedom of choice. The extent to which the age at marriage is considered a strict norm and deviations from that norm are allowed, is reflected by the fluctuation in the age at marriage around the mean age at transition. To study this we calculated the standard deviations in the age at marriage.


59


Many statistics are available to measure age differences between spouses. A commonly used indicator of the degree of age similarity is the difference between the mean ages at marriage of men and women. In this study, age differences are calculated at the couple level by subtracting the age at first marriage of women by that of men. We will make a distinction between couples with more or less the same age (age difference in elapsed years between minus and plus one), couples with an age difference between two and four elapsed years (men older or women older), couples with an age difference between five and nine elapsed years (men older or women older), and couples differing ten or more years in age (idem). For the study of trends in remarriage over time, and across the different social classes, we rely on a simple ratio of remarriages to all marriages. This measure has some weaknesses. Differences in migration, in mortality, and in the frequency of and the age at first marriage can all lead to changes in the proportion of widows and widowers in the population, and thus to changes in the proportional importance of remarriage, whereas the individual probabilities of remarriage could be left unaffected (Watkins, 1983). To study the geographical horizon of spouses from the various social classes we will use a simple distance measure. To do that we determined the exact location of the places of birth of bride and groom as mentioned in the marriage certificate and assigned geographic coordinates according to the Netherlands National Coordinate System – Rijksdriehoeksmeting –, the Netherlands’ geodetic or surveying reference system (De Bruijne et al., 2005). In a second step, the distance (in kilometres in a straight line) between the two locations was calculated. Distances have been grouped into categories. The first category refers to contacts with neighbouring villages (walking distance, up to about 5 km, the own community included, in two hours back and forth), a second zone relates to contacts with communities directly contiguous to the first zone (a radius of 5-20 km, the supposed maximum walking and later on, cycling distance), enabling regular face-to-face contact to be maintained, the third one includes interaction up to about 40 km, and the fourth one includes contacts above 40 km. The chosen scales of interaction have been used by other authors as well (Millard, 1982; Morel, 1972). We only present here information on the two most extreme categories: marriages between brides and grooms of which the places of birth were no more than five kilometres separated from each other, and marriages in which more than 40 kilometres separated bride and groom at the time of birth. It is the concentration of marriages in these two classes that most strongly expresses the degree to which a particular group is directed towards the strictly local community and the more distant world respectively. 3.3 Social class The marriage certificate contains information on the occupation of the groom and this allows us to study how class differences matter for the chosen indicators of the marriage pattern. The occupational titles are self-reported titles and were given by the men and women themselves at the time the certificate was drawn up. A comparative study requires a classification system 60



that allows the classification of occupations in a system that is applicable for the whole period and for both sexes. Such a system has to accommodate historical occupations such as lamplighters and barrel-makers as well as modern ones such as electronic engineers. We used a recently developed coding scheme called the Historical International Standard Classification of Occupations (HISCO), which translates occupational descriptions covering a long historical time, various languages and countries in a common code, compatible with the International Labor Organisation’s International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO68) scheme (Van Leeuwen et al., 2002). These historical occupational titles were subsequently classified into a social class scheme recently proposed by Van Leeuwen and Maas (2005). The original twelve classes7 have been condensed to three. To gain a clear view of the position of those working in agriculture, we will compare the marriage behaviour of farmers and of (unskilled and lower-skilled) farm labourers with that of the non-farming population as a whole. This does not imply that differences within this last group are absent; by combining the non-agricultural groups we are able to focus on the contrast that is for our purposes the most relevant one. 4. Results 4.1 Age at marriage In studying age at marriage and age differences between spouses, we used only information on marriages in which either the husband or his wife had not been married before. Figures 2 and 3 provide information on the age at which the transition to married life took place among males and females from the three social classes. During the whole 110-year period, farmers had by far the highest age at marriage. First marriages among males in this group were, on average, contracted when the husbands-to-be had almost reached or were well past their 30th birthday. Farm labourers married on average three to four years earlier, between ages 26 and 28. The non-farming population started married life circa three years earlier than the farmers. A second observation relates to changes in the age at marriage over time. First of all, during the period 1830-1860, an increase in the age at marriage was visible and it was not until 1860 that the age at marriage reached former lower levels again. This trend was visible in all social classes. The increase was, however, rather small (between 0.5 and 1.0 years). A much more fundamental change took place after 1860-1870; from then on farmers, farm labourers and the non-farming population started to marry at ever younger ages. In the

7 Higher managers, higher professionals, lower managers, lower professionals and clerical and sales personnel,

lower clerical and sales personnel, foremen, skilled workers, farmers, lower-skilled workers, lower-skilled farm workers, unskilled workers and finally unskilled farm workers.


61


33.0 32.0 31.0 In years

30.0 29.0 28.0 27.0 26.0 25.0 24.0

Non-farming Farm labourer Farmer

23.0

1812-1919 1910-22 1830-39 1850-59 1870-79 1890-99 1820-29 1840-49 1860-69 1880-89 1900-09 Period

Figure 2. Mean age at first marriage for males, by social class and period of marriage.

33.0 32.0 31.0

In years

30.0


29.0 28.0 27.0 26.0 25.0 24.0 23.0 1812-1919 1910-22 1830-39 1850-59 1870-79 1890-99 1820-29 1840-49 1860-69 1880-89 1900-09 Period

Figure 3. Mean age at first marriage for females, by social class of husband and period of marriage.

62



1910s, farm labourers married two years earlier than in the first decades of the nineteenth century, farmers and the non-farming population 1.5 years earlier When women’s ages at marriage were classified according to their husband’s social class, less pronounced differences were visible. Until around 1860, women from all social classes married at about the same age. After 1860, however, a strong decrease in ages at marriage can be observed. There was however an important difference in the situation among men. Whereas ages at marriage for women marrying a farmer decreased after 1860 by around one year, the marriage age among farm labourers’ wives declined by almost three years, that among wives married to non-farming husbands by two years. As a consequence, in the more recent periods social class differences in women’s ages at marriage were larger than before. There were large differences between farmers (and between other social classes as well) in ages at marriage depending on the region in which they were residing (see Figure 4). The time trends were more or less the same, but the ages at marriage varied and the speed with which the ages changed differed considerably. Farmers in Zeeland married some two to three years earlier than those in Gelderland and Limburg and these differences remained more or less constant over time. Farmers in Groningen and Overijssel married in the first half of the nineteenth century around one year later than those in Zeeland but afterwards contracted marriages at about the same age. For labourers in agriculture (figure not shown) almost the same provincial differences are observed: farm labourers in Zeeland and Groningen married on average three

34.0 33.0 32.0

In years

31.0 30.0 29.0 28.0 27.0 26.0 25.0

Gelderland Groningen Limburg Overijssel Zeeland

24.0 1812-1919 1910-22 1830-39 1850-59 1870-79 1890-99 1820-29 1840-49 1860-69 1880-89 1900-09 Period

Figure 4. Mean age at first marriage for males among farmers, by period of marriage and province.


63


to four years earlier than those in Limburg and Gelderland. The non-agricultural population showed the same regional pattern as the farmers and farm labourers. The decrease in the age at marriage has mainly been related to the process of economic and social transformation that in the Netherlands started from the second half of the 1860s onwards and of which the growth of the national income, industrialisation, proletarisation and urbanisation were the key aspects. Industrialisation caused a strong growth in the number of permanent jobs which provided relative security of employment and a stable income. For the labouring classes, the increase in real wages made it easier to support a family and to start a life on their own and a drop in age at marriage was the result (Van den Brink, 1936). The growing role of the state as provider of services, and the declining importance of inheritance and employment within family businesses also stimulated earlier marriage. The decision to marry reflected not only pressures and incentives of an economic nature. The formation of an industrial urban working population also brought about a cultural transformation. Young people from the working class became more independent and self-confident, had a weaker bond with their parents and greater autonomy, allowing them to escape from the sexual restrictions laid down by their parents. They were free to strive for individual instead of familial goals (Shorter, 1975). Matthijs (2003) has argued that the changed social position and gender identity of women, together with the fact that they were pushed back into the private living environment played a key role in the decline in age at marriage. Over the course of the nineteenth century women were increasingly excluded from the public world (decreased employment outside the home, a more genderspecific division of tasks) and in response to this they developed a separate female status scale within their private world, which revolved around a good marriage, a clean home, etc. From then on, women had to look for social appreciation and individual recognition within these environments. Matthijs’s hypothesis is that low-status groups saw marriage as a means of social emancipation; a form of imitation of highly esteemed private behaviour which was typical of the middle and high-status groups. Marrying early was for them a way to gain access to the world and the private role behaviour of the higher-status groups. This emotionalisation of interpersonal relationships and the domesticisation and development of affective partner relationships were only possible because the economy permitted them. Although farmers were affected by these developments as well, their age at marriage remained relatively high. They remained dependent on the acquisition of a farm, an event that was postponed more and more by the decrease in mortality and increasing ages of death of their parents. They were hardly attached by the trend of domesticisation of women as becomes clear when comparing the labour force participation of farmer’s wives at the time of marriage with that of other social groups. Farmer’s wives hardly had the chance to retreat into the private world (Van Poppel et al., 2006). The standard deviation provides an indication of the extent to which marriages were concentrated in a restricted age interval. Data are given for males only (Figure 5). The lowest standard deviation was found among farm labourers, the highest among farmers. 64



This is remarkable given the strong internal heterogeneity among the group of non-farming husbands. It has been suggested that the high degree of variation in the age at marriage in agricultural communities was related to the fact that the age at which a farmer’s son could marry depended on the moment at which the farm was passed on to him. The father’s state of health was a significant factor in the timing of this transaction, as was the health of his wife and her willingness to surrender her position. The family circumstances of the bride also played a role. Under these complicated conditions one could hardly speak of a ‘normal age’ at marriage among farmers (Mitterauer, 1992). Among females, the standard deviation was much lower but here too a decrease over time was visible, indicating a much lesser degree of variation in ages at marriage. Over time there was a clear decrease in variation in age at marriage. This has been related to a weakening of economic fluctuations, and decreasing exigencies brought on by morbidity and mortality and by the economic uncertainties which characterized family life. Sudden deaths, accidents, periods of unemployment, and sickness made it necessary for a long time for families to be able to call on members over a period of many years, thereby enforcing them to postpone marriage. After the third quarter of the nineteenth century the creation of non-familial responses to meet the material exigencies of life, social benefits, unemployment insurance, pensions and the like, rendered life more predictable and the role of the family as 10.0 9.0 8.0 7.0 6.0 5.0 4.0


3.0 2.0 1.0 0.0 1812-1919 1910-22 1830-39 1850-59 1870-79 1890-99 1820-29 1840-49 1860-69 1880-89 1900-09 Period

Figure 5. Standard deviation of the age at first marriage for males, by social class and period of marriage.


65


a safety net less important. As a result, marriage became less dependent on the fluctuations brought about by the unpredictable misfortunes of the economy and the family (Modell et al., 1976). 4.2 Age differences between spouses A first idea of age differences between spouses can be given by subtracting the average age at first marriage of women from that of men. Couples of which the husband was a farmer were in all provinces characterized by large age differences; in all provinces, excepted Limburg, these differences could be between 4 and 5 years. Over time a decrease in age disparities is visible in all provinces. More detailed information on age differences is given in Figure 6. This figure presents the percentage of all first marriages (first marriages of husband and wife) in which the spouses had almost the same age (age difference less than two years) and the percentage of wifemuch-younger marriages (age differences 5 years or more). Again, farmers stood out; in this group a smaller proportion of marriages were characterized by age-homogeneity and a much higher proportion by extreme age differences. In around 45 percent of all first marriages contracted by farmers men were more than five years older than their wives; for 50.0 45.0 40.0

Percentage

35.0 30.0 25.0 20.0 15.0 10.0 5.0

< 2 yrs. non-farming < 2 yrs. farm labourer < 2 yrs. farmer > 5 yrs. non-farming > 5 yrs. farm labourer > 5 yrs. farmer

0.0 1812-1919 1910-22 1830-39 1850-59 1870-79 1890-99 1820-29 1840-49 1860-69 1880-89 1900-09 Period

Figure 6. Age differences between spouses at first marriage by period of marriage and social class.

66



labourers in agriculture and for other social groups that percentage was in the order of 30-35 percent. In particular after 1880 age-homogeneous marriages became more numerous and ‘May-December’ marriages much less frequent. However, even in the most recent period farmers’ couples were characterized by much larger age differences than other couples, both in terms of the ‘mean age difference’ as in terms of the proportion of marriages within the large age-difference categories. The increase in preferences for spouses of about the same age has been related to the creation of a specific youth culture with its own lifestyle that strengthened the cultural barriers between age cohorts and thus increased the preference for a partner of about the same age. The decreasing authority of age seniors and their cultural resources, the increasing rejection of the notion that a husband should have a moral and spiritual superiority over his wife have played a role as well. Also the structural opportunities of young unmarried people to meet potential partners of about their own age have increased since the last quarter of the nineteenth century due to the process of educational expansion and the formation of clubs and other informal organizations of age peers. Rising levels of income, reduction of the number of working hours and working days, and the growth of all kinds of entertainment increased the opportunities of the sexes to meet each other in a leisurely atmosphere, characterized by experimentation and mingling of the sexes. New public institutions like dancing halls and cinemas were oriented towards couples rather than crowds and admission to these leisure-time meeting-places was practically reserved to members of the same age group. 4.3 Remarriage Figure 7 shows what percentage remarriages were of the total number of marriages contracted by males from the various social classes. A clear social gradient can be observed; in all periods second and third (and higher order) marriages made up a much higher proportion of all contracted marriages among farmers than among the two other social groups. In all groups the percentage of remarriages has more than halved in the period studied. This decrease took place in particular from the 1870s on, the period in which adult mortality started to decline. Strong regional differences in the proportion of remarriages can be observed, especially among farmers. In Zeeland around 25 percent of all marriages by farmers were contracted by men and women who had been married earlier, in Gelderland only 7 percent. These differences were not only related to differences in ages at first marriage, but also to differences in the risk of marital dissolution due to death. Zeeland was the province characterized by much higher mortality than any other included province and by rather low ages at marriage. The decrease in the proportion of remarriages over time was the result of a series of processes that affected all social classes: the fall in mortality, leading to higher ages at widowhood, and thus to decreased chances of remarriage; the decline in the supply of marriageable people as a result of decreased celibacy rates; the decline in the number of families depending on Changing families and their lifestyles

67


25.0

In years

20.0

15.0

10.0

5.0

Farm labourer Farmer Non-farming

0.0 1812-1919 1910-22 1830-39 1850-59 1870-79 1890-99 1820-29 1840-49 1860-69 1880-89 1900-09 Period

Figure 7. Percentage non-first marriages for males, by social class and period of marriage.

family production, leading to a shift in the necessity to fill the vacant position of the deceased husband or wife; the growing importance of emotional considerations in choosing to remarry, in particular a romanticisation and idealisation of the deceased partner, with whom one had lived for a longer and longer period; the setting up of widows’ pension funds, retirement schemes and public assistance, making remarriage less necessary, changes in inheritance laws, improving the legal position of the surviving spouse and sexual liberalization, making (re)marriage no longer a prerequisite for sexual relations. 4.4 Geographical changes in partner choice Figure 8 presents geometric mean distances between the place of birth of the groom and the birth place of the bride, by period of marriage, and social class of the groom for four provinces.8 The two groups that had their basis in farming found their bride at a very small distance. Until well into the nineteenth century, farmers on average were born only around five kilometres away from their brides and farm labourers only a little bit further (between 7 and 8 kilometres). The non-farming population found their brides over a much wider distance (around 20 kilometres). Distances in this group increased strongly after 1890, reaching 30 km in the 1920-22 period. For farmers the increase was very limited. 8 Data for Gelderland were not available.

68


Farmer looking for a wife 35.0 30.0

Kms

25.0 20.0 15.0 10.0

Farmers Farm labourers Non-farming

5.0 0.0 1812-1919 1910-22 1830-39 1850-59 1870-79 1890-99 1820-29 1840-49 1860-69 1880-89 1900-09 Period

Figure 8. Mean average distance in km between birthplace of bride and groom by social class of groom and period of marriage.

The local orientation of farmers and farm labourers is also visible when we look at distance categories (Figure 9). Between 50 and 60 percent of all farmers married a wife that was born less than five kilometres away from their own place of birth; for farm labourers that percentage was between 45 and 50 percent. Over time, the local orientation of the farmers became less strong but that of farm labourers even increased. Only after 1910 did the horizon of farmers and farm labourers widen a little bit. For farmers and farm workers marrying someone who was born more than 40 km away was very rare and usually concerned less than five percent of all marriages. Men working outside agriculture had a much lesser local orientation (with hardly 40 percent of the couples born less than five kilometres from each other) and a greatly increasing quantity of all couples married someone who was coming from a further distance (more than 40 km away). This percentage increased from 16-17 percent to more than 27 percent in the 1920s. There are clear differences visible in the horizon of people that contracted a marriage in the various provinces (Table 2). Until the last decades of the nineteenth century the horizon of people in Limburg and Zeeland stretched less far than those of people in Groningen and Overijssel; on average the difference was around 2.5 to 3 kilometres between the former and the latter provinces. After the first decades of the twentieth century Limburg grooms Changing families and their lifestyles

69


70 60

Percentage

50 40 30 20

< 5 km. non-farming < 5 km. farm labourer > 40 km. farmer

< 5 km. farmer > 40 km. non-farming > 40 km. farm labourer

10 0 1812-1919 1910-22 1830-39 1850-59 1870-79 1890-99 1820-29 1840-49 1860-69 1880-89 1900-09 Period

Figure 9. Percentage of all marriages, with a distance of less than 5 or more then 40 km between places of birth of bride and groom, by social class of groom and period of marriage.

found their brides further away than grooms in any other province. The horizon of farmers, however, stretched out less far than those of farmers in the other provinces throughout the whole period. The widening of the geographical horizon of Dutch couples in the late-nineteenth century had first of all to do with the enormous improvement in transportation. New and improved roads and canals, new means of transport such as the train, the bicycle, the tram and the motorcar made it easier to get around. New methods of communication, telegraph, telephone, postal services- brought a wider range of potential spouses within reach. Income increased, giving larger numbers of people access to these faster travel means (Pooley and Turnbull, 1998). It was also significant that the Netherlands became in cultural respects more and more of a unity. Distinctive local accents, phrases and vocabulary decreased in importance, changing the degree to which members of the national community could communicate with each other. Local dresses, customs and habits disappeared and in that way the visibility of the fact that a person came from outside the community decreased. National newspapers and political and economic integration caused an ever-growing connectedness, emotionally as well as cognitively, between regions and their inhabitants, stimulating cultural homogenization. Identification with the national state created a sense of membership of 70



Table 2. Geometric mean distances (in km) between the birthplace of the groom and the place of birth of the bride, by period of marriage, and social class of the groom in Groningen, Limburg, Overijssel, and Zeeland. Period

1812-1819 1820-1829 1830-1839 1840-1849 1850-1859 1860-1869 1870-1879 1880-1889 1890-1899 1900-1909 1910-1919 1920-1922

Groningen

Limburg

farmers

farm nonlabourers farming

all

5.5 6.5 6.3 6.6 7.0 7.0 8.3 8.2 9.1 10.0 10.8 14.6

11.8 8.9 8.1 7.5 7.3 8.0 8.2 7.8 8.1 7.0 7.1 7.6

18.2 15.1 13.7 13.0 14.1 15.6 15.7 14.2 14.8 15.4 16.4 18.2

24.1 20.2 18.2 17.3 19.3 21.4 21.1 18.8 19.5 21.0 22.5 24.7

Overijssel farmers 1812-1819 1820-1829 1830-1839 1840-1849 1850-1859 1860-1869 1870-1879 1880-1889 1890-1899 1900-1909 1910-1919 1920-1922

7.4 6.3 5.2 6.0 6.2 6.2 6.0 5.8 5.9 6.2 8.3 8.2

farmers

3.8 3.9 3.7 3.3 3.6 3.7 4.0 4.0 4.5 4.9 6.1 6.8

farm nonlabourers farming

all

5.0 6.3 5.3 5.9 6.3 6.0 5.5 5.9 7.9 8.4 14.4 18.8

15.5 17.7 16.9 19.2 18.2 18.1 16.7 15.3 16.6 18.9 27.1 34.5

10.0 12.1 11.4 12.8 12.6 12.4 11.6 11.2 12.5 14.4 21.6 29.3

farm labourers 7.2 6.3 6.2 5.4 4.3 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.8 6.5 6.4

nonfarming 18.9 18.2 23.7 20.2 19.9 20.0 19.8 19.8 21.3 22.8 30.1 31.2

all

Zeeland farm labourers 10.7 10.1 12.7 13.0 11.6 11.4 11.8 11.5 11.3 12.4 13.2 13.1

nonfarming 22.0 20.5 20.4 19.8 20.2 20.4 18.8 19.5 22.1 26.7 30.0 27.3


all

farmers

14.6 14.6 14.9 14.9 14.8 14.8 14.0 14.6 16.7 20.9 24.0 22.7

6.2 4.9 5.4 5.3 5.3 5.4 5.7 5.4 6.0 6.6 10.2 10.6

12.6 11.6 14.3 12.2 11.5 11.5 11.8 12.2 13.4 14.7 20.2 21.8

71


a national community thereby decreasing the role of regional identities and facilitating interaction (Knippenberg and De Pater, 1988). The opportunities to meet potential spouses from other than the own region increased (Watkins, 1991). The expansion of the modern economy broke down local economic boundaries and incorporated labour and capital in larger exchange networks. National labour market integration increased the possibility of direct interaction among people from different communities. Local sporting clubs, political parties, and labour unions became part of tightly organized national networks. Since the last quarter of the nineteenth century, educational expansion at the secondary and university level brought with it social intercourse between youngsters from a wide variety of areas. The increase in wages, and the reduction in working hours, made it possible to extend the sphere of contact. General conscription led to regular displacement of individuals and to contacts with locals from a variety of regions (De Vos, 1984; Hofstee, 1962). Although the mechanization of agriculture reduced the degree to which agricultural labourers and farmers were restricted in their movements and the stronger orientation towards production for the market increased the need to get in touch with the outside world, the social differences in the geographical horizon increased nonetheless. This had to do with a combination of factors, such as the lagging-behind of the communication and transport systems in rural areas, stronger cultural isolation, lower incomes, and a lessintegrated labour market. 5. Conclusion and discussion Starting form the mid-nineteenth century, Dutch society experienced a process of economic and social transformation of which the growth of the national income, industrialisation, proletarisation and urbanisation were the key aspects. These fundamental changes have affected personal life in a variety of ways. In this contribution we concentrated on one aspect of personal life, namely marriage. We studied whether and to what extent marriage behaviour changed in the nineteenth and early-twentieth century. We examined the marriage patterns of the agricultural population of the Netherlands in relation to that of other social classes. Using large scale micro-data from the GENLIAS project on more than 1 million marriages contracted in the period between 1881 and 1922, we studied four key characteristics of that marriage pattern: the ages at which marriages were contracted, the age differences between spouses, the frequency of remarriage, and the geographic origin of spouses. The results of this study affirm the general trend in the Dutch marriage pattern as observed by Hofstee (1962). In the course of the nineteenth century more people entered marriage, and they did so on average at an earlier age. This was the case among farmers, farm workers, as well as the non-farming population. Among the farming population, however, the pace of these changes was markedly slower. The data suggest that the farming population in the Netherlands held on to the ‘agrarian-artisanal marriage pattern’ much longer than the other social classes did. In the period under study, farmers had by far the highest age at marriage: 72



they entered marriage on average around their 30th birthday; their brides were on average 4 years younger. Although age-homogeneous marriages became more common, marriages with large age differences between spouses remained more characteristic for the farming population. Further, the marriage market of the farming population remained much more locally orientated than that of the non-farming population. Whereas the marriage horizon of the latter group changed dramatically in the course of the nineteenth century, farmers remained very much focused on their own community. The majority of brides and grooms were born within a circle of 5-6 kilometres. Putting these findings together, we do find only limited support for Hofstee’s conclusion (1962) that the agrarian-artisanal marriage pattern disappeared in the Netherlands. Traces of this marriage pattern remained visible among the farming population in the Netherlands throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century. According to De Hoog (1988), this traditional marriage pattern did survive even until the 1980s. The norm that marriage had to be postponed until the farmer’s son had acquired his own property, the preference for a marriage partner with an equal (i.e. farming) background, combined with the strong orientation towards the local marriage market have put a restriction on the marriage opportunities of farmer sons in particular. The relative isolation of the countryside, the distressing perspectives for the agrarian sector in the Netherlands and the marginalization of the farming class in the past decades have intensified this unfavourable position at the marriage market. Meanwhile, agrarian youngsters are pushing back frontiers. Developments in the new media have opened up new horizons. Internet dating has enlarged the marriage market enormously, even across the borders. As a result marriages to Polish or Ukrainian brides are not uncommon nowadays in agrarian circles. More recently, the difficult marriage position of single farmers has received a lot of public attention. The Dutch TV show ‘Farmer looking for a wife’ has made the partner selection process of single farmers a subject of public entertainment. Although these developments will presumably not cause fundamental shifts in the marriage patterns of the agrarian population as a whole, they do mark significant changes in orientation in the generally closed rural communities. References Bieleman, J., 1992. Geschiedenis van de landbouw in Nederland 1500-1950. Meppel: Boom. Bonneuil, N., 1992. Démographie de la nuptialité au XIXe siècle. In J. Dupâquier and D. Kessler (eds.), La société française au XIXe siècle, Tradition, transition, transformations, pp. 83-120. Paris: Fayard. Bras, H. l., and E. Todd, 1981. L’invention de la France. Paris: Collection Pluriel. Coleman, D. A., and J.C. Haskey, 1986. Marital distance and its geographical orientation in England and Wales, 1979. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series 11(3): 337-55. De Bruijne, A., J. Van Buren, A. Kösters and H. Van der Marel, 2005. De geodetische referentiestelsels van Nederland. Definitie en vastlegging van ETRS89, RD en NAP en hun onderlinge relaties. Delft: Nederlandse Commissie voor Geodesie (Netherlands Geodetic Commission).


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De Cock, A., 1911. Spreekwoorden en zegswijzen over de vrouwen, de liefde en het huwelijk. Gent: Ad. Hoste. De Hoog, K., 1988. De boer en de huwelijksmarkt. Tijdschrift voor Huishoudkunde 9(2): 33-7. De Vos, L., 1984. De smeltkroes. De Belgische krijgsmacht als natievormende factor, 1830-1885. Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Nieuwste Geschiedenis- Revue Belge d’histoire Contemporaine 15: 421-60. De Vries, J., and A. Van der Woude, 1997. The First Modern Economy: Success, Failure, and Perseverance of the Dutch Economy, 1500–1815. New York: New York. Frinking, G.A.B. and F.W.A. Van Poppel, 1979. Een sociaal-demografische analyse van de huwelijkssluiting in Nederland [A sociodemographic analysis of nuptiality in the Netherlands] (Monografieën volkstelling 1971). ‘s-Gravenhage: Staatsuitgeverij. Gaunt, D. and O. Lofgren, 1981. Remarriage in the Nordic countries: the cultural and socio-economic background. In: J. Dupâquier, E. Helin, P. Laslett, M. Livi-Bacci and S. Sogner (eds.), Marriage and remarriage in populations of the past (pp. 49-60). London: Academic Press. Grigg, S., 1977. Toward a theory of remarriage: A case study of Newburyport at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Journal of Interdisciplinary History 8(2): 183-220. Hochstadt, S., 1982. Appendix: Demography and feminism. In P. Robertson (ed.), An experience of women. Pattern and change in nineteenth-century Europe, pp. 541-60. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Hofstee, E.W., 1954. Regionale verscheidenheid in de ontwikkeling van het aantal geboorten in Nederland in de 2e helft van de 19e eeuw, Academiedagen, Vol. 7: pp. 59-106. Amsterdam: KNAW. Hofstee, E.W., 1962. De groei van de Nederlandse bevolking. In: A.N.J. Den Hollander (ed.), Drift en Koers. Een halve eeuw sociale verandering in Nederland, pp. 13-84. Assen: Van Gorcum. Hofstee, E.W., 1981. Korte demografische geschiedenis van Nederland van 1800 tot heden. Haarlem: Fibula-Van Dishoeck. Knippenberg, H., and B. De Pater, 1988. De eenwording van Nederland. Schaalvergroting en integratie sinds 1800. Nijmegen: SUN. Macfarlane, A., 1986. Marriage and Love in England. Modes of Reproduction 1300-1840. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Matthijs, K., 2003. Demographic and sociological indicators of privatisation of marriage in the 19th century in Flanders European Journal of Population 19: 375-412. Meertens, P.J., 1961. Ketelmuziek in de Nederlanden. Neerlands Volksleven 12: 78-87. Millard, J., 1982. A new approach to the study of marriage horizons. Local Population Studies 28: 10-31. Mitterauer, M., 1992. A history of youth. Oxford: Blackwell. Mitterauer, M. and R. Sieder, 1982. The European Family. Patriarchy to partnership from the middle ages to the present. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Modell, J., F. Furstenberg and T. Hershberg, 1976. Social change and transitions to adulthood in historical perspective. Journal of Family History 1(1): 7-33. Morel, A., 1972. L’espace social d’un village picard. Etudes Rurales 45: 62-80.

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Ogden, P., 1980. Migration, marriage and the collapse of traditional peasant society in France. In: P. White and R. Woods (eds), The Ggeographical Impact of Migration, pp. 152-79. London etc.: Longman. Oppenheimer, V.K., 1988. A theory of marriage timing. American Journal of Sociology 94(3): 563-91. Pooley, C., and J. Turnbull, 1998. Migration and mobility in Britain since the 18th century. London: University College London Press. Renard, J.P., 1984. De l’intérêt du dépouillement d’actes de mariage dans le cadre général de l’étude des limites et frontières. Espace Populations Sociétés 1: 125-30. Rosenthal, C. J., 1985. Kinkeeping in the familial division of labor. Journal of Marriage and the Family 47(4): 965-974. Schlumbohm, J., 1991. Social differences in age at marriage: examples from rural Germany during the XVIIIth and XIXth centuries. In: S.B. d. Démographie (ed.), Historiens et Populations. Liber Amicorum Etienne Hélin, pp. 593-607. Louvain-la-Neuve: Academia. Segalen, M., 1983. Love and power in the peasant family. Rural France in the nineteenth century. Chicago/Oxford: The University of Chicago Press/ Basil Blackwell. Shorter, E., 1975. The making of the modern family. New York: Basic Books. Sieder, R., 1978. Strukturprobleme der Ländlichen Familie im 19. Jahrhundert. Zeitschrift für Bayerische Landesgeschichte 41: 173-217. Sogner, S., and J. Dupâquier, 1981. Introduction. In: J. Dupâquier, E. Helin, P. Laslett, M. Livi-Bacci and S. Sogner (eds), Marriage and remarriage in populations of the past, pp. 27-34. London: Academic Press. Tilly, C., 1984. Demographic origins of the European Proletariat. In: D. Levine (ed.), Proletarianization and family history, pp. 1-85. Orlando: Academic Press. Van den Brink, T., 1936. Het huwen, De bevolking van Amsterdam. Deel IV: Statistische studie over huwelijk, echtscheiding, geboorte, sterfte, vestiging en vertrek (naar aanleiding van de cijfers, voorkomende in Deel I dezer serie, Statistische Mededeeling no. 97), Vol. 103, pp. 1-38. Amsterdam. Van Leeuwen, M.H.D. and I. Maas, 2005. HISCLASS A historical social class scheme based on HISCO.Unpublished manuscript. Van Leeuwen, M. H. D., I. Maas and A. Miles, 2002. HISCO: Historical International Standard Classification of Occupations. Leuven: Leuven University Press. Van Poppel, F., 1992. Trouwen in Nederland. Een historisch-demografische analyse van de 19e en vroeg-20ste eeuw. Wageningen: AAG-bijdragen 33. Van Poppel, F., H. Van Dalen and E. Walhout, 2006. Diffusion of a social norm: Tracing the emergence of the housewife in the Netherlands, 1812-1922. Amsterdam etc.: Tinbergen Institute. Van Zanden, J.L., 1985. De economische ontwikkeling van de Nederlandse landbouw in de negentiende eeuw, 1800-1914. (AAG Bijdragen 25). Wageningen: WUR. Ware, H., 1981. Women, demography and development. (Demography teaching notes No. 3). Canberra: Australian National University. Watkins, S.C., 1983. Book review of ‘Marriage and Remarriage in Populations of the Past’, J. Dupâquier, E. Hélin, P. Laslett, M. Livi Bacci, and S. Sogner (eds.) Population Studies 37: 139-140.


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Watkins, S.C., 1991. From provinces into nations. Demographic Integration in Western Europe, 1870-1960. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Wrigley, E.A., R.S. Davies, J.E. Oeppen and R.S. Schofield, 1997. English Population History from family reconstitution 1580-1837. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Families, divorce and social class: the position of children, mothers, and fathers Ed Spruijt Abstract Is it true that parents with a low educational level are characterized by higher divorce rates than parents with a high educational level? And how is the wellbeing of children, mothers, and fathers after divorce? In this article these questions will be addressed by use of research among 1659 youngsters between 12-16 years of age. Where children live after divorce, with their mother, their father or with both consecutively in joint physical custody, is also studied. Does the living arrangement affect the wellbeing of the persons involved? Furthermore, divorce legislation and recent changes receive attention. What is the legal position of the three parties mentioned, children, fathers, and mothers after divorce? For all parties involved, but especially for children, preventive programmes regarding divorce appear to be useful. These programmes should especially be made available in schools where there are many children with divorced parents, like the Dutch VMBO (low vocational education), which brings us back to social class. 1. Introduction A long time ago, Kees de Hoog and Ed Spruijt wrote a paper about families and social class. This was when we were both studying sociology in Utrecht under the stimulating supervision of Kruijt and Groenman. This was in the pre-electronic age. Hence, unfortunately no copy of this paper was saved for posterity. Since then, Kees de Hoog have specialized further in family sociology and I have mostly studied divorce. This article offers a nice occasion to combine family and divorce once more. What is more straightforward than doing this from the ‘old-fashioned’ viewpoint of social class, or – in more contemporary terms – social inequality. After our studies Kees de Hoog and I met again during courses like the one from ‘Teleac’ on ‘Psychology of the family’ in 1991 (De Hoog, 1991), and at congresses and study days, such as in 1999 at the Dutch congress on ‘Families in Flux: consequences for fathers, mothers, and children’ [Gezinnen in Beweging: consequenties voor vaders, moeders en kinderen]. Back then already Kees de Hoog was pleading for explicit family policies (De Hoog, 2000). Finally, in 2007, he gets his way, with Rouvoet being the first Dutch Minister for Youth and Family. Those fathers, mothers and children also had our attention when we were involved in drawing up the Manifesto on the ‘Integrity of parenthood’, in 2004. Together with Wim Orbons and a group of other scientists, Kees de Hoog pleaded for equality in parenthood, especially for more attention and rights for fathers after divorce (De Hoog and Orbons,


77

Ed Spruijt

2004). I decided not to sign the manifesto because I found that the balance was too much in favour of the fathers’ interests rather than that of the children. Nevertheless, the manifesto is a nice starting point for a contribution to this memorable volume. The topic of this paper is whether there is a relationship between divorce and social class and what the position of fathers, mothers, and children in this is. This question entails the following sub-questions to be answered: • Is legislation regarding divorce aimed mainly at children, and/or at mothers and fathers? • Is there a connection between social class and divorce? • Which family types evolve after divorce and does this matter to the parties involved? • What advice can be given, based on scientific research, to the new minister for youth and families? 2. Divorce (after marriage or cohabitation) figures in the Netherlands The Netherlands with its divorce figures occupies a more or less median position in Europe. Per 1000 inhabitants there are 2.1 divorces every year. The Czech Republic is top of the list with 3.1, Belgium, Estonia and Latvia score 3.0, and at the bottom we find Italy and Spain with less than 1.0 formal divorces. In the years 2001-2005 there were about 37,000 divorces every year. About 5000 of those were so-called flash divorces (fast divorces without a judge involved), which have been possible since 2001 (Figure 1). The average age of men at divorce increased between 2001 and 2005 from 42.1 to 43.7 years and that of women from 39.2 to 40.7. Besides divorce as the official dissolution of a marriage there are also increasing numbers of dissolved cohabitations. The number of cohabitations (unmarried couples) has vastly increased in recent years. In 2005 the CBS (the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics) estimated that 18 percent of all couples were not married. The number of married couples was over 3.4

38

× 1,000

36 34 32 30 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005* Flash annulments Divorces

Figure 1. Divorce rates in the Netherlands between 1995 and 2005 (CBS, 2006).

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Families, divorce and social class

million in 2005 and the number of unmarried couples 750,000 (Van der Meulen and De Graaf, 2006). With this increase in the total number of unmarried couples the number of separations within this type of relationships is also growing. The CBS estimates that there are about 60,000 informal divorces yearly, involving in particular people younger than 30 years of age (Steenhof and Harmsen, 2002). 3. Number of children of divorce In about 60 percent of all divorces, including flash divorces, there are minors involved. Most of the times the number of minors involved is two. In total about 34,000 minors a year have to deal with the (official) divorce of their parents and about 5,000 with flash divorce (CBS, 2006). The CBS estimates that there are also around 18,000 minors involved in a divorce of their not-officially married parents (De Graaf, 2005). The total number of under-aged children involved in a formal or informal parental divorce can now be estimated at 57,000 a year (34,000+5,000+18,000). From the family perspective a number of children of legal age who still live at home can also be added to these numbers (estimated number per year is 13,000). This leads to a total of 70,000 children of divorce every year, who (still) live at home (Spruijt, 2007). 4. Legislation regarding divorce The starting point that after divorce both parents should have regular contact with their children was underlined with new legislation at the turn of the century. On January 1st 1998 the most common situation, where only the mother had parental authority while the father only had the right of contact, information and consultation, came to an end. In everyday language this was called custody (for the mother) and guardianship (for the father). Since January 1st 1998 shared legal parental custody is in principle the default after divorce. According to numbers from the CBS (De Graaf, 2006) shared legal parental custody stays intact after over 90 percent of divorces. In case a judicial court grants custody to only one of the parents, this is to the mother in at least three quarters of the cases. Since January 1st 2001 there has been the possibility to transform a marriage into a registered partnership. Registered partnership can, when both parties agree, be dissolved without involving a judge. The agreement has to be signed by both parties and a lawyer or notary, and after that registered with the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. Theoretically the procedure can be carried out fast (within a few days), which is the reason why it is called a flash divorce. The number of flash divorces has remained relatively stable over the last two years and amounts to about 5,000 a year. On average one under-aged child is involved. Flash divorce, and more generally the administrative divorce without judicial involvement, holds the attention of the public. The proposition for a law by former Minister of Justice Donner is still awaiting treatment by the Dutch government since the elections of November Changing families and their lifestyles

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22nd in 2006 (Antokolskaia, 2006). The most important points of discussion regarding changes in legislation concern the administrative divorce, reinforcement of the position of the non-resident parent, stimulation of mediation and, of course, the position of the children involved. The answer to the question ‘Is legislation regarding divorce aimed mainly at children, and/or at mothers and fathers?’ thus is that gradually the position of fathers and children is being reinforced. 5. Consequences of the law of January first, 1998 The changes in the law of 1998 were mainly based on the starting points of ‘more equality between parents and better care for children’s interests’. What can the research tell us about this? Based on about 2000 divorced parents and stepparents that were recruited through websites, Distelbrink and De Jongh (2006) conclude that since 1998 parents fight their battle about parental authority less frequently in front of a judge. But does this decline also apply to other, more minor points of disagreement? In the report ‘Children of divorce’ [Scheidingskinderen] a number of data on this is presented (Spruijt, 2007). In the first place it turns out that since 1998 there have been more regulated visitation agreements and that mothers, fathers and children better comply to these. Furthermore, children on average stay with their fathers more often; after divorces before 1998 this was on average 1.2 nights a week, after divorces since 1998 on average two nights a week. Related to this, children and their fathers after divorce since 1998 also have more frequent contact with each other. The conclusion thus has to be that children of parents who divorced after the law of January first, 1998, have significantly more contact with their fathers, as compared to children whose parents got divorced before 1998 (Spruijt, 2007). The next question then has to be whether this development makes children and their parents feel also better? This, however, is not the case. Children and mothers, on average, feel a bit worse; these differences are significant. There is no difference for fathers: how they feel about the situation does not depend on whether they got divorced before or after January 1st 1998. That children and mothers on average feel a bit worse may be attributed to the fact that the divorces after 1998 are by definition more recent and that children and mothers thus still have to come to terms with the divorce. From analyses, however, it appears that the number of years since the divorce in general has no impact on the well-being of children. Only the question whether the divorce took place before or after January 1st 1998, appears to be relevant (Spruijt, 2007). In short, contact between fathers and children has increased since the change in legislation in 1998. But this does not mean that children have fewer problems or feel better, on the contrary, they feel less good. How can this possibly be explained? From further analysis it appears that there is a clear connection between divorce before or after January 1st 1998, and the amount of conflicts between the parents. Not only has the contact between child and father significantly increased since 1998, but so has the number of rows between the 80



parents, and that has a negative influence on the children. The increased rows may very well be attributable to problems concerning parental authority. Children still live with one of their parents (mostly the mother) most of the time, but both parents have legal custody. This joint legal custody after divorce is new and complicated and, as it turns out, not easy in practice. Thus, it seems to be the right time for a next step: more (preventive) attention to parents and children for good practice in joint legal custody and more contact between children and fathers (and, more specifically, doing so with fewer rows) (Spruijt, 2007). 6. The research project Youth and Families 2006 In 2006, a research project entitled Youth and Families [ Jongeren en Gezinnen] was conducted at Utrecht University, among young people from 12 to 16 years of age. In this research the main question was what the effects of parental conflicts are on the wellbeing of children from both non-divorced and divorced families. In total, 1659 adolescents from 20 schools in 17 cities from all over the Netherlands contributed. The written questionnaires were filled in classically around May 1st 2006. There were no schools involved from Amsterdam, Rotterdam or The Hague, which makes this research representative for the Netherlands minus the three big cities. The research group of 1659 youngsters consists of 48.2 percent girls and 51.8 percent boys. The average age is 13.7 years, range 12-16. The percentage native youth is 86.6, the percentage non-native 13.4. To make the research group as representative for Dutch schoolgoing youth as possible, an extra number of VMBO schools (lower vocational education) was included in the study. Nationwide about 55 percent of the students attend the VMBO (www.minocw.nl). The distribution of youth by school type in the research is as follows: VMBO-(low) vocational: 23 percent; VMBO-(low) administrative: 21 percent; HAVO (secondary school): 22 percent; VWO/Gymnasium (pre-university education/grammar school): 34 percent. Thus VMBO-students are under-represented (added up to 44% against 55% nationwide), which is possibly related to the missing three big cities. Thirty-eight percent of the youth comes from first grade, 37 percent from second grade, and 25 percent from third grade. The distribution according to size of place of residence is as follows: country/villages: 40 percent; towns: 30 percent; (larger) cities: 30 percent. As to religion 55 percent claims to have no religion, 21 percent are Catholics, 12 percent are Protestants, 8 percent are Muslims and 4 percent have another religion. Finally, it has to be pointed out that 17 percent of the parents of the children of divorce have not been married but were cohabitating (Spruijt, 2007). 7. Divorce and social class In the lost paper mentioned in the introduction De Hoog and Spruijt operationalized social class by asking for education, profession and income. By now a vast body of literature about social class and social inequality has been published. Often, in the research about divorce, Changing families and their lifestyles

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only education is used as an indicator for social background (Fischer, 2004). In the research Youth and Families 2006 the educational level of fathers and mothers was also requested. The results are presented in Table 1. The average educational level of fathers is no longer much higher than that of mothers. Mothers are slightly more likely to be MAVO-educated (secondary school) and fathers are slightly more likely to have a scientific training. Harkonen and Dronkers (2006) pose, following William J. Goode, that the relationship between divorce and education shifts when a country is more developed and richer. They conclude that in prosperous countries women with a higher education get divorced less frequently. Do these findings hold for the Netherlands? It turns out that mothers and fathers who are both higher educated get divorced significantly less. Overall the percentage of divorced parents in the low educational classes is about 20 percent and in higher educational classes about 11 percent. When both parents are lower educated (lower vocational) the percentage of divorced parents is even 25 percent. It was also checked whether the difference in educational level between father and mother correlates with the chance of divorce. It appears that divorce rates do not or hardly differ when the mother is higher educated or when both have an equal level of education. Divorce rates, however, are clearly lower when the father is higher educated than mother. There is still a strong relationship between the educational level of parents and the educational level of children. The correlation coefficient between educational level of parents and the school type of young people, for instance, is 0.42. Therefore, it will not come as a surprise that there is a strong relationship between school type and percentage of children of divorce, as can be seen in Table 2. It is clear that children of divorced parents mostly go to the VMBO (lower vocational). How, on average, are children, fathers and mothers doing after divorce, when broken down by educational level? We have measured general well-being of young people, mothers and parents using the Cantril scale (Cantril, 1965). Table 3 depicts the numbers. Table 1. Educational level of fathers and mothers in percentages.

Low Vocational (l. o. / l. b.o.) Low/middle Vocational (m.a.v.o.) Middle Vocational (m.b.o.) Middle and High Vocational (h.a.v.o. / v.w.o.) Academic (h.b.o.) Scientific (w.o.)

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Fathers

Mothers

15 20 19 18 14 14 100=1659

12 26 19 21 14 8 100=1659



Table 2. Educational level youth and percentages of divorced parents. % divorced parents Low vocational (v.m.b.o.- beroeps) Low administrative (v.m.b.o.- theoretisch) Middle vocational (h.a.v.o.) High vocational (vwo) Grammar (gymnasium) Mean

24 20 17 14 3 18

Table 3. General wellbeing of children, mothers and fathers by family type and parental educational level. Intact families Parental educational low middle level:

high

total

low

middle

high

total

Children Mothers Fathers

7.9 7.6 7.7

7.8 7.7 7.7

7.3 7.3 7.1

7.5 7.5 6.8

7.1 6.9 7.1

7.4 7.4 6.9

7.7 7.6 7.6

7.8 7.7 7.7

Divorced families

The differences between the means of the intact and divorced families are significant. Youngsters, mothers and especially fathers feel less good in the divorced situation (look at the ‘total’ columns). The different scores for educational levels hardly differ in the intact families and a bit more within the divorced families. But it is not true that young people, mothers and fathers with a low educational level from the divorced families feel worse than family members with a middle and high educational level (see Table 3, 5th column compared with columns 6 and 7). The relatively bad score of fathers regardless of the educational level in the divorced families may be related to the living situation after divorce. Most children stay and live with their mother and it is thus usually the fathers who see their children less. In the research Youth and Families we have also made a distinction between mother-families after divorce, joint physical custody-families (the youth on average spends three nights with the one and four nights with the other parent) and father-families. Table 4 depicts the numbers. The high number of joint physical custody families, especially with boys, is striking. In 2001, 80 percent of the children still appeared to live with the mother after divorce and over 10 percent with the father and in about 4 percent of the cases there was joint physical custody Changing families and their lifestyles

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Table 4. Living situation of children after divorce in percentages.

Single-mother families Single-father families Joint physical custody

Boys

Girls

Boys and girls

71 08 21 100

78 10 12 100

75 09 16 100=289

(De Graaf, 2001). The research Youth and Families 2006 and other recent research (De Graaf, 2005) shows that joint physical custody is becoming more popular: about 15 percent of the children lives in such a situation after a divorce, according to the most recent findings. The percentage of father-families continues to be quite constant at around 10 percent. This raises the question of how the involved parties feel in the different family situations? The numbers are clear and interesting but have to be interpreted with care. Joint physical custody seems to be best for all parties, but that of course also has to do with the fact that in the case of joint physical custody parents have generally experienced fewer discordant divorces than other parents. The relatively low scores for general wellbeing of youth and mothers in the father-families may be related to the fact that youngsters with problems more often live with their father and that mothers are (overly) concerned about this. Table 5. General wellbeing of children, mothers and fathers by family type after divorce.

Children Mothers Fathers

Single-mother families Joint physical custody

Single-father families

7.5 7.5 6.8

6.7 6.3 7.1

7.6 7.7 7.1

8. Involving children in the divorce process The divorce of parents has a major impact on children. Therefore the rights, duties and interests of children in divorce and visitation trials (and thus also in legislation) have become central points in recent years. Still it appears that it is hard to get enough attention focused on the child. Parents make decisions for the child and determine what is in the best interests of their child. In reality children are never (under 12 years of age) or hardly ever (above 12 years of age) asked for their opinion, let alone for their advice regarding divorce and 84



visitation rights. The research for Youth and Families 2006, for instance, asked who the children had spoken to about their parents’ divorce. The percentages for the children’s judge, a lawyer, a mediator and someone from the Child Welfare Council are all around 10 percent (Spruijt, 2007). It also asked when the children first heard about the divorce: 45 percent only right before the divorce, and 19 percent even only during the divorce. Therefore, children mostly have a marginal position in the divorce process of their parents. There are clearly two visions on the role of the child in divorce. In one the child is seen as the victim of divorce, since the child is still dependent and in need of protection by adults. This vision plays in the background of a lot of research. The other vision draws on the research in development psychology, which shows that children achieve increasing autonomy during their life. This entails them forming judgements on increasingly more matters and being better capable of making decisions and carrying them out without direct assistance from others (Smart et al., 2001; Singendonk and Meesters, 2002). Parents ought to involve their children in their divorce at an earlier stage than they often do at present. Children clearly indicate this, as is shown in research by Van der Gun and De Jong (2005). Children should know what is going on, in order for them to be able to give their opinion. Good and open communication between family members is of the utmost importance. From research it appears that parents and children who reflect on the divorce would have wanted to talk more with each other about it. Talking about the changes after divorce is difficult, but important to come to terms with. By taking the age and development level of children into account and paying attention to their own perceptions it becomes easier to talk with children. Delfos (2001), in her book ‘Are you listening to me?’ describes the skills required for the conversation with children according to the child’s development level. In the conversations the emphasis should be on listening to the children. When they are still young, the conversation can be guided by play. Children of Kindergarten age cannot focus their attention on the conversation for long and sometimes find it easier to express themselves in a game. Also for children under eight it is wise to combine playing and talking. Parents who take their children seriously will reckon with the wishes of their children when taking decisions. In the visitation agreement, the different development stages of children should be taken into account. For example, it turns out that young children, as compared to older ones, gain more benefit from frequent, short visits to the parent who doesn’t take care of them daily. To summarize, children should have a more central place in the divorce process. This is possible by involving them in conversations at an early stage and by creating the space to listen to their perception of and vision on the divorce. 9. Play and talk group CIDS (Children In Divorce Situation) In the Netherlands, Nelly Snels and Maaike de Kort (www.klassenwerk.com) have developed the play and talk group CIDS for children of divorce. The children’s group is part of the care plan CIDS that encompasses children’s groups, parents’ groups, information meetings Changing families and their lifestyles

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and training sessions for CIDS coaches. In children’s groups, children (between the ages of 8 and 12) meet eight times at school to discuss several themes, from reminiscing to letting go the former family situation (Spruijt, et al., 2005). The effects of taking part in such a programme had not previously been studied in the Netherlands. Do kids benefit from it at all? Aren’t children talking each other into feeling more grief ? What do fathers think of it? For a first investigation of the effects of CIDS, 90 children, 90 fathers and 90 mothers were sent a letter with the request to fill out a questionnaire. About 65 kids had joined CIDS by then and 25 children were still on the waiting list (2004). So this considers a population research of the first class of CIDS children. Further and more extensive research is necessary. About 54 (60%) children’s information was returned. CIDS on average receives an 8.5 (on a scale from 1 to 10) from the children, mothers and fathers. Relatively least positive (7.6) are the fathers of younger children. The children who attended CIDS are on average doing better than the children on the waiting list: they understand their parents’ divorce better, their relationship with both mother and father is improving, the frequency of contact with the father (usually the absent parent) is on the increase. CIDS seems to have an even better effect on girls than for boys, and is suitable for both younger (8 and 9 year olds) and older (10, 11, and 12 year olds) children. Although the effect of joining a play and talk group for children after divorce should not be overestimated, according to the report the CIDS children clearly score better on a number of points. This research also shows that it is justified to emphasize the use of mediation and conferring with each other about the children before the divorce: the children do better if the parents have chosen one lawyer/mediator together. The frequency of contact with the absent parents appears to be important and different. Younger children require shorter but more frequent visits, older children longer but less frequent. The philosophy behind the research is that children benefit from information at an early stage and the recognition of their position regarding the parental divorce, that children benefit from prevention programmes, and that stimulation of mediation deserves support. 10. Conclusions It is remarkable that, in spite of the fact that divorce rates in the Netherlands and comparable countries have been relatively high for years, divorce does not seem to be fully accepted by either society or legislature. Facilities and legislation regarding divorce, especially as seen from the viewpoint of the child, can hardly be called adult. Maybe we rely too much on the fact that most divorces are carried out without too many major problems. Still the Child Welfare Council [Raad voor de Kinderbescherming], for instance, has to take action in almost 4,000 cases every year to advise legal courts about custody and/or visitation rights. In the area of facilities the Netherlands is lagging behind with many other countries. We can learn a lot from the arrangements abroad, for example, more attention for counselling and 86



programmes for children, and from the research into the effects of these arrangements. Also, the fact that there is a clear relationship between educational level and divorce should be an extra incentive for preventive measures for children from lower social backgrounds. From the societal as well as the judicial viewpoint it is important that action is taken in time, and that is sooner than now, or that people are helped to take action themselves. The legal obligation to have a number of counselling sessions, besides drawing up a parenting plan, would be an important signal to imply that children are truly important in a divorce process. In cases where it appears that parents are in too much conflict with each other – with the consensus thought in mind – mediation should be obligatory and accessible. Only after mediation should going to trial be an option. All of this is necessary in order to ensure continuance of joint parental custody widely in reality. The fact that families with a lower educational level are dissolved more often means that extra attention is needed for families from lower social backgrounds. 11. Recommendations Divorce is a process that starts long before the actual separation and sometimes lasts for years. Society and legislature do not sufficiently take this process-like nature of divorce into account yet. A lot of the negative effects for mothers, but especially and more so for fathers, could be prevented if there were enough and better legal and other measures for both the period before and after the divorce. Some of these measures are also mentioned in the Manifesto ‘Integrity of Parenthood’ [Integriteit van het Ouderschap] (De Hoog and Orbons, 2004). Conceivable measures include: 1. More explicit consideration of children: education, children’s programmes (e.g. in schools). The position of children during the whole period of divorce tends to be marginal. Children should, however, be informed about and prepared for their parents’ divorce. Their development level should, nevertheless, be taken into account as well. Children in particular appear to benefit from courses for themselves and their parents. These courses need, for that reason, to be accessible and widely available and free from financial constraints. 2. Tax rewards and visitation regulations. Essential for the healthy and balanced development of children is the experience that their parents can contain their conflicts and that the execution of an age-specific visitation regulation is guaranteed. Incentives work better than punishments and are a well-known way to influence behaviour. Well-functioning visitation agreements should be rewarded. When both parents declare once a year that the visitation agreement is functioning, a tax reduction could be awarded to both parties. This may seem an expensive measure but it will still yield a profit since it will prevent many problems for children (and their parents). 3. Stimulating travelling by parents instead of travelling by children. Changing families and their lifestyles

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In case of joint physical custody and visitation regulations, it is quite common for children move from one house to the other. It is not logical to put this burden exclusively on the children’s shoulders. Parents could also (temporarily) exchange places of residence. In case of a visitation agreement, for instance, agree that one night per week is dad’s night. The non-resident parent can stay with the children for one night and the resident parent has one night off, including possible new partners. 4. Focussed attention on children of divorce from lower social backgrounds. The fact that parents with a lower educational level divorce more often than other parents, and that most children of divorce are more likely to attend VMBO schools (low vocational), means that urgent attention should be given to prevention programmes for children in the lower school types and in less prosperous neighbourhoods. It is high time for a nationwide supply of care arrangements for children and young adolescents of conflicting parents, especially for children from lower social backgrounds. References Antokolskaia, M.V. (ed.), 2006. Herziening van het Echtscheidingsrecht. Administratieve Echtscheiding, Mediation, Voortgezet Ouderschap. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij SWP. Cantril, H., 1965. The Pattern of Human Concerns. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutger University Press. De Graaf, A., 2001. Ervaringen van kinderen met het ouderlijk gezin. Maandstatistiek van de Bevolking 49 (4), 12-15. CBS, Voorburg/Heerlen. De Graaf, A., 2005. Scheiden: motieven, verhuisgedrag en aard van de contacten. Voorburg: CBS Bevolkingstrends 53, 39-47. De Graaf, A., 2006. Aantal echtscheidingen neemt weer toe. Webmagazine (9-1-2006), CBS. De Hoog, K., 1991. Relatiemarkt en partnerkeuze. In: E. Spruijt (ed.), Psychologie van het Gezin, pp. 81-97. Utrecht: Stichting Teleac. De Hoog, K., 2000. Het belang van een expliciet gezinsbeleid. Bevolking en Gezin 29: 141-56. De Hoog, K. and W. Orbons, 2004. Manifest ‘Integriteit van het ouderschap’. www.conseo.nl. Delfos, M.F., 2001. Luister je wel naar mij? Gespreksvoering met kinderen tussen vier en twaalf jaar. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij SWP. Distelbrink, M. and W. de Jongh, 2006. Ouders en Scheiding. Juridische Aspecten van Scheiding en Stiefouderschap. Den Haag: NGR. Fischer, T., 2005. Parental divorce, Conflict and Resources. Dissertation, Radboud University Nijmegen. Harkonen, J., and J. Dronkers, 2006. Stability and change in the educational gradient of divorce. A comparison of seventeen countries. European Sociological Review 22, 501-7. Singendonk, K. and G. Meesters, 2002. Kind en Echtscheiding. Een Ontwikkelingspsychologisch Perspectief. Lisse: Swets & Zeitlinger B.V. Smart, C., A. Wade and B. Neale, 2001. Object van bezorgdheid? Kinderen en echtscheiding. In: C. v. Nijnatten and S. Sevenhuijsen (eds.), pp. 11-31. Dubbelleven. Nieuwe Perspectieven voor Kinderen na Echtscheiding. Amsterdam: Thela Thesis. Spruijt, E., 2007. Scheidingskinderen. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij SWP.

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Spruijt, E., J. Bredewold, A. Breunese, C. Chenevert, D. Feringa, A. Hardenberg, R. Harterink, Y. Hemminga, E. Hindriks, L. Hoenderdos, F. Okkerse, C. Thomas, T. Wong and S. Spruijt, 2005. Effecten van het volgen van KIES: Kinderen in Echtscheiding Situatie. Utrecht, Kinder- en Jeugdstudies (www.klassenwerk.com). Steenhof, L. and C. Harmsen, 2002. ‘Per jaar tweehonderdduizend nieuwe ex-en.’ Voorburg/Heerlen: CBS, Maandstatistiek van de bevolking. Van der Gun, F.J. and L. de Jong, 2005. Echtscheiding: Kiezen voor het Kind. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij SWP. Van der Meulen, A. and A. de Graaf, 2006. Samenwoonrelaties stabieler. Bevolkingstrends, 1e kwartaal 2006. Heerlen/Voorburg: Central Bureau of Statistics.


89

Stratification and inequality

Status symbols, distinction and difference: a contribution to the sociology of household consumption Ynte K. van Dam Abstract Status symbols are usually associated with higher social classes or with upward social mobility. Goffman (1951) notices that ‘class symbols’ as he calls them serve to influence other people’s perception of one’s position in the desired direction. And the implicit assumption has always been that the desired direction is socially upwards. Trickling down has always been more popular than trickling up. As a result of the combined forces of increasing affluence and mass production most consumer products have become available to most people, and status tends to become impression management. This empirical study was set up to identify the role of consumer goods in the impression management of different status groups. Contrary to expectation this study identifies a collection of positive status symbols that is distinctive for the lower social classes. 1. Introduction According to Bourdieu (1984) both economic capital and cultural capital are, in combination, a potential basis for a hierarchical notion of status. The most dominant classes in a modern society are those endowed with high economic capital and high cultural capital. The lowest classes in society are those having little economic and little cultural capital. Moreover, we see more or less a kind of status struggle between the owners of high economic capital and less cultural capital and the owners of high cultural capital and less economic capital. Both classes try to make their capital the dominant mode of a hierarchical societal organisation. The resulting conflict is reflected in a struggle between cultural and economic status symbols. However, the modern consumption society offers a myriad of potential status symbols to all groups in society, allowing the expression of feelings of superiority that are increasingly unrelated to the monotonically increasing notion of cultural and economic capital in Bourdieu’s sense. The post-modern process of fragmentation allows anybody to feel superior to everyone else. This social function of status symbols as markers of superiority has been rapidly increasing since Veblen’s ‘theory of the leisure class’ (1899). Rather than emulating the leisure class various social groups have built their own status symbols, segregating their micro-cosmos from the whole of society. In this paper I show that the lowest classes in society have obtained their own status symbols, which are unrelated to the cultural or economic status symbols of the dominant classes. Changing families and their lifestyles

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It is suggested that deeper understanding of these lower class status symbols will result in enhanced understanding of factors that might contribute to changing the lifestyles of families that are low in cultural and economic capital. 2. Historical notions on status and symbols In order to be a status symbol something has to be scarce and desirable (Blumberg, 1974). Throughout history this has lead to a bewildering array of status symbols, ranging from running tap water in Roman private houses ( Jones and Robinson, 2005) to bottled water in modern Western households (Lalumandier and Ayers, 2000). What most – if not all – historical examples of status symbols have in common is economic scarcity. Be it parasols in ancient Athens, higher education and medical laboratories in developing countries, or personal computers and management courses for Western managers, all of these are - or once were - scarcely available and accessible only to those with wealth or relations: economic or social capital. This implies of course that a status symbol by definition is a social marker that symbolises high status. Despite the apparent value-neutrality of the concept a status symbol only indicates the status superiority of the one flaunting the symbol. The status symbol does not separate the ‘haves’ from the ‘have-nots’, but the happy few from the common crowd, or at least is used to pretend to the common crowd that one belongs to the happy few: ‘…Class symbols serve not so much to represent or misrepresent one’s position, but rather to influence in a desired direction other persons’ judgment of it’ (Goffman, 1951). One consequence of the affluence and de-individualisation of Western societies is that most products have become available to most consumers, one way or another. Three processes play a role here. Products are increasingly affordable, because of the historically high discretionary income of consumers and the lower real prices of products or the existence of low-price me-too copies. Products are increasingly accessible, because of wide distribution including discounters and because of the increased mobility of the consumer. As an example fullyrigged golf bags, including clubs and balls being are now available at discount supermarkets. And consumers are increasingly anonymous. Zimbardo (1969) suggests that being in a large group cloaks the individual in anonymity. This process of de-individualisation leads to a loss of identity and a reduced concern for social evaluation. Most experiments and further studies in this field have shown that the combination of de-individualisation and group identity easily lead to degenerate social behaviour and violence. In modern mass society however the unstructured masses on the streets and in the shops cause de-individualisation without providing clear group identity, implying individuals are reduced to anonymous consumers who are not held answerable for their consumption as their behaviour is not under normal social control and there is no social check on use or user (cf. Brown, 1988). In modern urban life one’s status does not depend upon achievements, occupation, or ‘the degree of honour conferred upon an individual by his or her community’. And consequently the uniform status symbols of only a century ago have disappeared from the streets. Even 94


Status symbols, distinction and difference

nowadays university professors are still generally acclaimed to have a high status position in society. In modern urban life however a professor, though highly esteemed within the university, upon leaving the university grounds is just another anonymous pedestrian. Status nowadays may be more dependent upon the ready display of one’s appearance and personality in public, and the willingness and ability to make a favourable impression in direct interaction. The sheer mass of fleeting contacts that is part of modern urban life makes it impossible to judge personalities – even of those people that we do interact with on a regular basis. At least to most men it would make this impossible. It is possible that women are better equipped for this game (Pease and Pease, 2003). And with status being dependent on appearance, status management becomes mere impression management. 3. Class and caste Status symbols have always been regarded as upper class distinction markers that are emulated by lower classes. The quintessential description of this mechanism is the trickle down effect (Simmel, 1957; Spencer, 1898). Blumberg (1974) notices that many examples of American counterculture in fact have trickled up, rather than down. It is however unclear whether this upstream trickling is due to higher classes aspiring to a lower-class lifestyle – as Blumberg seems to suggest, or due to commercial enterprises turning anti-establishment into profitable business – as Klein (2000) seems to suggest. Both trickle down and trickle up clearly imply a directionality of status symbols. Taking the trickle-down process as a starting point, it has been argued that there is a uniform tendency of lower / subordinate / inferior classes to aspire to higher / superordinate / superior symbols. In order to upgrade one’s status one should try and copy the costumes, customs, goods and appliances of the higher classes. This would imply that once upper class status symbols are generally acknowledged, they should be aspired to by all that do not actually possess them. Middle class status symbols are likely to be despised by the higher classes and desired by the lower classes, and so on. Until we arrive at the lowest classes, who aspire to what the higher classes already possess. If we consider a society that is divided into five successive status levels, with level A be the highest and level E the lowest, then the trickle-down theory suggests that ‘A’ status symbols are generally possessed by group A, and desired or emulated by the other four groups. ‘B’ status symbols are possessed by group B, and desired or emulated by groups C up to E, and so on. At the bottom of this scale ‘E’ symbols are possessed by group E, and neither desired nor emulated by any of the other groups. And once sufficient numbers of the lower classes obtain the status symbol, it loses its power and becomes unattractive to the higher classes (Hart et al., 2003). Furthermore, assuming a fixed time interval of fashion changes, the theory of fashion suggests that ‘B’ status symbols of time t, are the ‘A’ status symbols of time t-1, ‘C’ status symbols of time t are the ‘B’ symbols of t-1, and the ‘A’ symbols of t-2, and so on. Dutch evidence is found for example in Munters (1977) who shows that in 58 items for men and women social climbing is less frequent and Changing families and their lifestyles

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less strong than trickling down. Closer inspection of his results also reveals that most items that are prevalent among lower classes are negative items, like not taking holidays and not hiring someone to decorate the house, reinforcing the image of lower classes being the ‘havenots’. Smoking is among the few ‘positive’ items that characterises lower social classes. Status symbols, like lifestyles since the 1970’s, have been studied from an utterly upper middle class [or call it bourgeois] point of view, dividing the world in one ‘us’ and several ‘them’ groups. Given the job description of University professors, and given the deplorable state of educational salaries, the ‘us’ group traditionally contains people with an overdose of intellectual and cultural aspirations and limited access to economic means. This group can be characterised as having the taste but lacking the money. The ‘them’ groups are then separated into a group with ‘more money than taste’ – or nouveau riche, a group with both money and taste – or ‘old money’, and a group with neither money nor taste – the eternal emulators that are the lower classes. 4. Distinction and status According to Bourdieu (1984) the efficacy of economic capital as one of the major principles of domination in capitalist society is challenged by those groups within the dominant social class who are comparatively poorer in economic capital, but who are rich in cultural or symbolic capital, like artists, academics, and professionals. Those groups strive to enhance their own specific form of capital as a rival principle of domination and social ordering. The main axis of these struggles is within the dominant class, between those who lack economic capital, against those wealthy bourgeois who, relatively speaking lack culture. Professionals of various kinds promote their own status by trying to shift the dominant principle of domination towards cultural means, distinguishing themselves from the uncultured wealthy by emphasising taste for the refined and off-beat. Cultural capital is transferred within families by exposure and upbringing, while the educational system offers a way to acquire culture as well. As the ‘scholastic’ culture can never duplicate the ease and depth of acquiring cultural capital by mere exposure, the social division by cultural capital tends to be more class related than the division by economic capital. This implies that there is a second axis of struggle, between those who are raised with cultural capital and those who are not, centred around the issue of which specific form of cultural capital is a principle of domination. Still, according to Bourdieu these struggles all take place within the dominant classes. Dominant actors are predicted to pursue a conservation strategy, aimed at reinforcing the existing hierarchy, by reinforcing the existing distribution and valuation of symbolic and economic capital. Dominated actors are predicted to pursue a subversion strategy, aimed at transforming the system of authority and the valuation of different capitals (Emirbayer and Williams, 2005). However, both dominant and dominated actors also share commitments and investments in the overall field, while the working

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classes call to order anyone of their number who gets above themselves and threatens class solidarity (Blunden, 2004). The concept of habitus in Bourdieu’s theoretical framework points at contextual rational action. From the material conditions of daily life the individual learns what is possible, appropriate and expected (Fram, 2004). Thus the ‘habitus’ is the ‘internalised form of the class condition and of the conditionings’ by which a member of the class knows, without thinking about it, just how to react to different cultural stimuli, what he or she finds ‘pretentious’ or ‘vulgar’ or ‘gaudy’ rather than ‘attractive’ or ‘dignified’ or ‘beautiful’ (Blunden, 2004). Habitus therefore is an internalised social embeddedness, rendering it impossible to turn a cow’s ear into a silk purse, a sensibility acquired over a life-time and from an upbringing in those conditions and the possibilities they include or exclude, with a future (including a future for one’s children) which offers prospects, or a past remembered when things were better (Blunden, 2004). Bourdieu brings to the foreground the structural tension between occupants of dominant and dominated positions within any social microcosm. Within the capitalist consumerist society this struggle between economic and cultural capital as primary modes of distinction should be reflected in distinctive consumption styles within different social fields. Translated to the field of consumption and status, this implies that within the dominant classes the dominant actors aim to preserve the existing valuation of status symbols, while dominated actors aim to develop an alternative valuation of status symbols. Both however are committed to finding status in consumption and therefore in maintaining a hierarchy of status symbols. Going one step beyond Bourdieu (1984), the struggle between the upper and the lower classes in a society should reflect the same conflict, with the lower classes carving their own status symbols both to reflect status hierarchy within their social microcosmos and to separate their microcosmos from the middle and the upper classes. 5. Empirical research The preliminary study reported here aims to identify the status symbols among the social groups with little cultural and economic capital. In order to identify everyday status symbols of modern times a survey was carried out among 144 households in a medium-sized town in the centre of The Netherlands. The respondents were approached at home, and sampling was in different neighbourhoods ranging from very expensive to very cheap housing. The sample contained only couples with or without children. Following Bourdieu we focus on economic capital, as indicated by income, and cultural capital as indicated by educational level. Therefore, age and household composition were not taken into consideration. A total of 21 respondents failed to provide data on income or education and were removed from the sample leaving 123 completed questionnaires. The respondents rated 32 products in a dichotomous choice, indicating whether they do (1) or do not (0) own or would desire Changing families and their lifestyles

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the product. The products ranged from discount wine to caviar, from car tuning to brands of luxury cars, from kitchen mixer to solarium, covering luxury products as well as ethical products (fair trade & organic), domestic appliances as well as tattoos. Income was categorised into three levels, below modal (a) – up to twice modal (b) and over twice modal (c), with the highest income of either respondent or partner being used for classification. Education was also categorised into three levels, being either both partners below academic (a), one partner academic (b) and both partners academic (c). Both categorisations are rather coarse-grained, in order to keep the number of groups within manageable limits. It could be argued that a more fine-grained measurement of income and education might reveal more distinctions, but more detailed questions on income may also trigger a non-response. Income-related questions in surveys usually meet with up to 25 percent non-response (Moore et al., 2000), compared to just under 15 percent for income and education combined in this survey. In the graphs below different lines refer to different educational levels, whereas income is at the X-axis. The Y-axis indicates preference on a scale from zero (no preference) to one (preference). All reported results are significant at a five percent level. 6. Results 6.1 Univariate analyses 6.1.1 High-income products Several high-income products were identified, with high and to a certain degree medium incomes preferring the products significantly more than the low-income groups (Table 1, Figure 1). For most products the preference increases significantly in the high-income group, while being not different for low and median income groups, though literature9 and female jewellery already show a significant increase in the medium-income group as compared to the low-income group. The high income products show a diffusion pattern that is consistent with traditional status symbols. Preference for all products increased consistently with income.

9 It

should be noted that the concept of ‘literature’ has not been defined in the questionnaire, so it is possible that respondents differ in their interpretation of what counts as ‘literature’.

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Table 1. High-income products (with high+ and low- preference per group, different superscripts indicate significant difference in preference). Product

Low income

Median income

High income

Coffee Female jewellery Literature Lawn mower Volvo car Organic vegetables NRC/Handelsblad Sailing boat

0.890.640.360.390.040.110.040.00-

0.96-/+ 0.85+ 0.62+ 0.420.060.17-/+ 0.060.02-

1.00+ 0.89+ 0.85+ 0.72+ 0.47+ 0.34+ 0.34+ 0.15+

1

Coffee Female jewellery Literature Lawn mower Volvo car Organic vegetables NRC Sailing boat

Preference

0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0

Low

Median

High

Income

Figure 1. High income products.

6.1.2 Low-income products Apart from high-income products a set of low-income products was identified as well. For all products the preference of the low-income group significantly exceeds the preference of the other two income groups (Table 2; Figure 2). Preference for cigarettes and Opel cars decreases with income. Nevertheless in all groups preference for these two items differs from zero significantly, implying some preference even in the higher income groups. Both the low-income group and the median-income group show a significant preference for tattoos and car tuning, while for the high-income groups the preference for these products does not differ from zero significantly. Australian training suit and male jewellery only show a significant preference in the low income groups. Apparently these last two items are exclusive for low-income respondents. Changing families and their lifestyles

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Table 2. Low-income products (with high+ and low- preference per group, different superscripts indicate significant difference in preference). Product

Low income

Median income

High income

Cigarettes Opel car Male jewellery Tattoos Car tuning Australian suit

0.50+ 0.39+ 0.36+ 0.32+ 0.29+ 0.21+

0.250.150.060.080.100.04-

0.190.110.020.000.020.00-

Preference

1

Cigarettes Opel car Male jewellery Tattoos Car tuning Australian

0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0

Low

Mid

High

Income

Figure 2. Low income products.

The finding that these products were consistently preferred only (or almost exclusively) by respondents with low incomes is contrary to expectations. Products like male jewellery, tattoos, tuned cars and Australian training suits appear to be status symbols for low income households. Also the Opel brand for cars is especially popular with low income groups. Compared to Munters (1977), who only identified smoking as a positive product choice of the lower classes10, we find a wider set of specific and positive low income products. Both low-income and high-income products show a marked pattern of preference varying with income with all the preferences following a parallel pattern, with the exception of organic vegetables that rate higher with the lower income categories than expected.

10 Positive in this context means a product that is apparently actively bought, rather than the ‘non-affordance’

items like ‘no-holiday, separate laundry centrifuge [=no-automatic washing machine], do-it-yourself home decoration [=no hired decorator]’ that feature in the low-class items of Munters (1977).

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6.1.3 High-education products The set of products for which preference is positively correlated to educational level only partly overlaps with the high-income products. (Table 3, Figure 3). The preference for literature11, perfume and lawn mower is significantly positive for all groups, whereas for the remaining products preference is not significantly different from zero for the low educational group. Literature and perfume are exceptional in this group, because preference is highest with the mixed education groups. The other products in this group show an increase of preference with joint educational level in the household. Table 3. High-education products (with high+ and low- preference per group, different superscripts indicate significant difference in preference).

Literature Perfume (female) Lawn mower Volvo car Organic vegetables NRC Fair trade Sailing boat

Both non-academic

Mixed/one academic Both academic

0.450.630.370.060.060.020.060.00-

0.84+ 0.87+ 0.60-/+ 0.190.29+ 0.130.16-/+ 0.06-/+

Preference

1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0

Low

Mixed

High

0.74+ 0.74-/+ 0.68+ 0.40+ 0.35+ 0.35+ 0.30+ 0.14+

Perfume Literature Lawn mower Volvo car Organic vegetables NRC Fair trade Sailing boat

Education

Figure 3. High-education products.

11 It

could be argued that the definition of literature is not constant among the respondents (cf. Kraaykamp. 1993). For our data this probably means an overestimation for the lower education groups as we measure preference for what the respondent considers as literature.


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6.1.4 Low education products Several products apparently are only preferred by the groups with the lower educational levels. For the other two educational groups the preference for Australian training suit, tuned car, male jewellery and tattoos the preference does not significantly differ from zero. Preference for the remaining two products significantly exceeds zero for all groups. Cigarettes are exceptional in this group because they are preferred least by the mixed educational group, and solaria are exceptional because they are preferred most by the mixed educational groups (Figure 4, Table 4). Apparently Australian, tuning, male jewellery and tattoos are exclusive status symbols for the low educational groups. A solarium appears to be especially preferred by the mixed educational group, whereas cigarettes are least preferred by this group. Tattoos, Australian suits, tuned cars and male jewellery are only preferred by the lowest educational group. Table 4. Low-education products (with high+ and low- preference per group, different superscripts indicate significant difference in preference).

Australian suit Car tuning Male jewellery Cigarettes Tattoos Solarium

Both non-academic

Mixed/one academic Both academic

0.14+ 0.22+ 0.22+ 0.41+ 0.24+ 0.22-

0.030.050.060.160.030.45+

1

Australian Car Tuning Male Jewellery Cigarettes Tattoos Solarium

0.8 Preference

0.000.030.020.23-/+ 0.000.16-

0.6 0.4 0.2 0 Low

Mixed

High

Education

Figure 4. Low-education products.

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6.2 Multivariate analysis Cluster analysis revealed that a group of four products shows a preference pattern that is distinct from the remaining 26 products used in this study. These four products are the Australian trainer suit, the tuned (or pimped) car, gold male jewellery and tattoos. The preference for these four products can be combined into a ‘bling-bling’ scale with a Cronbach reliability of 0.797. Analysis of variance reveals that this scaled preference shows a significant interaction between both education and income (F = 2.764; p < 0.05). In Figure 5 for purposes of clarity all values that do not differ significantly from zero are represented as 0. This shows that preference for this set of products does not differ significantly from zero for all but the lowest educational group. Within this group the preference is inversely related to level of income, implying that these products are used to display status among low education and low income consumers. 4 3.5 Preference

3 2.5

Low education

2

Mix education

1.5

High education

1 0.5 0

Low

Mid

High

Income

Figure 5. Preference for ‘bling-bling’ related to income and education.

7. Conclusion As the products in this survey were a sample of possible status products, we can only conclude that there are products for which the preference is dependent on economic capital [income] and products that are dependent on cultural capital [education]. The distribution of low-income products and low-education products reveals a class of products that are inversely related to both income and education. Economic theory recognizes ‘inferior goods’, that show a negative income elasticity of demand. Likewise Munters (1977) identified several negative items that were related to lower social status. This Changing families and their lifestyles

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economic terminology however ignores the possibility of these goods being status symbols for a specific segment of the market. This survey shows that there are products that are positively sought by groups that are comparatively low in cultural and economic capital. From a cross-sectional study, like the current one, it is impossible to say which products show a trickle-up effect, which products are phasing down, and which are low-income status symbols. However, combining the results of both univariate analyses, one gets the impression that male jewellery, ‘Australian training suits’, tattoos and tuned cars are status symbols of low-education and low-income groups. This impression is corroborated by the multivariate analysis of a ‘bling-bling’ scale that is composed of preference for these four products. The high-income and high-education products also show products appearing in both lists, suggesting that products like literature and lawn mowers (as a proxy of a house with a lawn) are status symbols at the high-income and high-education end of the scale. The multicollinarity between income and education in our sample rendered multivariate analysis of these items impossible, so it is not possible to view income dependency within various educational groups or education dependency within income groups. However, the current results suggest strongly that further research into the specific status symbols of various socioeconomic groups is necessary. The concept of a ‘status symbol’ appears to be different for different socio-economic groups. 8. Discussion The study reported here shows that studying status symbols in everyday life is a promising line of research to enhance understanding of the sociology of household consumption. With the benefit of hindsight some obvious improvements in the data collection can be suggested. In order to make a further distinction in cultural capital it would be necessary to expand the measurements to parental and grandparental education and income, apart from the respondent’s. Also a finer grained categorisation of both education and income can be considered, though this poses heavy demands on sample size and is likely to increase the non-response. Another issue to be handled in subsequent studies is the collinearity between education and income. Up to a certain degree this collinearity is an empirical reality, but larger sample sizes would allow for separate analysis of on the one hand lower and middle groups and on the other hand middle and higher groups. This would eliminate at least the statistical handicap of empty cells in the cross diagonal corners of the data matrix, due to the lack of high education – low income and low-education – high-income respondents. Also the range of products sampled as possible status symbols should be improved in order to get a clearer picture of lifestyles among distinct social fields. One suggestion would be to incorporate choice of meal and mode of preparation, as daily food consumption is 104



highly subject to cultural and social imperatives, which shape the needs that arise and the satisfactions that are considered acceptable, or considered at all. After all ‘food is a metaphor for our sense of self, our social and political relations, our cosmology and our global system’ (Caplan, 1992: 30). Another suggestion is to look more closely at the status symbols of minority groups and second generation immigrants in order to gain a deeper understanding of their values and lifestyles. Finally, the measurement of preference could be expanded with negative scale points, in order to make a distinction between ‘lack of preference for a product’ and ‘deliberate avoidance of a product’. One of the main issues in consumer policy and especially consumer policy with respect to sustainability is reaching ‘difficult target groups’, most notably those with low educational and low professional status. Understanding the status symbols of different socio-economic groups, or within the different micro-cosmoses of society, and especially understanding the status symbols of those ‘difficult target groups’, would be useful for both consumer policy and consumer education in promoting more sustainable lifestyles to those families who up to this moment are among the most difficult to reach. Acknowledgements Special thanks to Kees de Hoog for many valuable comments and for inspiring this research in the first place, and to Michelle Geertman for collecting the data and performing the preliminary analyses. References Blumberg, P., 1974. The decline and fall of the status symbol: some thoughts on status in a postindustrial society. Social Problems 21: 480-498. Blunden, A., 2004, Bourdieu on Status, Class and Culture. Book Review of: Distinctions. A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Pierre Bourdieu 1979. Translated by Richard Nice, published by Harvard University Press, 1984. Bourdieu, P., 1984 [1979]. Distinctions. A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. (translated by Richard Nice), Harvard University Press. Brown, R., 1988. Intergroup behaviour In: M. Hewstone, W. Stroebe and J.P. Codol (eds) Introduction to Social Psychology: A European Perspective, pp. 381-410. Oxford: Blackwell. Caplan, P., 1992. Feasts, Fasts, Famine: Food for Thought. Oxford/Providence: Berg. Emirbayer, M. and E.M. Williams, 2005. Bourdieu and Social Work. Social Service Review 79(4): 689-724. Fram, M.S., 2004. Research for progressive change: Bourdieu and social work. Social Service Review 78(4): 553-76. Goffman, E., 1951. Symbols of class and status. The British Journal of Sociology 2(4): 294-304. Hart, R.F., A.J. Novak, A.G. Rao and S.P. Sethi, 2003. Optimal pricing of a product diffusing in rich and poor populations. Journal of Optimizing Theory and Applications 117(2): 349-75.


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Jones R. and D. Robinson, 2005. Water wealth and social status at Pompeii: the house vestals in the first century. American Journal of Archeology 109(4): 695-710. Klein, N., 2000. No Logo. New York: Picador. Kraaykamp, G., 1993. Over lezen gesproken: een studie naar sociale differentiatie in leesgedrag. PhD Thesis Utrecht University. Lalumandier J.A. and L.W. Ayers, 2000. Fluoride and bacterial content of bottled water vs tap water. Archives of Family Medicine 9(3): 246-50. Moore, J.C., L.L. Stinson and E.J. Welniak jr., 2000. Income measurement error in surveys: a review. Journal of Official Statistics 16 (4): 331-61. Munters, Q.J., 1977. Stijgende en dalende cultuurgoederen. Alphen a/d Rijn: Samsom. Pease, A. and B.Pease, 2001. Why Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t Read Maps: How We’re Different and What to Do About It. New York: Broadway Books. Simmel, G., 1957 [1904]. Fashion. American Journal of Sociology 62 (6): 541-558. Spencer, H., 1898. Principles of Sociology. Volume II. New York: Appleton. Zimbardo, P., 1969. The human choice: individualism, reason and order versus de-individualism, impulse and chaos. In: W. Arnold and D. Levin (eds) The Nebraska Symposium on Motivation (17), pp. 237-307. Lincoln: Nebraska University Press.

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Welfare, income and socio-economic benchmarking Wim Heijman Abstract This article investigates whether the global distribution of income is also a suitable indicator for the distribution of welfare. To this end a model for the behaviour of the Average Global Consumer (AGC) was developed, showing that, based on a number of assumptions, this should be the case. The hypothesis that income is a suitable indicator for welfare was tested and confirmed for six composite goods. Furthermore, a global socio-economic benchmark system was developed to indicate whether a country is under- or over-performing with respect to the supply of the six composite goods. 1. Introduction It is common knowledge that income is not the sole welfare indicator. However, a number of important variables that are connected with welfare or happiness are income related.12 This paper has two objectives: 1. To show that, as a first guess, the income per capita of a country is a fairly accurate measure of its welfare and happiness level, and 2. To indicate a benchmark system on the global level for the priorities in national public spending. The welfare model of the average global consumer (AGC) developed in this paper is based on the idea that the consumer aims at maximum welfare, and that this can be seen in the amounts of market and public goods that are ‘bought’ by him through individual and public spending. In this way the benchmarking can be interpreted in two ways: 1. A tool for comparing the values of the national welfare indicators with those of other countries, and 2. A normative way of evaluating a country’s results. On the basis of this interpretation, national policy priorities in the areas concerned can be indicated in order to gain maximum welfare for the average consumer. This article shows that there is evidence for the correctness of the second interpretation. For reasons of simplicity, I used The Economist Pocket World in Figures, 2004 and 2007 editions, for the necessary empirical data on the world economy (The Economist, 2003, 2006). Of course, like every data source, this implies a number of limitations for applying the developed theory. However, these appeared not to be fatal. The remainder of the paper is organised as follows. Section two deals with the data source ‘World in Figures’. Section three examines the global income distribution. The idea is that 12 I consider ‘welfare’ and ‘happiness’ to be synonymous. On the issue of happiness a number of

interesting books and articles have been published. See for example Frey and Stutzer (2002) and Veenhoven (2005).


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if world income distribution is becoming more unequal and if welfare is strongly related to income, then welfare distribution is also becoming more unequal. Section three looks at a theoretical model from which a number of important hypotheses are derived. In Section four these hypotheses are tested. Finally, in the last Section, conclusions are drawn. 2. The world in your pocket Who drinks the most beer? Which city has the most attractive surroundings? Where is the investment climate most beneficial? Which country has the largest percentage of senior citizens? For almost any question you can think of, The Economist Pocket World in Figures has the answer. The Czech Republic leads the world in beer consumption (81.7 litres per head per year). If you are looking for the city with the most attractive surroundings, you should live in Zürich or Geneva. The best country for investors is Denmark. And if you think that European countries like the Netherlands have the biggest problem with an ageing population, then you are wrong; Japan has the largest percentage of citizens older than 60: more than 26 percent, compared to about 19 percent in the Netherlands. The ‘World in Figures’ is therefore all about rankings: who is doing the best and who the worst. In the same way that the periodical The Economist is not simply an economics journal, but also a more general periodical, The Economist Pocket World in Figures contains a selection of national data about a wide range of topics, including geography, trade, transport, culture and the environment. The ‘World in Figures’ contains information about 183 countries and is revised every year based on the most recent data. Besides the rankings in Part one, a summary of national data for the 69 largest countries is contained in Part two in which the publishers attempt to provide the most reliable possible comparisons of national data. Of course, making an objective comparison is occasionally difficult, and this is clearly indicated where applicable. The final two pages of the book summarise all the sources used. This little book is a convenient source of relevant data from around the world and the position of each country in these world rankings. Especially during election time, when politicians competing for the favour of the voters, use all kinds of facts – correctly or incorrectly – to support their arguments, it is good to be able to evaluate these facts on their own merits. In short, the ‘World in Figures’ provides us with a possible suitable database for an annual socio-economic benchmarking operation, which is the aim of this article.

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Welfare, income and socio-economic benchmarking

3. World income distribution The World Development Report 2006 (World Bank, 2005) deals mainly with the inequality of global welfare distribution. If income is an essential indicator of welfare or happiness, global income distribution is of essential importance, because in that case (and that is still to be proved) income distribution is also an important indicator of the distribution of welfare. This section aims at measuring the world’s income distribution with the help of Zipf ’s Law, which is also known as the Rank Size Rule (Zipf, 1949; Isard, 1956; Ball, 2005). According to Zipf a large number of social phenomena are distributed according to his law. 13 Mathematically speaking the law reads as: V = Krc

(1)

where K and c are constants, r stands for the rank and V for the variable to be explained. The normal way of evaluating the income distribution is using the Gini coefficient g. With the help of the Lorenz curve it can be shown that the Gini coefficient is a special case of the rank size rule. The Lorenz curve shows the relationship between the accumulated percentage of income (on the vertical axis) and the accumulated percentage of population (on the horizontal axis). The equation that fits the Lorenz scatter diagram fairly well is: y = zh, h ≥ 1

(2)

with y for the accumulated percentage of income (GDP), z for the accumulated percentage of population and h for the coefficient indicating the disparity in income distribution. In this special case constant K appears to be 1. The higher the h the higher the disparity in income distribution. With the help of ‘World in Figures’ I will measure h on the global level for two years: 2001 and 2004 (The Economist, 2003, 2006). Figure 1 shows the ‘Lorenz scatter diagram’ for the two years concerned. Based on the data of Figure 1, h can be computed with linear regression on the basis of the following equation: ln y = h ln z

(3)

Further it is possible to compute the Gini coefficient g from coefficient h. The relationship between h and g is described by the following equation (see Appendix 1): g= h–1 1+h

(4)

13 Pareto’s ideas on income distribution were based on the same idea (Ball, 2005).


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1.2

1

% gdp acc. (y)

% gdp acc. (y)

1.2 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

% pop. acc. (z)

1.2

1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

%pop. acc. (z)

1

1.2

Figure 1. Lorenz scatter diagram for the year 2001 (left panel, 177 countries) and 2004 (right panel, 183 countries) based on GDP. Source: The Economist (2003, 2006).

Table 1 shows the results. From Table 1 we can conclude that coefficients h and g for the year 2001 hardly differ from the computed values for the year 2004, which means that the disparity in global income distribution has remained more or less stable. Further, it can be derived from the figures that average income per capita in the world has increased. According to the theory in the next section, this means that the disparity in global welfare was also stable in the period described. I now turn to the theory predicting that welfare is an increasing function of income. Table 1. h and g for the years 2001 and 2004. 2001

2004

h

t-value h

R2

g

h

t-value h

R2

g

2.350

41.00

0.91

0.403

2.304

43.29

0.91

0.395

4. The theory Assuming that the Average Global Consumer (AGC) aims at maximising his utility, happiness, or well being, the following utility function and budget constraint can be formulated: Max U = U (X1, X2, X3, ..., Xi, ... Xn), i = 1...n, ∂U > 0, ∂U2 < 0 ∂Xi ∂Xi Subject to Y = P1X1 + P2X2 + P3X3 + ... + PiXi + ... + PnXn.

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(5)



With U for utility for the AGC, Xi for the quantity of good i, Y for the income of the average global consumer, and Pi for the price of good i. Solving the model through a Lagrange procedure gives Gossen’s Second Law, which states that the optimum allocation of the budget or income is found when marginal utility per currency unit spent in each direction has been equalised (See Appendix 2). From this optimum condition it is possible to derive the relationship between income and each category of consumption. Assuming that utility function U of the average global consumer is such that (for sufficiently large Y) in the optimum Engel’s function for each individual good can be formulated as follows:14 Xi = yiY + δi

(6)

An example of such a utility function for the case of two goods is formulated in Appendix 2. A necessary assumption in the approach of this paper is that such a relationship not only exists between the consumption of private goods and average income, but also between the consumption of public goods and average income, and further that the Engel’s functions found for the global average consumer reflect the optimum consumption level of each national average consumer at each level of average income. The variables used in the utility function are: Human Development Index (X1), Environmental Health score (X2), Gender (X3), Health (X4), Life expectancy (X5) and Research and Development (X6).15 The variables represent more or less ‘composite goods’ consisting of public and private elements (Casamiglia, 1978).16 For each of these variables it is assumed that they contribute in a positive way to human well-being. The relationship to average global income, Engel’s functions, is examined in a cross-country setting. The central hypothesis to be tested is that there is a strong relationship between these variables and average income. If confirmed, the utility function of these variables might as well be reduced to: U = U (X1(Y), X2(Y), X3(Y), X4(Y), X5(Y), X6(Y), so: U = U(Y)

(7)

Furthermore, if utility U equals Happiness H, then, because U = U(Y), H = H(Y). This latter hypothesis is tested separately.17 In the next section the hypothesis is tested that the consumption level of the six composite goods mentioned is determined by income.

14 Engel’s

consumer.

function is the relation between the consumption of each good and the income of the average

15 Of course the choice for these variables is more or less arbitrary. Other variables like ‘Democracy’ (assumed

positive relation with income) or ‘Corruption’ (proved negative relationship to average GDP) are also possible (The Economist, 2007). 16 According

to Hicks’ aggregation theorem the use of composites is justified under a number of conditions (Hicks, 1939). 17 ‘Happiness’

Happiness.

is overlapping ‘Utility’ to a great deal. The overlap concerns all scarce goods that determine


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5. Testing the hypothesis that GDP per head determines the level of consumption of the composite goods

Human Development Index

Figure 2 shows the relationship between the Human Development Index Xi and GDP per head Y (in $ ppp), Figure 3 the relationship between Environmental Health and Y, Figure 4 the relationship between GRDI and Y, Figure 5 the relationship between Health spending per head and Y, Figure 6 Life Expectancy against GDP, and Figure 7 R&D expenditures per head against Y. Except for Life expectancy, the scatter diagrams do not show a ‘leveling off ‘ of the consumption as income grows. Table 2 shows the results of the regression analysis of the equation derived above (Xi = yiY + δi) 120 100 80 60 40 20 0

0

20000 40000 60000 GDP per head $PPP

80000

Figure 2. Scatter diagram of Human Development Index (HDI) X1 against GDP per head Y in 2004: 60 countries, Norway ranking 1, Romania ranking 60. Human Development Index: a knowledge variable consisting of average years of schooling and adult literacy. Source: The Economist, 2006.

Environmental health

100 99 98 97 96 95 94 93

0

10000

20000 30000 GDP per head

40000

Figure 3. Scatter diagram of Environmental Health scores X2 against GDP per head Y in 2004: 39 countries, Norway ranking 1, Kuwait ranking 39. Environmental Health score: index based on child mortality, indoor air pollution, safety of drinking water, quality of sanitation, and quantity of urban air particulates. Source: The Economist, 2006.

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GRDI

98 96 94 92 90 88 86 84 82

0

20000

40000

60000

80000

GDP per head $PPP

Health spending per head

Figure 4. Scatter diagram of the relationship between the Gender Related Development Index (GRDI) X3 and GDP per head Y: 39 countries, Norway ranking 1, Kuwait ranking 39. Gender Related Development Index (GRDI): indicator of the disparities between men and women in individual countries. The lower the index, the greater the disparity. Source: The Economist, 2006.

40000 30000 20000 10000 0

0

2000

4000

6000

GDP per head $PPP

Life expectancy (years)

Figure 5. Scatter diagram of Health spending per head X4 against GDP per head Y: 31 countries, US ranking 1, Malawi ranking 31. Health spending per head: percentage of GDP times GDP per head ($PPP). Source: The Economist, 2006. 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

0

20000 40000 60000 80000 GDP per head $PPP

Figure 6. Scatter diagram of Life expectancy X5 (years) against GDP per head Y: 100 countries, Andorra ranking 1, Swaziland ranking 100. Life expectancy: The number of years a baby born today can expect to live. Source: The Economist, 2006. Changing families and their lifestyles

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R&D expenditures per head

Wim Heijman 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0

0

20000 40000 60000 80000 GDP per head $PPP

Figure 7. Scatter diagram of the relationship between the R&D expenditures per head X6 and GDP per head Y: 46 countries, Sweden ranking 1, India ranking 46. Research and Development (R&D) expenditures per head: percentage of GDP spent on R&D times GDP per head $PPP. Source: The Economist, 2006.

Table 2. Relationship between Xi and GDP per head Y. Variable

yi

t-value yi

δi

t-value δi

R2

X1 (HDI) X2 (Environmental Health) X3 (GRDI) X4 (Health exp. per head) X5 (Life Expectation) X6 (R&D)

0.000406 0.000153 0.000275 0.109894 0.000786 0.023788

11.914 6.563 7.306 17.446 11.221 8.674

79.439 144.858 83.672 -206.049 52.248 -114.542

95.607 144.858 78.491 -1.393 34.583 -1.588

0.710 0.606 0.591 0.913 0.562 0.631

The results are quite convincing. Apart from δ4 and δ6 all coefficients are significant on the one percent level (two-tailed test). So, the hypothesis derived from the theory put forward in the previous section is confirmed. To a large part, all variables concerned depend on the value of income per head. Also, because δ1, δ2, δ3 and δ5 are positive, income elasticities of Goods one, two, three, and five are between zero and one, which means that these ‘goods’ are considered by the AGC to be basic goods and not luxury goods.18 This means that, where there is under performance in the supply of these goods there is a high urgency to increase the supply (see Section 5). As far as Goods four and six are concerned, δ4 and δ6 are negative. However, the value of these coefficients is non-significant. It means that Goods four and six 18 Though the specific value of the income elasticity may change with the GDP per head, because the derived

Engel’s functions are linear, the character of the good (basic, luxury, origin) does not depend on the GDP per head. This follows directly from Marshall’s rule in the case of linear Engel’s functions.

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are considered by the AGC to be ‘origin goods’, which means that their income elasticities equal one. Therefore, they can be classified in between basic goods and luxury goods. Table 3 shows the income elasticities for the AGC for the six composite goods. The last hypothesis to be tested is the relationship between Happiness H and income Y. The data for this cannot be found in ‘The World in Figures’. Therefore I turned to the Special Eurobarometer ‘Mental Well-being’ (European Commission, 2006). In the framework of this research in 29 European countries the question was asked: Have you felt happy during the past four weeks? In the Netherlands 86 percent of the respondents answered this question with ‘all the time’ or ‘most of the time’. In Bulgaria this percentage was only 42 percent. Taking this as a measure for happiness H it is now possible to test the hypothesis that there is a positive relationship between happiness and income (GDP) per head. Figure 8 shows the scatter diagram of this relationship. The results of the regression procedure are given in Table 4. The estimated regression equation is: H = yY + δ. Table 3. Average Global Consumer’s income elasticities for the six composite goods. X2 (Env. Health) X3 (GRDI)

X4 (Health exp.) X5 (Life Exp.)

X6 (R&D)

0.044

0.014

1

1

Happiness (H)

X1 (HDI)

0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0

0

0.029

20000

40000

0.118

60000

80000

GDP per capita (Y)

Figure 8. Scatter diagram of the relationship between happiness H and GDP per capita Y for 29 European countries. Source: European Commission, 2006.


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Table 4. Happiness as a function of income, linear estimation. y

t-value y

δ

t-value δ

R2

0.00000619

4.877

0.483

14.389

0.468

The result is quite satisfactory. However, because the score for happiness H cannot exceed 100, one might expect a leveling-off effect. In order to test whether happiness levels off when income grows the following regression equation was also tested: H = ε + σ Y+1 which may be called the leveling-off function. Table 5 provides the results. Apparently, this gives a somewhat better result than the linear estimation of Table 4. Therefore, it can be stated that there is a positive relation between happiness and income per capita and that there is some leveling-off effect when income grows, but this is not spectacular.19 The threshold-hypothesis as put forward by among others Max-Neef (1995), meaning the idea that after a certain income level and continuing growth of income per capita, well-being or happiness may decrease, is not confirmed by this result. Table 5. Happiness as a function of income, leveling off-function. σ

t-value σ

ε

t-value ε

R2

-2216.37

-4.956

0.755

24.93

0.476

6. Results of benchmarking The benchmarking procedure is based on the Engel’s functions for the six composite goods. The actual score of a country for a good was evaluated against the normative score computed with the good specific Engel’s function. Where the actual value was too low the country was given a minus for under-performing on this good; it was given a plus in the case of over-performing. A minus indicates that a country should improve on the issue, whereas a plus implies that a country could do less on a specific indicator. For a number of selected countries, the results of the benchmarking procedure are listed in Table 6. 19 The leveling off might be more visible if low income countries were involved.

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Table 6. Results of benchmarking for selected countries for the six composite goods. Country

X1 (HDI)

X2 (Env. Health)

X3 (GRDI)

X4 (Health exp.)

X5 (Life Exp.) X6 (R&D)

Australia Canada France Germany Hungary Italy Japan Netherlands Slovenia Spain Switzerland United Kingdom United States

+ + + + — + + + + + + +

+ + ? + — — — — + — — +

+ + + + — + + + + + + +

? — — + — — ? — ? ? + ?

+ + + + — + + + + + + +

— — + + — — + — ? — + —

—

—

—

+

—

+

+ = over-performance; — = under-performance; ? = missing data.

These results indicate, for example, for the Netherlands that, taking into account the Dutch average GDP, the country could do better on Environmental Health and on Health expenditure. Further, it is striking that Hungary has only negative scores, where Germany has only positive ones. Clearly, these scores could play a role in the evaluation of a country’s welfare policy. 7. Conclusion and discussion A number of conclusions can be drawn. 1. The Gini index g for income disparities is nothing other than an application of the rank size rule developed by Zipf. The disparity index h can be transformed into g in a simple way. 2. Global Income distribution hardly changed in the period 2001-2004. 3. As a crude welfare measure, income performs well. Under the strict assumptions of a welfare maximising model of the Average Global Consumer (AGC), the hypothesis that income is a suitable indicator for welfare is confirmed. 4. The six composite goods investigated all proved to have an income elasticity of unity or less. This indicates that the AGC considers these as basic goods and not luxury ones. This implies that, in the case of under-performance, governments should increase the ‘supply’ of these goods with high priority. Changing families and their lifestyles

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5. The hypothesis that happiness is a positive function of income is confirmed for a number of European countries. 6. For the countries taken into account there was some leveling off as far as happiness was concerned. The threshold hypothesis, implying decreasing happiness with rising income per capita, was certainly not confirmed. The overall conclusion must be that one way or another happiness and utility are positively related to income. We may safely conclude that if average world income increases in a situation where income distribution hardly changes (as has been the case in the past few years) people’s well being is positively influenced. Possibly, a growing income is a necessary and not a sufficient condition for increasing happiness. If that is the case, then in the present, with a constant global income distribution between countries and a growing average income per capita, this necessary condition for increasing happiness is being fulfilled for more people than in the past. Acknowledgements Sonja Kruitwagen’s and Pierre van Mouche’s contributions to this paper are gratefully acknowledged. References Ball, P., 2005 [2004]. Critical Mass. London: Arrow books. Casamiglia, X., 1978. Composite goods and revealed preference. International Economic Review 19(2): 395-404. European Commission, 2006. Mental Well-being. Special Eurobarometer 248/Wave 64.4-TNS Opinion and Social. Frey B. and A. Stutzer, 2002. Happiness and Economics. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Heijman, W.J.M., 1998. The Economic Metabolism. Dordrecht (Netherlands): Kluwer. Hicks J.R., 1939. Value and Capital. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Isard W., 1956. Location and Space-Economy: A General Theory Relating to Industrial Location, Market Areas, Land Use, Trade, and Urban Structure. New York: Wiley. Max-Neef, M., 1995. Economic Growth and Quality of Life: a Threshold Hypothesis. Ecological Economics 15: 115-18. The Economist, 2003. Pocket World in Figures 2004 edition. Profile Books and The Economist. The Economist, 2006. Pocket World in Figures 2007 edition. Profile Books and The Economist. The Economist, 2007. December 23rd, 2006 – January 5th, 2007. How to grease a palm: Corruption has its own elaborate etiquette, 119-120. Veenhoven, R., 2005. Apparent quality of life in nations: how long and happy people live. Social Indicators Research 71: 61-86. World Bank, 2005. World Development Report. Washington DC. Zipf, G.K., 1949. Human Behaviour and the Principle of Least Effort. Reading (Mass.): AddisonWesley. 118



Appendix 1: from h to g. The relationship between accumulated income percentage y and accumulated population percentage z equals the Lorenz equation: y = zh with h for the disparity index. In order to derive the Gini coefficient g, the area under the Lorenz curve must be computed: 1

∫

1

ydz =  1 z1+h = 1 . 1 + h 0 1 + h

p=0

Now: 1– 1 g = 2 1 + h = h – 1 1 1+h 2 This implies that if h = 1, g = 0 and if h → ∞, g → 1. The coefficient h can be computed with the help of the equation ln y = h ln z. This can be done by linear regression if sufficient data are available. Subsequently g can be computed.


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Appendix 2: The utility maximising model The following utility function and budget constraint was formulated: Max U = U (X1, X2, X3, ..., Xi, ... Xn), i = 1...n, ∂U > 0, ∂U2 < 0 ∂Xi ∂Xi Subject to Y = P1X1 + P2X2 + P3X3 + ... + PiXi + ... + PnXn.

(5)

Solving the model through a Lagrange procedure gives the optimum condition: ∂U | ∂X1 ∂U | ∂X2 ∂U | ∂X3 ... ∂U | ∂Xi ... ∂U | ∂Xn = = = = = = P1 P2 P3 Pi Pn Function U is formulated in such a way that (for sufficiently large Y) in the optimum:20 Xi = yiY + δi A possible utility function would be (for two goods): U = (X1 + β1)α (X2 + β2)1–α, s.t. Y = P1X1 + P2X2 The optimum condition is: ∂U | ∂X1 α X +β p · 2 2= 1 = ∂U | ∂X2 1 – α X1 + β1 p2 So: P2X2 =

1–α 1–α P1X1 + β1P1 – β2P2 α α

Substitution in the budget constraint gives: X1 =

αY P 1–α P – (1 – α) β1 + αβ2 2 , X2 = Y – αβ2 + (1 – α) β1 1 . P1 P1 p2 P2

If Y = 0, Xi is 0 as well. However, for sufficiently large Y according to Marshall’s rule the income elasticity of Good 1 is between 0 and 1 if

20 Of course, if Y = 0 all consumption is 0, so all Engel’s Curves go through the origin. Therefore it is explicitly

stated ‘for sufficiently large Y’.

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–(1 – α) β1 + αβ2

P2 > 0, P1

which means that then Good 1 is a basic good.21 If –(1 – α) β1 + αβ2

P2 < 0, P1

the income elasticity of Good 1 exceeds 1, which means that it is a luxury good. According to the same rule, Good 2 is a basic good if: –(1 – α) β1 + αβ2

P1 > 0, P2

and it is a luxury good if: –(1 – α) β1 + αβ2

P1 < 0, P2

It can be proved that if Good 1 is a basic good, then Good 2 is a luxury good and vice versa. Proof: Good 2 is a basic good if: P1 αβ2 P (1 – α) β1 , > , or 2 < P2 (1 – α) β1 P1 αβ2

which is the condition for Good 1 being a luxury good.

21 Marshall’s

1998).

rule is a geometric way of indicating elasticities, in this case income elasticities (See Heijman,


121

Diversity among the elderly, diversity in approach Katrien Luijkx and Carolien de Blok Abstract In our ageing and changing society, one of the important questions under consideration is: how can we, in the future, provide enough help and care to the elderly who need it. This concerns not only the amount of care to be delivered, but also the content of care and the extent to which the care provided meets the necessities, needs, and preferences of the elderly. Older people obviously differ in several ways and, as such, are also very heterogeneous in their necessities, needs, and preferences in the domains of housing, welfare, and care. This implies that we can not speak of the necessities, needs and preferences of the elderly. In this paper we will elaborate on diversity among the elderly along three separate lines, which will be combined eventually. First, the elderly will be categorized according to their necessities and needs for help and assistance; vital elderly are distinguished, as well as futureoriented vital elderly, lonely coping elderly, cognitive-restricted coping elderly, and needy elderly. Second, two types of elderly will be introduced according to the kind of caregiver that has the largest share in providing care and assistance to the elderly person. This results in the distinction between those elderly with a formal safety net and those elderly with an informal safety net. Last but not least, elderly can be classified according to lifestyle. We distinguish cosmopolitan elderly from involved critical elderly and traditional elderly. Combining these distinctions gives thirty possible segments of the elderly. For providers in housing, welfare and care insight into the diversity of the elderly population is important since it offers the ability to directly address the different types of elderly with services in their particular interest. It is expected that the use of modular production principles in the construction of care and service packages can offer almost unlimited service variations while preventing a rise in costs. 1. Introduction Due to our ageing society, the elderly population receives a lot of attention from politicians, policy makers, service providers in the domains of housing, welfare or care, and, last but not least, scientists. Although by no means all elderly people are in need of assistance, the ageing of the population results in a growing number of elderly who will be in need of help or care. Twenty years ago, twelve percent of the Dutch population was 65 years or older, nowadays fourteen percent is of this age. It is expected that in 2025 twenty percent of the population will be 65 years or older (CBS, 2005).


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In this respect, one of the questions under consideration is: how can we, in the future, provide enough help and care to the elderly who need it. More specifically, topics of interest are what part of the labor force will have to work in the care sector, how much informal care will be needed and will be available besides the formal provision of services in housing, welfare, and care, and how the care provided to and the incomes of the elderly will be financed. In the Netherlands, for example, it is expected that, without changes in policy, over twenty percent of the labor force will have to be employed in the care sector in fifteen to twenty years (RVZ Raad voor de Volksgezondheid en Zorg, 2006). However, it is not clear to what extent informal care is included in this expectation. In response to the ageing population and other societal developments, the Dutch government has introduced policy changes such as the modernization of the AWBZ (General Law for Special Costs in Care), reforms in health insurance, and the introduction of the WMO (Social Services Law). These changes directly influence the daily practice of providers in the domains of housing, welfare, and care. Self-evidently, budgets change and sometimes even disappear, new competitors enter the market, and clients are ever more empowered (Breedveld et al., 2006). Instead of complying with government funding and budgets, providers are increasingly challenged to focus on their ultimate clients, those being the civilians. As such, demand-based care is introduced. In order to supply clients with demandbased care, knowledge about their actual necessities, needs and preferences is crucial. Considering the ever-growing elderly population, it is essential to gain insight into the diversity within this age category in domains that are relevant to providers in housing, welfare, and care. How we will be able to take care of the elderly in the future concerns not only the amount of care to be delivered. The content of care and the extent to which the care provided meets the necessities, needs and preferences of the elderly are also important. Older people obviously differ in several ways and, as such, are also very heterogeneous in their necessities, needs and preferences in the domains of housing, welfare, and care. This implies that we can not speak of the necessities, needs and preferences of the elderly. In this paper, diversity among the elderly will be addressed. Our insights are mainly based on a PhD study concerning care for the elderly by Luijkx (Luijkx, 2001) combined with research on elderly segments commissioned by Thebe, a homecare organization in the region of Tilburg (Luijkx and Pardoel, 2005). Ensuing the latter research, a PhD project started at Tranzo, Tilburg University in 2006, to explore the possibilities of operations management in the demand-based delivery of elderly care (De Blok et al., 2007). Some preliminary findings will be presented in the final section of this paper. We will elaborate on diversity among the elderly along three separate lines, which will be combined eventually. First, diversity required in help or assistance in the domains of housing, welfare and care is presented. Second, we focus on the differences in the composition of the safety net. In other words: do elderly prefer help from someone who is part of their social 124


Diversity among the elderly, diversity in approach

network, an informal caregiver, or do they favor help from someone who is a professional. Third, we pay attention to lifestyle as a characteristic that will influence the contents of the packages the elderly want to receive and, maybe to an even larger extent, will influence the way in which people like to receive help in several domains and how they like to be approached. After combining these three perspectives, we will focus on the consequences of this diversity for suppliers in the fields of housing, welfare and care. First of all, however, we will elaborate on the research methods of the main studies underlying this paper in the next section. 2. Research methods 2.1 Care for the elderly Concerns regarding future care provision to the elderly made a PhD study at the department Sociology of Consumers and Households of Wageningen University (Luijkx, 2001) focus on the following research questions: What is the picture of instrumental and social-emotional care for the rural elderly, who still live independently and are aged 75 years and older? Which characteristics of the elderly and which of the informal caregivers influence the care that the elderly receive? Care in general can be viewed as ‘a species activity that includes everything that we do to maintain, continue, and repair our ‘world’ so that we can live in it as well as possible. That world includes our bodies, our selves, and our environment, all of which we seek to interweave in a complex, life-sustaining web’ (Tronto, 1993). According to this, care comprises instrumental care as well as social-emotional care. Instrumental care can be defined as practical assistance in the household, like vacuum cleaning or help with physical tasks, such as getting dressed. This type of care can be measured with questions like ‘who does the groceries, who cooks, and who cleans’. Social-emotional care focuses on well-being. It expresses the character and the quality of a relationship. This care is measured with questions like ‘with whom do you share your daily concerns’. The rural elderly aged 75 years and older were included in the PhD research. The age of 75 can be seen as a turning point. People under 75 are usually not confronted with severe health problems or physical handicaps, whereas from the age of 75, people suffer more often from physical handicaps that limit their self-managing capacities (CBS, 1993; De Jong Gierveld, 1995). The focus on the rural elderly was mainly directed by the rural orientation of Wageningen University and by the fact that the elderly from rural areas are often underrepresented in other research. Besides, compared to cities, rural areas have a larger mean distance to facilities like shops, a library, and a pharmacy (Huigen and Van de Velden, 1989; Kempers-Warmerdam, 1988). At the same time, people in rural areas might be closer to each Changing families and their lifestyles

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other and, as such, informal care would be more common (De Jong Gierveld and Fokkema, 1998; Fischer, 1982; Thomese, 1998). Data collection for the PhD study on care for the elderly proceeded in two stages. First, qualitative research was conducted to gain insight into the care for the elderly. Eleven elderly people were interviewed. In addition to this, the informal caregivers of six of these elderly were interviewed as well. Resulting from the qualitative research, the instrumental-care situation, the instrumental-care arrangement, and the social-emotional care arrangement were defined. The instrumental-care situation refers to the degree to which the elderly receive instrumental care from people outside their own household. The instrumental-care arrangement refers to the share of informal and professional caregivers in the assistance elderly receive. The social-emotional care arrangement pictures both the degree to which the elderly receive social-emotional care and the proportion of kin and non-kin in the social contacts. Hypotheses about these three objects were specified, based on literature and results from the qualitative research. For the quantitative research, the second stage of data collection, a survey was carried out among a random sample of people aged 75 years and older, stratified according to sex and marital status. These elderly were living in seven rural municipalities in the Netherlands. We were able to analyze the cases of 465 of the 743 elderly that were invited to take part in the research; this is a response rate of 62.6 percent. In addition, 235 informal caregivers of these elderly respondents filled out a written questionnaire. In this paper we mainly address the instrumental-care situation and the instrumental-care arrangement, in accordance with the discussion on elderly care. Although we recognize that loneliness is certainly a relevant problem for the elderly, the social-emotional care arrangement is beyond the scope of this paper. 2.2 Needs of the elderly The second main study on which this paper is based, focused on the necessities and needs of people aged 55 years and older in the domains of housing, welfare, and care (Luijkx and Pardoel, 2005). Thebe, an organization for homecare in the region of Tilburg, commissioned IVA, an institute for policy research and advice that is affiliated to Tilburg University, to provide insight into the necessities, needs and preferences of the elderly through the construction of elderly segments. The homecare organization requested this information to be able to formulate packages that meet elderly needs in an optimal manner. This question fits the development towards the provision of care and services in a more demand-based manner (Rijckmans, 2005). Demand-based provision of care and services, along with other government-induced changes, should in the end close the gap between supply and demand in the public sector. It must lead to service provision that better fits the needs of the individual (Baljé et al., 2003; Keek and Klink, 2005).

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For care providers, demand-based care introduces the challenge to fulfill the unique combination of necessities, needs, and preferences of every individual elderly client. This seems almost impossible. Working with segments of the elderly gives more insight into the necessities, needs and preferences of the elderly and enables the delivery of packages in a more demand-based way. An elderly segment can be defined as a cluster of elderly people having a specific combination of necessities, needs and preferences in the domains of housing, welfare, and care. In 2003, elderly segments were distinguished based on literature and explorative empirical research (Luijkx et al., 2004). In 2004, an extended empirical follow-up research was conducted on a larger scale (Luijkx and Pardoel, 2005). The research question relevant for this paper was: Which elderly segments can be distinguished among women and men aged 55 years and older? To construct elderly segments, a questionnaire was distributed among a random sample of 5,600 people aged 55 years and older, which was stratified according to the ten districts of Tilburg and six villages in its surroundings. In the questionnaire, questions have been asked concerning the use of and the necessities, needs, and preferences for supplies in the fields of housing, welfare and care. In addition, it also asked for general personal characteristics, health, mobility, and lifestyle. In the end, 2,423 elderly filled out the questionnaire, which gave a response rate of 43.3 percent. Based on differing necessities and needs for domestic adaptations, facilities that are considered of importance in the neighborhood, experience of the neighborhood, loneliness, domestic help, the use of supplies, and several activities five elderly segments have been characterized. To unravel the segments, the method of K-means was used in SPSS. This procedure attempts to identify relatively homogeneous groups of cases based on selected characteristics, using an algorithm that can handle large numbers of cases. As has been said, in this study the segments differ in their necessities and needs in the domains of housing, welfare, and care. The use of an algorithm requires the researcher to specify the number of clusters. By comparing the results of different numbers of segments, we decided that five was the optimum number. A sixth or even a seventh segment would not have any additional value; the differences among the segments would become too small. The clusters or elderly segments are mutually exclusive; every individual elderly person belongs to just one segment. In reality, however, there will of course be people who fit in one segment as well as in another. Furthermore, in this research special attention was given to lifestyle. Lifestyle can be interpreted in several ways. Sometimes it refers to habits in daily life and especially the degree to which these are healthy. A healthy lifestyle contains healthy nutrition, enough exercise, non-smoking, and moderate intake of alcohol (e.g. Van den Berg Jeths et al., 2004; Visser et al., 2005). However, we adhere to a different definition regarding lifestyle. In accordance with Motivaction (www.motivaction.nl) we define lifestyle as a person’s Changing families and their lifestyles

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attitude towards life and his or her values, preferences, and opinions in daily living. Lifestyle was operationalised by asking questions about the activities that the elderly prefer, their participation in volunteer work, their interest in several topics such as computers/the Internet, religion, sports, preferred TV programs, magazines they read, and their opinion on several propositions. The K-means method was used for this classification as well. 3. Needs in the domains of housing, welfare, and care The next section shows the necessities and needs of the elderly in the domains of housing, welfare, and care. The instrumental-care situation, which refers to the degree to which older people receive instrumental care (Luijkx, 2001), along with the elderly segments, showing the needs and necessities in housing, welfare, and care, are presented (Luijkx and Pardoel, 2005). The five elderly segments and the three types of the instrumental-care situations have more similarities than differences. In a subsequent section we argue that these classifications both refer to the amount of instrumental care needed. The instrumental-care situation focuses only on instrumental care, the elderly segments cover housing, welfare, and loneliness as well as instrumental care. Because of the multi-layered composition of the segments, they will be used in the remainder of this paper to cover the amount of instrumental care. The instrumental-care situation will, therefore, be introduced only briefly. 3.1 The instrumental-care situation The instrumental-care situation pictures the degree to which older people receive instrumental care from people outside their own household. Informal care between spouses was not incorporated because the distinction between common daily and informal care in a household is almost impossible to make. At first sight, it is hard to determine whether one is cared for because of an allocation of tasks between spouses or because one suffers from a disease. In addition, in this study a household approach was taken. Three types of the instrumental-care situation are characterized. Elderly people in self-caring households care for themselves and, in households consisting of more than one person, for each other. They receive no or just a little help from people outside their household. Elderly people in cared-for households receive a lot of care from people that are non-household members. They cannot do much themselves. In between these categories are elderly persons in households that just can manage. These elderly largely care for themselves, but in addition receive substantial care from people outside their own household. They receive more instrumental care than the self-caring elderly but less than the cared-for elderly. In the quantitative sample, consisting of people aged 75 years and older, 27.5 percent can be called self-caring, 50.1 percent managing, and 22.4 percent cared-for. The quantitative research shows that the amount of instrumental care that the elderly receive is significantly related to household composition, age, and health indicators of the elderly. The elderly who live alone and the older elderly receive more instrumental care from 128



people who are non-household members than the elderly who share their household with someone else and the younger elderly. At first sight, the instrumental-care situation is not influenced by the sex of the elderly person. However, the female elderly in the sample are less healthy than the male elderly. Thus, for a comparison we have to control for health status. When women and men with an analogous health situation are compared, we can see that women receive less instrumental care than men. In addition, the elderly who are less mobile receive more care than the elderly who are more mobile. These results enable us to put the instrumental-care situation in a life-course perspective. When people become older their health tends to decline, resulting in more instrumental care received. Characteristics of informal caregivers are not predicting factors for the instrumental-care situation of the elderly. When people give informal care it does not seem to matter whether they are woman or man and whether they are family or not. Furthermore, the quality of the relationship does not influence the amount of instrumental care the elderly receive. The qualitative research has shown that children give informal care even when they experience the relationship with their parents as not very positive or even negative. The obligations attached to kinship relations seem to be more important than the quality of the relationship. 3.2 Elderly segments The elderly segments picture the needs and necessities of older people in the domains of housing, welfare, and care, in combination with several other characteristics, such as health, age, marital status, loneliness, income, and educational level. The segments vary with respect to these characteristics and can be easily recognized in practice. However, five needs are common for almost all elderly people; 80 to 95 percent of each segment has reported these needs. These basic needs are: • Shops in the neighborhood for daily groceries, especially a supermarket; • Shops in the neighborhood for supplies other than daily groceries, especially a drugstore; • Basis facilities in the neighborhood, especially a mail box, a general practitioner, and a pharmacy; • Other facilities in the neighborhood, especially a park or a forest, resting places, a library, and a community centre. • Complementary care aspects, especially appropriate patient approach and availability of care and services. The five elderly segments will be described in the following subsections. 3.2.1 Vital elderly The vital elderly do not require domestic adaptations. With respect to welfare aspects, they hardly feel lonely and they have a fairly broad interest in activities. The vital elderly like to go out; they prefer to pay visits, go cycling, or go to restaurants. They barely need Changing families and their lifestyles

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care or assistance; at most they want some support in heavy domestic work and in doing their administration. The vital elderly are mobile and both physically and psycho-socially healthy. They are relatively young (on average 63 years of age) and predominantly married. Furthermore, the vital elderly are active; they participate in volunteer work, care for others, and over one fourth of this elderly segment (still) has a paid job. They are highly educated and have a high income. 3.2.2 Future-oriented vital elderly The future-oriented vital elderly largely resemble the vital elderly, the main difference being that the future-oriented vital elderly seem to put more emphasis on the fact that getting older is accompanied by infirmities. As a result, these elderly are in greater need of adaptations in their bathroom and toilet as well as general domestic adaptations, although they are quite young, very healthy, and mobile, just like the vital elderly. The fact that this group of elderly barely requires care or assistance confirms our expectation that the need for housing adaptations results mainly from an orientation towards the future. The future-oriented vital elderly often are married, fairly highly educated, and have a high income. Furthermore, the vitality of this elderly segment is also shown by the fact that quite a large part of this group participates in volunteer work, takes care of others in their environment, and has a paid job. 3.2.3 Lonely coping elderly The main characteristic of the lonely coping elderly is their loneliness; all these elderly experience feelings of solitude. Furthermore, this group is in a negative psycho-social condition and perceives cognitive constraints. Besides being lonely, these elderly are also coping; they can take care of themselves fairly well, but need other people or devices to help with this. Some require domestic adaptations, others do not. The same reasoning applies to their need for care and assistance. Here, expressed needs mainly concern issues that naturally come with getting older, such as the need for assistance when doing heavy domestic work. Their need for care and assistance is mainly related to difficulties experienced when bending over and stretching out. Furthermore, the lonely coping elderly have limited interest in activities compared to the groups of vital elderly. When they are interested in activities, it is activities that allow them to go out. Physically speaking, lonely coping elderly are quite healthy, whereas their psycho-social health is worse. Compared to the two groups of vital elderly, this segment has somewhat more physical constraints and is a little less mobile. The mental state in particular can be characterized as less positive. The lonely coping elderly are less highly educated and have a lower income than the (future-oriented) vital elderly. They are approximately of the same age as the future-oriented vital elderly: on average 65 years. A large part of this elderly segment lives alone. The lonely coping elderly are somewhat less active in paid and volunteer work than the vital elderly.

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3.2.4 Cognitive-restricted coping elderly The cognitive-restricted coping elderly are in need of many adaptations, care, and assistance. For adaptations, their needs mainly concern a thermostatic tap, a heightened toilet, and no or lowered thresholds. Needed care and assistance is largely caused by restrictions in bending over or stretching out; the elderly need help in heavy domestic work and transportation. They do not need assistance in physical care. Cognitive-restricted coping elderly do require services, such as a hairdresser and pedicure at home. In addition, they have some need for cognitive support; advice on nutrition and diet, home visits by an advisor for information and advice, help in doing their administration, and memory training. In general, the cognitive-restricted coping elderly experience considerable feelings of solitude, but less than the lonely coping elderly. Compared to the other segments, the cognitive-restricted coping elderly experience more cognitive restrictions. They have a reasonable amount of physical restrictions and cycle or drive less than the earlier mentioned segments. The mental state of these elderly is more positive than that of the lonely coping elderly, but less positive than the two segments of vital elderly. On average, the cognitive-restricted coping elderly are 71 years old and more often female than male. Furthermore, they are married less often compared to the other segments discussed. They are lower educated and their income is relatively low. 3.2.5 Needy elderly The needy elderly have many needs in different fields. They require many adaptations, in bathroom and toilet as well as in-house. Almost all these elderly need a heightened toilet, a thermostatic tap, support rails in the toilet, lowered or no thresholds, and a bedroom downstairs. Besides a need for adaptations, this segment also requires care and assistance; in performing domestic care, but also in physical care and the cognitive domain. Although the elderly in general do not need assistance in physical care, ninety percent of the people in the needy elderly segment do. Obviously, these elderly also need help in domestic care, while doing their administration, and for transportation. They also require in-house services, such as a hairdresser and a pedicure, and support in the cognitive domain, assisted holidays, day care or the possibility to stay temporarily in an elderly home when needed. In addition, the needy elderly feel quite lonely and they have bad health, both physically and psychosocially. Furthermore, they suffer from cognitive restrictions. This is also shown in the use of transportation; the needy elderly hardly cycle, hardly ever drive a car themselves, while more often than the other segments, they make use of a rollator or scooter for the disabled. On average, the needy elderly are the oldest of all segments: 75 years. More often than the other segments, they live alone; 52.7 percent of the needy elderly is married. They are low educated and have a low income. They are hardly active neither in volunteer work nor in providing care to others. In the sample, consisting of elderly people aged 55 years and older, 27.5 percent can be called vital, 26.5 percent future-oriented vital, 17.4 percent lonely coping, 18.4 percent cognitive coping and 10.4 percent can be called needy.


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3.3 In comparison The three types of instrumental-care situation revealed in the PhD study, and the five segments of elderly revealed in the other study, have more similarities than differences. The self-caring elderly in the PhD study are as vital as the (future-oriented) vital elderly segments. The lonely coping segment and part of the cognitive-restricted coping elderly live in households that can just manage. The cognitive-restricted coping elderly that are more coping than cognitive restricted can be called managing, whereas the elderly can be categorized as cared-for in case they are more severely restricted in their cognitive capabilities. The similarities between elderly people in cared-for households and the needy elderly are self-evident. To adequately compare the results of both studies, we need to compare the percentages of the people aged 75 years and older in the elderly segments (N = 494) with the percentages of the PhD study. Figure 1 shows these figures and the similarities of the results of the two studies. 100% 90%

Cared for

80%

Needy

70% 60% 50%

Managing

Cognitive-restricted coping

40% Lonely coping

30% 20% 10% 0%

Self-caring

Future-oriented vital Vital

instrumental-care situation

elderly segments

Figure 1. Comparing the percentages of people aged 75 years and older for the instrumentalcare situation and the elderly segments.

4. Who takes care Services in the domains of housing, welfare and care in particular, can be provided by professionals or by members of the social network, such as daughters, sons, and others. The latter can be called informal caregivers. At first sight, it makes no difference whether a formal or an informal caregiver provides help; the house will be cleaned, the meal will be 132



cooked, and grocery shopping will be done in either way. Looking more closely, however, we learned from the PhD study on care for the elderly (Luijkx, 2001), that there are differences between care offered by professionals and care given by informal caregivers. Firstly, the contents of the care package differ, but more important is the difference in the experience of the care received. According to the degree to which help is provided by informal caregivers or formal caregivers, we distinguished elderly people with an informal safety net from elderly people with a formal safety net. Elderly people with an informal safety net receive only or predominantly instrumental care from informal caregivers. Elderly people with a formal safety net receive only or predominantly formal (professional) care. The care both groups receive is different. Elderly people with a formal safety net are almost all helped to perform the heavy tasks in housekeeping such as vacuum cleaning and cleaning the windows. Compared to elderly people with an informal safety net, they receive a fixed package of care, the content of which is determined in advance. Care given to elderly people with an informal safety net is more diverse and seems to be more adjusted to individual needs and wishes. They, for example, are also assisted more often in paying the bills on time or in deciding when the refrigerator needs to be cleaned. Besides the content of their care package, these two types of elderly also differ in how they experience the care received. Elderly people who receive predominantly informal care refer to this care in terms of self-care. This way they emphasize that the care they receive from their daughter or son is close to them. Elderly people who predominantly receive formal care emphasize their feelings of independence in the care relationship; they receive care from a professional caregiver, pay for it, and therefore are not indebted to anyone. Because of this, these elderly experience this care as less of a threat to their independence when compared to informal care provision. Whether elderly people have a formal or informal safety net is significantly related to the normative values and characteristics of the social network of the elderly. Elderly people who believe that children (in-law) ought to give informal care and elderly people who think about gender roles in a traditional way, are more likely to have an informal safety net than elderly people who have other normative values towards these topics. Furthermore, elderly people who have a social network consisting for the most part of children, elderly people who have more children, and elderly people who have more children without paid employment more often receive care that is predominantly informal compared to elderly people for whom this is not the case. Characteristics that can not be influenced, such as their sex, age, and health, do not significantly influence the instrumental-care arrangement. This enables us to conclude that elderly people prefer either informal or formal care and deliberately choose for one or the other.


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To focus on the composition of the safety net, the instrumental-care arrangement was defined only for the 233 elderly who can just manage. Of the managing elderly 36.0 percent can be called managing with an informal safety net, that is 18.0 percent of the total sample of people aged 75 years and older, while 64.0 percent, that is 32.1 percent of the total sample, can be called managing with a formal safety net. 5. Lifestyle In a previous section lifestyle was described as a person’s attitude towards life and his or her values, preferences, and opinions in daily living. In several studies about needs in housing, welfare, and care, lifestyle was assumed to be an influencing factor (Luijkx et al., 2004; Luijkx, 2006; Luijkx and Pardoel, 2005). For example, elderly people who have a different lifestyle would differ in their needs, would prefer different manners, and would need to be approached differently. Although in research no such relationship has been significantly demonstrated yet, we strongly believe that lifestyle, certainly in the nearby future, will be an important influencing factor in the provision of housing, welfare, and care on which service providers can make a difference. In the study on elderly segments commissioned by Thebe, three lifestyles were distinguished by use of the K-means method of analyses (Luijkx and Pardoel, 2005). Elderly who can be called cosmopolitan are open to societal and technical renewals and they tend to look beyond their own surroundings and experiences. In general, they are interested in topical matters and content; on television they always watch the news and often watch discussion programs, they hardly ever watch quizzes or movies. In general, the cosmopolitan elderly are highly educated and have a high income. The elderly that can be called involved critical are interested in various issues and are therefore actively involved in society. At the same time, they are critical; they question if all changes in modern society are for the best and they like to discuss these issues and how societal changes can be improved. The involved critical elderly, for example, almost always watch the news, but also music programs, movies and quizzes. This segment does not belong to the elite like the cosmopolitan elderly do; they belong to the middle class. This is in line with the fact that these elderly, in comparison with the cosmopolitan elderly, are less highly educated and have a somewhat lower income. In comparison with the other two lifestyles, elderly people who have a traditional lifestyle are less interested in the world around them. They regularly watch the news, quizzes, and music or nature programs. They adhere to traditional values. In general, the traditional elderly are lower educated and their income is relatively low. Their health is also relatively poor. In the sample of 2,423 people aged 55 years and older, 33.8 percent can be called cosmopolitan, 34.2 percent involved critical, and 32.0 percent traditional. 134



6. Diversity among elderly In the previous sections, we elaborated upon several distinctions that can be found in the elderly population, which are relevant for receiving, and therefore providing, care and other services. In this section these insights will be combined, to reveal an overwhelming diversity amongst the elderly. First, the elderly were categorized according to their need for help and assistance; vital elderly were distinguished, as well as future-oriented vital elderly, lonely coping elderly, cognitive-restricted coping elderly, and needy elderly. These types of elderly people are presented on the horizontal axis of Table 1. Second, two types of elderly people were introduced according to the kind of caregiver (informal or formal/professional) that has the largest share in providing care to the elderly person. This resulted in the distinction between the elderly with a formal safety net and the elderly with an informal safety net. This is displayed on the vertical axis of the figure. Last but not least, the elderly can be grouped according to lifestyle. We distinguished the cosmopolitan elderly from the involved critical elderly and the traditional elderly. Along with the type of safety net, this is pictured on the vertical axis of the figure. Table 1 shows that combining these distinctions gives us thirty possible segments of elderly. The study on elderly segments gave us the percentages of people aged 55 years and older that belong to a certain segment, based on the amount and type of instrumental care they need in combination with their lifestyle. Based on the PhD study, we may assume that about one third of elderly people prefer an informal safety net, while two thirds prefer a formal safety net. The division between an informal and a formal safety net in Table 1 is based on this estimation. The estimated percentages also show that some combinations are less likely than others. For example, in reality the chance of meeting a cosmopolitan needy elderly person is small, while meeting a cosmopolitan (future oriented) vital elderly person with a formal safety net is much more likely. Besides the distinctions shown, we are convinced that there Table 1. Diversity among the elderly of 55 years and older (in estimated %). Safety net Vital

Cosmopolitan

Informal Formal Involved critical Informal Formal Traditional Informal Formal Total

3.9 7.9 3.1 6.3 2.1 4.2 27.5

Futureoriented vital

Lonely coping

Cognitive- Needy restricted coping

Total

3.9 7.7 3.1 6.1 1.8 3.7 26.3

1.7 3.5 1.7 3.5 2.3 4.7 17.4

1.6 3.2 2.3 4.5 2.3 4.5 18.4

11.4 22.8 11.3 22.7 10.6 21.2 100


0.3 0.5 1.1 2.3 2.1 4.1 10.4

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may be even more possible relevant distinctions of the elderly population, which makes the diversity among the elderly even more obvious. 7. Diversity in approach Concluding this paper, we will pay attention to how the presented diversity among the elderly can be used in the day-to-day practice of organizations in housing, welfare, and care. For every organization, knowledge of its client base is indispensable in order to survive in a rapidly changing, competitive environment. Being under increasing competitive pressure (Breedveld et al., 2006), this also holds for service providers in the fields of housing, welfare, and care. In this sense, the presented diversity among the elderly can be employed in several ways, thereby offering means to shift towards a service organization that is more clientfocused. For example, an organization’s marketing approach can be changed from a productfocused method oriented to the masses, to an integrated, segment-focused approach, thereby allowing for more targeted promotion (Van Leeuwen, 2005). In addition, knowledge of the various profiles of necessities, needs, and preferences gives the opportunity to effectively develop new services. In this section, however, we will focus on yet another application of the presented diversity among the elderly, that being the opportunities it provides in the construction and delivery of demand-based care and service packages. As mentioned in the Introduction, the shift towards demand-based care challenges providers in housing, welfare, and care to focus increasingly on their ultimate clients, those being the civilians. The extent to which a provider of care or services is able to adapt its supply to an individual client’s needs and preferences will therefore largely influence its success in the marketplace. As such, understanding client needs has become essential throughout the entire service package. Providing the elderly with the care and service package that is optimally suited to their necessities, needs, and preferences would imply that organizations in housing, welfare, and care need to supply a wide variety of services. However, offering increased variety and choice options is usually accompanied by a rise in production costs (e.g. Ulrich, 1995), which is highly undesirable in the field of health care. The principle of modular production offers a way to increase variety while preventing a rise in costs. In essence, modular production allows separate parts of a product or service to be made in volume as standard components (Duray et al., 2000). These components can be easily mixed and matched to assemble numerous combinations that offer increased choice to the organization’s customers (Salvador et al., 2002). In a conceptual exploration on the application of modular production principles in elderly care, De Blok et al. (2007) showed that a modular organization of supply helps organisations to deal with varying client needs in a diverse elderly care environment. When constructing care and service packages for different elderly segments, distinctions can easily be achieved by combining different types of components for each segment, while drawing from the same set of supply. The modular service architecture also promotes joint service construction and delivery in a setting where clients need dissimilar types of services to be provided in a cost-efficient manner. 136



The thirty possible segments of elderly, as presented in Table 1, provide insight into the peculiarities of each category of elderly. Combining the presented insights with a modular construction of care and service packages allows an organization to determine a ready-to-use script for each segment that contains the services that are very likely required by an elderly client in that particular segment. As such, a package of services can be assembled in advance. For example, a pre-assembled package for future-oriented vital elderly people with a formal safety net and an involved critical lifestyle will most likely contain domestic adaptations, heavy domestic work, and administrative help. Furthermore, the package should emphasize the independence of the elderly client and allow for client involvement in the compilation and delivery of the care and service arrangement. Conversely, services provided in the ready-to-use package for cognitive-restricted coping elderly with an informal safety net and traditional lifestyle will most likely be extended with services in transportation, advice, and physical care and should emphasize security and support in service delivery. Furthermore, attention has to be paid to the care and assistance that is already provided by the informal safety net. As such, there has to be room for deliberation with the family care giver. Pre-assembled care and service packages have the advantage that solutions to an individual elderly client’s demands can be offered as soon as the segment the elderly belongs to is known. The provision of services in housing, welfare, and care to the individual client, therefore, may be faster and more accurate. As such, insight into the diversity within the elderly population offers providers in housing, welfare and care with the ability to directly address the different types of elderly with services for their particular interests, which can be individualized accordingly. Besides addressing all the elderly segments presented with pre-assembled arrangements in care and services, an organization may also choose to focus on only two or even one of the presented distinctions. This will drastically diminish the possible number of segments. Identifying unique distinctions can enable an organization to define a niche and develop customized service packages (Lengnick-Hall, 1996), as such offering unrivaled benefits within a focused market segment (Porter, 1985). Also when such a strategy is followed, the elderly segments shed a useful light on the necessities, needs and preferences of diverse types of elderly. Concluding the above, the presented segments provide guidelines for the composition and delivery of care and service arrangements. We realize that the care and service arrangements are based on mainstreams and fulfill needs only at the generic level of the elderly segment. To fulfill the demands of the individual client, fine-tuning will have to take place. The generic care and service package will have to be customized by means of adapting services in housing, welfare, and care. In this way, a specific care and service package, that fulfils the unique needs and wants of the individual client, is composed (Luijkx et al., 2004). However, the diverse elderly types presented grant a ready-to-use script with which organizations in the fields of housing, welfare, and care can immediately tune their organizational practices. Changing families and their lifestyles

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Furthermore, we should avoid placing an elderly client into a ‘compartment’ purely on the basis of indicators or a questionnaire. It is important to determine the segment an elderly client belongs to in interaction with this client, based on good listening and examination of the client situation. Therefore, a setting should be created that allows for client involvement in the care process. By means of front office – back office configurations (Zomerdijk, 2005) an organization can decide which activities will have to take place in the presence of the client (front office activities) and which in the absence of the client (back office activities). Back office activities allow for efficiency and speed in the process of care construction and delivery. Front office activities allow for customization of the service package (Zomerdijk, 2005), but also for social interaction in which a professional can show his concern, empathy, and sympathy to the client. This is especially important in highly intangible services such as care and welfare. For these types of services, it is not only vital what service is provided but also how the service is provided. As such, a client’s perception of quality depends greatly on the delivery process and the professional delivering the service (Lengnick-Hall, 1996; Meyer Goldstein et al., 2002). Here, the insight into a segment’s lifestyle and values can be of great help in deciding how and by whom to deliver a care and service package to a particular elderly person. Currently, a PhD project at Tranzo, Tilburg University is exploring further the possible advantages that can be achieved from applying front office – back office configurations in elderly care. The presented application of elderly segments enables an organization to directly tune its organizational practices to a particular client. Insight into the diversity of the elderly population is important since it offers the ability to directly address the different types of elderly with services for their particular interests. For organizations in housing, welfare, and care this allows for a more effective and efficient way of working when taking the client as a starting point for care and service provision. References Baljé, S., M. Henzing, H. Krajenbrink, B. Lammerts, J. Middeldorp and T. De Vries, 2003. Vragender wijs. Vraagsturing in de praktijk [in Dutch]. Den Haag: Ministerie van Economische Zaken. Breedveld, E.J., B.R. Meijboom and A.A. De Roo, 2006. Labour supply in the home care industry: A case study in a Dutch region. Health Policy 76(2): 144-55. CBS, 1993. Ouder worden in nederland in 1993 [in Dutch]. Voorburg/Den Haag: Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek. CBS, 2005. Statline databank. Voorburg/Den Haag: Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek. De Blok, C., B. Meijboom, K. Luijkx and J. Schols, 2007. Modularity in health care: Towards costefficient and client-focused service provision. Paper presented at the EurOMA conference, Ankara. De Jong Gierveld, J., 1995. De leeftijd van de sterken; de positie van oudere vrouwen in Nederland anno 1995. In: C.H.M. Smits and M.J.F.J. Vernooij-Dassen (eds), De toekomst van vrouwen. Oudere vrouwen in onderzoek, beleid en praktijk [in Dutch], pp.13-23. Amsterdam: VU Uitgeverij.

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De Jong Gierveld, J. and T. Fokkema, 1998. Geographical differences in support networks of older adults. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 89(3): 328-36. Duray, R., P.T. Ward, G.W. Milligan, and W.L. Berry, 2000. Approaches to mass customization: Configurations and empirical validation. Journal of Operations Management 18: 605-625. Fischer, C.S., 1982. To Dwell Among Friends. Personal Networks in Town and City. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Huigen, P.P.P. and M.C.H.M. Van de Velden, 1989. De achterkant van verstedelijkt Nederland. De positie en functie van landelijke gebieden in de Nederlandse samenleving [in Dutch]. Amsterdam/Utrecht: Koninklijk Nederlands Aardrijkskundig Genootschap / Geografisch Instituut Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht. Keek, T. and X. Klink, 2005. Beslissende invloed voor de burger. Advies aan het kabinet van de werkgroep vraagsturing bij (semi-)publieke diensten [in Dutch]. Kempers-Warmerdam, A.H.H.H., 1988. Vergrijzen in het groen. Het bereik van ouderen en de bereikbaarheid van voorzieningen in landelijke gebieden [in Dutch]. Nederlandse Geografische studies, 59. Lengnick-Hall, C.A., 1996. Customer contributions to quality: A different view of the customeroriented firm. Academy of Management Review 21(3): 791-824. Luijkx, K.G., 2001. Zorg; Wie doet er wat aan. Een Studie naar Zorgarrangementen van Ouderen [in Dutch]. PhD Thesis Wageningen University. Luijkx, K.G., 2006. Leefstijl en woon-, welzijns- en zorgwensen van ouderen [in Dutch]. Tilburg: IVA. Luijkx, K., C. De Blok, B. Meijboom and P. Van den Akker, 2004. Zorgarrangementen in de ouderenzorg. Vraagsturing in zorg en welzijn in tilburg [in Dutch]. Tilburg: IVA/Tranzo. Luijkx, K.G. and K. Pardoel, 2005. Ouderensegmenten. Behoeften wonen, welzijn en zorg in de wijk [in Dutch]. Tilburg: IVA. Meyer Goldstein, S., R. Johnston, J.A. Duffy and J. Rao, 2002. The service concept: The missing link in service design research? Journal of Operations Management 20: 121-34. Porter, M.E., 1985. Competitive strategy. New York: Free Press. Rijckmans, M.J.N., 2005. Positioning the Individual in Health Care. PhD Thesis Tilburg University. Amsterdam: Dutch University Press. RVZ Raad voor de Volksgezondheid en Zorg, 2006. Arbeidsmarkt en zorgvraag. Labour market and demand for care. Salvador, R., C. Forza and M. Rungtusanatham, 2002. Modularity, product variety, production volume, and component sourcing: Theorizing beyond generic prescriptions. Journal of Operations Management 20: 549-575. Thomese, F., 1998. Buurtnetwerken van ouderen. Een sociaal-wetenschappelijk onderzoek onder zelfstandig wonende ouderen in Nederland [in Dutch]. Amsterdam: Thela Thesis. Tronto, J.C., 1993. Moral Boundaries. A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care. London: Routledge. Ulrich, K., 1995. The role of product architecture in the manufacturing firm. Research Policy 24: 419-440.


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Van den Berg Jeths, A., J.M. Timmermans, N. Hoeymans and I.B. Woittiez, 2004. Ouderen nu en in de toekomst. Gezondheid, verpleging en verzorging 2000 – 2020 [in Dutch]. Bilthoven/Den Haag: RIVM/SCP. Van Leeuwen, G.S.M., 2005. Zorgmarketing nieuwe uitdaging voor de zorg [in Dutch]. ZM Magazine (1): 2-5. Visser, M., S.M.F. Pluijm, M.H.L. Van der Horst, J.L. Poppelaars and D.J.H. Deeg, 2005. Leefstijl van 55-64-jarige nederlanders in 2002/’03 minder gezond dan in 1992/’93 [in Dutch]. Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde 149(52): 2973-8. Zomerdijk, L.G., 2005. Design decisions in the front office - back office issue. PhD Thesis Groningen University. Ridderkerk: Labyrinth Publications.

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The family as social capital: the influence of parents’ friends on occupational prestige Hester Moerbeek Abstract Modernisation theory predicted a transition from particularistic values to universalistic values in contemporary industrial societies. This should lead to a shift of the influence of ascribed characteristics, such as social background, towards the influence of achieved characteristics, such as education on life chances. Although the influence of social background has indeed diminished, the characteristics of the father continue to have an effect on his children’s occupational prestige. In this paper an alternative hypothesis is suggested to explain this remaining influence of social background on prestige. Instead of looking at the father as mainly an economic resource, and the remaining effect he has on his children’s achievements as a remainder of particularism, the suggestion is to look at both parents as their children’s ascribed social capital. Friends and acquaintances can then be seen as achieved social capital and the transition as one from ascribed to achieved social capital. This paper presents proof of the suggested ‘achieved-social-capital’ hypotheses, which state that: a. Ascribed social capital (family) is more important in the beginning of the career than achieved social capital (friends), b. Achieved social capital is more important in later stages of the career than ascribed social capital. 1. Introduction In contemporary societies the importance of (nuclear) families seems to be declining. Due to demographic changes more and more households consist of one person, relying on professionals, friends, acquaintances, and colleagues for practical and moral support. Although most Dutch children still grow up within the realms of a nuclear family, the common activities of families seem to have declined. Family members don’t eat, play or do sport together or even at the same time as used to be the case in earlier ages. In the Netherlands, ten percent of nuclear families can be classified as individualized households (De Hoog and Van Ophem, 2006). Family sociology is an important discipline to explain the impacts of these changes in families and family life. This paper is an attempt to provide an empirical example of the remaining importance of the nuclear family for people’s life chances. For this I will look into an area where theories of social stratification and social capital merge: the labour market. How people attain their status and their level of income, and how differences in status and income levels emerge, have been central questions in sociology for a long time. Two Changing families and their lifestyles

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Hester Moerbeek

factors known for causing differences in status and income in industrial societies are family background and education. In the societal transition from a pre-industrial society towards an industrial one several things were presumed to change. Before the shift towards industrialism, sons tended to inherit their father’s job or business, and were often trained by him personally. This changed when more complicated machines were introduced into the production process, and the home ceased to be the major work place. Due to the rise in a demand for specialisation in the labour market, education became a more important factor in acquiring a job. Since then education has been claimed as a necessary requirement for obtaining a place in the labour market (Collins 1971; 1979). Changes in norms and values are intertwined with these economic changes in society. Where values used to be particularistic, and nepotism used to be the norm, in contemporary society values are expected to be universalistic and the norm should be a meritocracy (Parsons, 1951). In the Netherlands, the shift from a pre-industrial towards an industrial and later a postindustrial society has resulted in norms according to which all individuals should have equal chances to get a good education and a good job. Plus, given a certain education, all people should have equal chances to acquire similar-status jobs. These days, the Dutch government provides mostly free education until the end of the compulsory school period. Further education is provided below cost price. A grant and loan system is available to anyone wishing to pursue further studies. In the labour market people should be judged only on their own merits – when they start their employment career people should be judged on their education, and later on also on their work experience, but not on the basis of their social origin, sex, race, religion or sexual orientation. These norms are not unique to the Netherlands. In other Western (post-)industrial societies, the same norms prevail. The first extensive study that tested the true value of a meritocracy for the United States is Blau and Duncan’s ‘The American Occupational Structure’ (1967). Blau and Duncan conducted their study for men and their sons only, due to an under-representation of women in the labour market at the time. They found that the education and occupational status of someone’s father had a large impact on their education, even in an industrialised society like the United States in 1962. The father’s characteristics also directly and indirectly influenced his son’s occupational status, although the occupational status of the son was mainly explained by his own education. Blau and Duncan predicted that, with ongoing modernisation, the influence of education and work experience (achievement) on occupational status would increase at the cost of the influence of paternal characteristics (ascription). They expected the effect of the characteristic of the father to disappear altogether in time, as a consequence of a societal transition to universalistic norms. In the Netherlands, research has also shown a trend towards less influence of the father. Of course, now research has expanded to the mothers and daughters. Nevertheless, the 142


The family as social capital

characteristics of the father in particular continue to have an effect on his children’s achieved education and occupational prestige (Moerbeek, 2001; Moerbeek and Need, 2003; Moerbeek and Flap, 2007). The question thus remains why the father’s influence is still so prominent, especially in the onset of his children’s career. Furthermore, social sciences need to try to explain the meaning of this lasting influence. In the next section I point to some possible theoretical explanations of this phenomenon, now more focusing on the father’s characteristics as indicative of family background. 2. The remaining influence of family background: are we a society in transition or is it part of the life cycle? A first possible explanation for the remaining influence of family background can be sought in the transition Parsons (1951) and Blau and Duncan (1967) predicted. It may still be true that our society is in a transition from particularistic towards universalistic values, but the transition is not yet complete. Evidence for this would be when the effect of family background was still decreasing. A trend towards less influence of family background has been found by some (see, for instance, Ganzeboom and De Graaf, 1983; Ganzeboom et al., 1987; Ganzeboom et al., 1989). But, despite theoretical and methodological contributions to the model throughout the years, the main conclusions of Blau and Duncan’s research have remained intact. And even if the direct effect of family background on occupational prestige disappeared, there is a vast and lasting effect of family background on education. In the Netherlands, people’s achieved level of education is highly correlated with their parents’ education. Due to the Dutch educational system, this influence can not be explained by economic factors alone. Therefore, another possible explanation for the remaining influence of family background gained ground: the so-called cultural capital theory. This theory leaves the idea of a societal tradition behind and focuses, following Bourdieu (1973; 1983; 1984[1979]), on cultural differences between social strata. The line of reasoning is that parents from the upper classes are equipped to teach their children the culture of the upper classes. In higher education this culture prevails, and thus children from higher classes are better able to succeed in these types of education. Although this line of reasoning certainly sounds plausible, it is also a bit archaic; chances within Dutch society are supposedly distributed based on merits and not on class, and the theory of cultural capital finds its basis in a class system that seems to have largely disappeared. Furthermore, although this may explain the influence of family background on educational achievement, it does not yet explain the direct influence of family background on occupational prestige. An alternative explanation is sought in social capital theory. Social capital consists of the social resources a person has access to through the people he or she knows and the people who know him or her. Thus, social capital is a product of the social networks people form. (For more definitions of social capital, see Coleman, 1990; Lin, Changing families and their lifestyles

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1982; Putnam, 2002.) Although there are several definitions of social capital, they share a common ground: social capital, like financial capital (money) does not mean anything until it is spent. Social capital may for example yield care, company, friendship, and information. On the labour market, social capital may provide people with, for instance, information about jobs, employers and employees, or with good references. Higher occupational prestige or income than can be expected based on educational level or work experience alone might result. Sources for social capital can be friends, acquaintances, or family members. First of all, social capital can be fitted in the predictions Blau and Duncan made. If we argue that family is ascribed social capital, and friends and acquaintances are achieved social capital, in contemporary societies the influence of family as social resources should have declined relative to the influence of friends and acquaintances as social resources. Thus, the societal transition may have been from nepotism to other less obvious forms of favouritism. Although this argument sounds plausible, it is almost impossible to prove. One would need very particular historical and longitudinal data for that. So let us stick to the lasting effect of family background as found in contemporary research and try to fit social capital into a life cycle perspective. The first people we all meet (some exceptions are of course possible, but they are very rarely found in a-select data) are our parents. Thus, following social capital theory, our parents would be the first persons to provide us with social resources. Later on in life, by going to school and during our first steps in the labour market, we produce our own social capital through the friends and acquaintances we meet and the social resources they provide us with. In this paper I would like to prove that the lasting effect of family background on labour market achievements takes on the form of the social capital parents provide their children with (ascribed social capital). Furthermore, I would like to argue that during the life cycle the social capital provided by friends (achieved social capital) becomes more important for labour market achievements than ascribed social capital. These arguments have been supported by empirical findings until now, since family background is found to be a more important explanatory factor for the prestige of the first job than for later job prestige. These expectations can be summarized in the following ‘achieved-social-capital’ hypotheses: a. Ascribed social capital (family) is more important in the beginning of the career than achieved social capital (friends). b. Achieved social capital is more important in later stages of the career than ascribed social capital. In the following sections I will first describe the data and operationalisations used to test the achieved social capital hypotheses. After that, I will describe the analyses and results.

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3. Data and operationalisations For the analyses in this paper I make use of the Dutch Telepanel Survey (ESR/Telepanel 1993).22 The Telepanel Survey consisted of three waves, of which the second wave is most relevant to this research. The second wave contains about 1,900 households with approximately 3,500 household members. Background characteristics largely comply with Dutch households in general. A complete justification of the representativeness of the total survey can be obtained from the Steinmetz Archive (ESR/Telepanel, 1992-1993, Steinmetz Archive). In order to test my achieved-social-capital hypotheses, I used the prestige of the two best friends of the parents at the time the respondent was young as an indicator for ‘ascribed social capital’. The prestige of the two best friends of the respondent was used as an indicator for ‘achieved social capital’.23 Variables like age and sex were measured straightforwardly. For the level of education for respondents and their fathers (the latter was used as an indicator for family background24) I used the Standard Educational Index from 1987 (Central Bureau of Statistics 1987): (1) primary; (2) low vocational, extended primary; (3) middle vocational, grammar; (4) higher vocational; (5) university. To determine a person’s occupational prestige, I applied the occupational prestige scale that was constructed for the Netherlands by Sixma and Ultee (1984). This scale ranges from 13 (garbage collector) to 87 (surgeon). Data were collected 22 These data are quite old. Nevertheless they are the best data on the combination of labour market achievements,

social capital and family characteristics the Netherlands have to offer until now. This may be seen as another indication that family sociology should not loose it’s disciplinary status. There have been other large-scale data collections on Dutch families, but not with indicators of social capital and/or labour market achievements included. 23 These variables measure access to social resources rather than the application of social resources on the labour

market. If we focus on actual use of social resources selectiveness may occur (see Lin and Dumin, 1986; Völker and Flap, 1999; Moerbeek, 2001; Moerbeek and Flap, 2007 for further details). The focus on actually used social capital has major drawbacks. Bias may occur because those people who did make use of social resources, but did not obtain a job are left out of the analyses. Another drawback is that when one only takes the amount of social resources used into account, and leaves out the quality of the social resources (the status of the contact person) the effects on occupational prestige are all negative (see De Graaf and Flap, 1988). It seems as if for people who use social resources to find a job, the job in itself is more important than whether it is the best job they could find given their education and work experience. A way to avoid these drawbacks is focusing on access to social resources rather than on actual use. 24 To ensure parsimony of the model, I have only included the education of the father as an indicator for family

background. Due to the high correlation between the education of the father and his occupational career, and between the educational level of both parents, including these other variables in the model would enhance the risk of multi-collinearity, especially when many other, highly correlating, variables are included. In the present case the choice for the education of the father was based on empirical considerations. Apparently the recollection of the respondents is better with regard to their father’s education. This variable had far fewer missing values than the father’s occupational prestige.


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on full careers, up to twelve jobs. Prestige of the current or last job of respondents was found by creating a loop over all jobs which selected the last job on which information was given by the respondent. 4. Influence of friends of the family versus own friends In order to see the relevance of the analyses that will follow in this section, I have to explain a bit more about social resources, and the mechanisms through which they work. Why would it be useful for someone’s labour market position to know certain people? The first and most direct way in which people can help each other in the labour market is by one hiring the other. The second way in which people can help each other on the labour market is by giving good references, and the third, most indirect way, is by giving information (on vacancies or work environment for instance). Parents can do these kinds of things for their children, but they can also ask their friends to do so or their friends can do so without asking. Here a principle from social psychology enters the picture, namely that of transitivity of friendships. If, for instance, Peter befriends John and Bill, but John and Bill do not directly befriend each other, they will nevertheless show the same willingness to help each other as they would to help Peter because of their mutual friendship with him. Because of this principle the friends of the parents may be willing to help their friends’ children and can thus be an important asset for these children at the time they enter the labour market. To test the achieved-social-capital hypotheses, the line of reasoning remains as stated before: when people enter the labour market they do not yet have that many work-related friends. For that reason, their parents are still a very important social resource. Later on in their career people will make their own work-related friends and acquaintances. Therefore, the friends of the parents will have a greater influence at the beginning of the career, while a person’s own friends will be of more influence later on. In order to test the hypotheses, I have regressed prestige of the first and the current job on the prestige of the parents’ friends and the prestige of the respondent’s own friends. The prestige of the parents’ friends when the respondent was young is used as an indicator for ascribed access to social capital. The prestige of the respondent’s own best friends at the time of the interview is used as an indicator for achieved access to social capital. According to the achieved-social-capital hypotheses, the prestige of the friends of the parents is a dominant influence on the respondent’s first job, while the prestige of the respondent’s own friends is of more influence on the prestige of the respondent’s current job. In Table 1 the results of the analysis are reported. From Table 1 we can see that the achieved-social-capital hypotheses cannot be refuted. The parents’ first best friend has a highly significant effect on the prestige of the first job. The parents’ second best friend also has a positive effect, although this is only significant at the ten percent level. Regarding the prestige of the current job, we see that the prestige of the 146



Table 1. Regression of prestige of first and current job on ‘friends’ variables. Unstandardised and standardised coefficients (pairwise deletion of missing values, minimum N=560). First job prestige First job prestige Education Friend parents 1 Friend parents 2

1.351 ** 0.132 0.143 ** 0.173 0.062 ^ 0.074

Own friend 1 Own friend 2 Intercept R2

28.650 7.10%

Current job prestige 0.534 ** 0.467 0.538 0.046 -0.010 -0.011 0.037 0.037 0.180 ** 0.184 0.078 * 0.082 8.796 32.65%

** significant at 1% level * significant at 5% level ^ significant at 10% level

respondent’s best friends has a highly significant positive effect, although the effect of the first best friend is greater than that of the second best friend. The prestige of the parents’ best friends has no effect on the prestige of the respondent’s current job. This is in line with the prediction of the achieved-social-capital hypotheses. The results in Table 1 seem to provide proof for the achieved-social-capital hypotheses. Nevertheless, the true test of the hypotheses can only be performed if the characteristics of the father are included in the analysis. The transition Blau and Duncan (1967) originally predicted was the one from ascription (family background) to achievement (own education). If this transition is indeed to be read as a transition from ascribed social capital (friends of the parents) to achieved social capital (own friends), inclusion of the social capital variables should diminish the effects of family background and education. In Table 2 the analysis of the status attainment model with the inclusion of ascribed and achieved social capital is depicted.


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Table 2. Regression of prestige of first and current job on ‘friends’ variables. Unstandardised and standardised coefficients (pairwise deletion of missing values, standard errors between brackets). Minimum N=445. First job prestige First job prestige

Education

Father’s education

Current job prestige

1.289 0.126 (0.272) ** 3.659 0.241 (0.407) **

0.606 0.529 (0.028) ** 0.801 0.068 (0.280) * -0.291 -0.017 (0.423)

20.534 8.46%

31.340 29.04%

Friend parents 1

Friend parents 2

First job prestige

1.124 0.110 (0.472) * 2.832 0.187 (0.758) ** 0.106 0.129 (0.043) * 0.025 0.029 (0.043)

Own friend 1

Own friend 2

Intercept R2

27.006 9.53%

Current job prestige 0.545 0.475 (0.047) ** 0.608 0.052 (0.468) -1.096 -0.063 (0.756) 0.002 0.002 (0.043) 0.049 0.051 (0.043) 0.181 0.185 (0.041) ** 0.080 0.084 (0.041) * 9.018 33.64%

** significant at 1% level * significant at 5% level

From Table 2 the following conclusions can be drawn (we need to compare the standardised coefficients now): • Indeed, for the first job, the effects of own education and the education of the father (family background) become smaller after the inclusion of the ascribed social capital variables. (It should however be noted that the inclusion of these variables only increases the explained variance by one percent.)

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• For the current job, the effect of education disappears after inclusion of the achieved social capital variables. The education of the father had no effect to begin with. • The fact that the parents’ best friends have an effect on the prestige of the first job (note that the effect is higher than that of own education) and the respondent’s own two best friends have an effect on current occupational prestige – even after controlling for own education and education of the father – is a powerful confirmation of the achievedsocial-capital hypotheses. 5. Conclusions and discussion In this paper I have proposed a new answer to an old question. The old question is: when will the influence of social background on occupational prestige disappear? The old answer was: as soon as the transition from ascription (particularistic values) to achievement (universalistic values) is completed. My new answer is: probably never. There will probably always be some form of intergenerational ascription, and I argue that we should look at this from a family perspective in order to better understand the mechanisms behind it. To summarise, I contrasted the modernisation perspective – which implies a transition from social origin to education as the main determinant of status – with a hypothesis that postulates a shift from ascribed to achieved social capital. In operational terms I predicted that during someone’s occupational career, family are more important for the status of the first job than in later stages. Friends are more important in later stages, since people start to make their own friends during their time in school and when they take their first steps in the labour market. In the early stages of the occupational career, children start creating their own stock of social capital, which will later on become more important than the social capital produced by their parents. The tests of the hypotheses in this paper led to some interesting conclusions: for the first job the effects of education and family background on prestige become smaller after the inclusion of ascribed social capital; for the current job the effect of education on prestige disappears after inclusion of achieved social capital. The fact that the effects of ascribed social capital on the prestige of the first job and of achieved social capital on the prestige of the current job remain significant – even after controlling for education and social background – is a powerful confirmation of the achieved-social-capital hypotheses. These findings could lead to bold conclusions like ‘parents should find friends with relatively high prestige in order to ensure a good future for their children’. I would not be in favour of such bold conclusions. Rather, I used this empirical example as an illustration of the fact that there is a lot going on within families and households that is still unexplored. As I explained in note 1, the data used for this paper are quite old. It might be interesting to see whether the relationships as studied here have changed, in light of the demographical changes in society. Changing families and their lifestyles

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Furthermore, the outcome variable of this paper, occupational prestige, is probably not the only possible outcome for which the family produces useful social capital. Other possibilities that spring to mind are, for instance, health and care. Another peek into the black box of the family may be just as useful to study the family production of social capital in these areas. In this paper I hope to have shown that combining theories from several sociological theories – in this case modernisation, social stratification and social capital – is a fruitful approach in order to study certain mechanisms. Such a combination of theories to study the many mechanisms within families and households would best be captured under the heading of family sociology. Traditional topics that were addressed by family sociology, such as partner selection (for instance: De Hoog, 1982), divorce and its consequences (Dronkers et al., this volume; Spruijt, this volume), and family policy (De Hoog and Hooghiemstra, 2006), can be broadened to include the production of social capital within families. References Blau, P.M. and O.D. Duncan, 1967. The American Occupational Structure. New York, London: The Free Press. Bourdieu, P., 1973. Cultural reproduction and social reproduction. In: R. Brown(ed.), Knowledge, Education and Cultural Change, pp. 71-112 London: Tavistock. Bourdieu, P., 1983. Ökonomisches Kapital, kulturelles Kapital, soziales Kapital. In: R.Kreckel (ed.), Soziale Ungleichheiten, 183-198 Göttingen: Verlag Otto Schwarz & Co. Sozial Welt, Sonderband 2. Bourdieu, P., 1984 [1979]. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. CBS, 1987. Standaard Onderwijsindeling. SOI 1987. Voorburg: Central Bureau of Statistics [Standard Educational Index]. Coleman, J.S., 1990. Social capital. In: J.S. Coleman, Foundation of Social Theory, pp. 300-24 Cambridge MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Collins, R., 1971. Functional and conflict theories of educational stratification. American Sociological Review 36: 1001-19. Collins, R., 1979. The Credential Society. New York/San Francisco/London:Academic Press. De Graaf, N.D. and H.D. Flap, 1988. With a little help from my friends: Social resources as an explanation of occupational status and income in West Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States. Social Forces 67: 452-72. De Hoog, K., 1982. Partnerselectie bij Huwelijkssluiting in Nederland. PhD Thesis Wageningen University. De Hoog, K. and E. Hooghiemstra, 2006. Gezinsbeleid uit de kinderschoenen. Analyse van de verkiezingsprogramma’s 2006. Nederlandse Gezinsraad: Den Haag.

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De Hoog, K. and J.A.C. Van Ophem, 2006. Families and changing life cycles. In: G. Meijer, W.J.M. Heijman, J.A.C. van Ophem and B.H.J. Verstegen (eds), Heterodox views on economics and the economy of the global society, pp.143-54. Mansholt Publication Series (1). Wageningen: Academic Publishers. ESR/Telepanel (formerly SSCW-Telepanel), 1993. Dutch Telepanel Survey [Data file]. Stichting Economische, Sociaal culturele en Ruimtelijke Wetenschappen (ESR) van de Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), The Hague. Data collection: Stichting Telepanel, Amsterdam. Available from: Steinmetz archive, Amsterdam. Ganzeboom, H.B.G. and P. De Graaf, 1983. Professional mobility between the generations of 1954 and 1977 in the Netherlands [Beroepsmobiliteit tussen generaties in Nederland in 1954 en 1977]. Mens en Maatschappij 58(1): 28-52. Ganzeboom, H., R. Luijkx, J. Dessens, P.M. De Graaf, N.D. De Graaf, W. Jansen and W.C. Ultee, 1987. Intergenerational class mobility in the Netherlands between 1970 and 1985 (Intergenerationele klassenmobiliteit in Nederland tussen 1970 en 1985). Mens en Maatschappij 62(1): 17-43. Ganzeboom, H.B.G., R. Luijkx. and D.J. Treiman, 1989. Intergenerational class mobility in comparative perspective. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 8: 3-84. Lin, N., 1982. Social resources and instrumental action. In: P.V. Marsden and N. Lin (eds), Social Structure and Network Analysis, pp. 131-45. Beverly Hills etc.: Sage Publications. Lin, N. and M. Dumin, 1986. Access to occupations through social ties. Social Networks 8: 365-85. Moerbeek, H.H.S., 2001. Friends and Foes in the Occupational Career - The Influence of Sweet and Sour Social Capital on the Labour Market. (ICS dissertations [73]). Amsterdam: Thela Thesis Publishers. Moerbeek, H.H.S. and A. Need, 2003. Enemies at work: can they hinder your career? Social Networks 25(1): 67-82. Moerbeek, H. and H. Flap, 2007. Social resources and their effect on occupational attainment through the life course. In: N. Lin and B. Erickson (eds), Social Capital: Advances in Research. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [In Press] Parsons, T., 1951. The Social System. Glencoe: Free Press. Putnam, R.D., 2002. Democracies in Flux: The Evolution of Social Capital in Contemporary Society. New York etc.: Oxford University Press. Sixma, H. and W.C. Ultee, 1984. An Occupational Prestige Scale for the Netherlands in the 1980s. In: B.F.M. Bakker, J. Dronkers and H.B.G. Ganzeboom (eds), Social Stratification and Mobility in the Netherlands, pp. 29-39. Amsterdam: Siswo. Völker, B. and H.D. Flap, 1999. Getting ahead in the GDR: Social capital and status attainment under communism. Acta Sociologica 42(1): 17-34.


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Combating social reproduction: how Frisian children can benefit from the agenda of the new Dutch minister for Youth & Family Kees Verhaar and Yvonne van Westering Abstract For a long time the Dutch province of Fryslân has been lagging behind in a socio-economic sense, which implies higher unemployment and lower income figures than the Dutch average. At the same time, the province is known for its own regional culture, which is at the heart of the identity of the Frisian people. This paper raises the issue of social reproduction in relation to that culture. It is proposed that norms and values relating to this culture imply the acceptance of the lower socio-economic performance of Fryslân and thus of the Frisians – resulting in the transfer of this level of economic performance as ‘normal’ in the education of the Frisian youth. This might be one of the reasons that Frisian children in primary education perform less well than the Dutch average. The question is raised as to what extent the education policies proposed by the new Dutch Minister of Youth and Family might help to overcome this process of social reproduction. 1. Introduction In his public lecture to celebrate his inauguration as a professor in family sociology Kees de Hoog focussed on the intergenerational changes in everyday family life and analogous to these the change in the focus in Dutch family policies during the post-war period in The Netherlands (1946-2003) (see De Hoog, 2003). In this paper we focus on a complementary perspective, viz. the social reproduction of certain traits and attitudes from parents to their children. More specifically: we go into the social reproduction of a culture that is characterized as lagging behind. While doing so, we ask ourselves whether or not the policy agenda of the new Dutch minister for Youth and Family offers opportunities to combat this process of social reproduction. To be sure, ‘new’ here refers not just to the person who has been appointed as minister following the elections of November 2006, but even more so the introduction of this political portfolio. Actually, we are inclined to say that here we observe a re-institutionalisation of family policies which is quite in line with the analysis made by Kees de Hoog. Our analysis concentrates on the Dutch province of Fryslân25. There are several reasons to do so. Some of these have to do with the social-economic situation that is exemplary of 25 The

Dutch provincie of Fryslân is known under two names: the Dutch Friesland and the other relating to its autochthonous minority language: Fryslân. Out of respect for the Frisians and their culture we opt for the latter.


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Fryslân, and actually has been so for quite some time. Moreover, the province claims that it may be characterized by a regional culture which the Frisians see as unique – illustrated by their description of Fryslân as it bêste lân fan d’ierde (the best country on earth). In fact, this culture is something that the Frisians are proud of, and thus the preservation of Frisian culture is high on the policy agenda. Insofar as Fryslân may be characterized as a deprived area, with matching cultural traits, this may indeed be seen as rather unique. In the next section we will go into the reasons for describing Fryslân as a deprived area. Next we will go into the aspects of Frisian culture that are of relevance for our line of reasoning and into the issue of social reproduction of these characteristics. Dutch policies on youth and family come to the fore in the section after that. We will especially focus on the so-called Centres for Youth and Family, which according to the policy agenda need to arise in every city quarter in our country, and the opportunity these centres offer to combat the process of social reproduction with the help of educational support for parents and their children. Monitoring from the start the introduction of these centres and the effectiveness of the support and services provided by them offers a unique opportunity to gain further insight into the question of how to support parents and children en route to a better future. However, when we suggested as much during a lecture in Fryslân we were confronted with quite some opposition. How did we dare to put the qualities of Frisian culture into question? The ‘best country on earth’ lagging behind? Whatever the official statistics say: rubbish! We will briefly describe the public debate following our lecture, thus illustrating the importance of mobilizing the people involved. In other words: holding up a mirror that reflects some unfavourable outcomes of the culture within which parents raise their children is really like rubbing salt into a wound – which may not be the best way to present policy proposals. 2. Fryslân: a deprived area? Throughout the world, the label ‘Frisian’ relates to quality, that is to say it refers to the fact that some of the best cattle in the world originates from Frisian soil. This, in turn, literally reflects the quality of the land (viz. soil) and of the people working in the sector that is at the core of the Frisian economy: agriculture. To be sure, these qualities not only refer to cattle breeding, but also to related industries and services (dairy production being the most prominent).26 Moreover, we should also draw attention to the fact that the province is very important for the cultivation and production of other agricultural products, especially leg potatoes. Recently the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics published figures that show that 18 percent of Dutch sheep are living in Fryslân. Additionally, on average 40 percent of Dutch soil consists of meadows, whilst in Fryslân this percentage is 70.27 26 Friesland Foods

is not only one of the most important dairy industries in the world, its name also illustrates the importance of the label ‘Friesland’ or ‘Frisian’. 27 CBS, May 16th, 2007.

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And yet, in a socio-economic sense the region is lagging behind and has actually done so for quite some time, which is reflected in the attention given to economic development policies which goes back to the 1950s28, and which in more recent years was reflected in the support by the European Union. The popular explanation for the lagging behind of Fryslân in terms of unemployment (structurally higher than the national average), income (structurally lower than the national average) is that, notwithstanding the qualities of Frisian agriculture, the regional economy predominantly consists of economic activities (agriculture, traditional industry) with rather bleak prospects. However, Boomsma (1995) has demonstrated that such a structural explanation does not altogether explain the economic performance of Fryslân. In fact, he suggests that not sector structure but other ‘typical Frisian factors’ (155, emphasis added) are to blame for this – a suggestion that we will return to. So, that Fryslân is lagging behind in a socio-economic sense has been acknowledged by national and European policies for some fifty years or so. The provincial authorities have never been reluctant to claim (extra) support from the Dutch government or from the European Commission to support them in developing policies to change this unfavourable situation. To their credit, they have also developed many policies that were intended to contribute to such a change, either by stimulating local or regional economic initiatives (e.g. in the tourism sector) or by attracting employment from outside the province. And yet, recent figures show that unemployment in Fryslân is still above the Dutch average and that every Frisian municipality is below the Dutch average in terms of inhabitants’ income. Even worse: not only is Fryslân as a whole ten percent below the Dutch average, 11 of the 20 poorest municipalities in the Netherlands are Frisian. Thus it should come as no surprise that a national study (Kinderen in Tel [Kids Count]) on the situation in which children live, grow up and are raised concluded that most parts of Fryslân should be classified as a development area (Steketee et al., 2007). In that respect the label ‘achterstandswijk’ (‘slum’) was used, which has the advantage of attracting attention, but has the disadvantage, as we were to discover, of a connotation that not only includes socio-economic characteristics as the ones mentioned above, but also brings to mind big city slums and neighbourhoods (see the final section). One important characteristic not mentioned so far is the educational level of the working population. In Fryslân this level is relatively low – which of course is reflected in the average

28 As

an aside, prof.dr. Jelle Zijlstra, the Minister for Economic Affairs who was involved with these policies during those years, was a Frisian himself.


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income level, for lower level jobs are related to lower level salaries.29 The problem is worse, though, because the most talented Frisian youngsters have to leave the province to follow a university education elsewhere, as there is no university in Fryslân.30 Moreover, they will have to find jobs elsewhere, because the number of jobs for which a higher level of education is needed within the province is relatively small. Chances for improvement are slim as well, at least as far as spin-offs in terms of business start-ups related to their courses are concerned – another disadvantage of the lack of a university within the provincial boundaries.31 However, the biggest problem in this respect is that children in primary education perform worse than the Dutch average. This even goes for children that originate from the middle or higher socio-economic strata. As a result, the number of children (18%) advised to go to the so-called HAVO or VWO (middle vocational or grammar school) secondary education (mandatory if one wishes to continue in higher professional education or go to a university respectively) lies on the same level as that of students from an allochtonous background (18%) or from remedial students with a Dutch background. Especially in children with a migrant background, this figure is seen as a problem: talent is being wasted, not to mention opportunities for integration into Dutch society. The same, in our view, goes for Frisian children, especially because there is no reason to assume that something like a ‘genetic defect’ lies at the root of these figures: during the first half of primary education Frisian children do quite well! (Van Ruijven, 2004). Van Ruijven points to the professional qualities of the teachers in primary education as a reason for the poorer results in Frisian primary schools. But, as it turns out even for children who have the abilities to go to HAVO or VWO it is not uncommon to opt for a lower level of secondary education, we feel that this explanation is not enough: other factors play a role as well (Provinsje Fryslân, 2007: 107). This brings us to the potential role of Frisian culture. 3. Characteristics and potential influence of Frisian culture Within the Netherlands it is common to acknowledge that Frisians may be characterized by a specific regional culture. In Frisian, this specific culture is known as the Frysk eigene (‘Frisian’s own’), a label that in our view already has connotations of something that is at the very core of being Frisian, and (thus) something to be proud of. This connotation is reflected in policies that aim at the preservation (if not extension) of the Frisian culture. However, the question remains what the characteristics are that make this culture so specific. 29 Other

factors contributing to the lower than average level of income in Fryslân are reflected in the various reasons that mean that people are dependent on benefit allowances, unemployment amongst them. But we should also mention that the so-called ‘grey burden’ is above the Dutch average. 30 To be sure, several institutes provinding higher vocational education are located in Fryslân. Yet, the absence

of a university is a hindrance to the development of an innovative climate (also see note 31).

31 For a study into the potential spin-offs of a university for the economy of a region that is lagging behind, see

Florax, 1988.

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One of these characteristics is very specific within The Netherlands indeed, namely the Frisian language.32 Contrary to regions where people speak variations of Dutch, it is generally acknowledged that Frisian can be distinguished as a language of its own. All the characteristics that make up the Frysk eigene have been defined by Zoon (1969: 89), as: 1. The Frisian people, with their own character, values and traditions, history, language and culture, and 2. The agrarian structure, rural society and landscape. For our discussion we focus on the ‘Frisian people, more specifically their character, values and traditions’. From a sociological point of view, we use these elements of the Frysk eigene when we speak of the Frisian culture. In other words: our emphasis is on norms and values and related behaviour; whilst given our focus on youngsters we are especially interested in how these are transferred from one generation to the other. To be sure, our use of the term culture is to be distinguished from the use Zoon makes in his definition, where culture relates to the arts (70). Zoon has studied numerous publications that describe the Frisian national character as being amongst other things modest, individualistic, conscientious, idealistic, with an inclination towards rational and logical reasoning, persevering, independent thinking, emotional, proud, honourable, loyal, etc. (69). However impressive this list may seem, we should also draw attention to the fact that despite these qualities in the past the necessity was felt to study whether or not the Frisians would be able to adopt to the modernizing (i.e. industrializing) society (Heslinga, 1954). Apparently there were some reasons to doubt the almost superhuman character of the Frisians as described above. Other studies indeed point to less favourable characteristics of people living in specific areas of the province. Descriptions given in these publications make clear that a deviant way of arranging one’s working life was to be found in such areas (for instance: various publications by Bouma 1956, 1958a, 1958b, 1960; the Bronnenboek, 1953; Dam, s.a.; E.T.I.F. [Economic and Technological Institution for Friesland], 1953; Sikkema and Sikkema, 1954; Spahr van der Hoek, 1960; 1969). We will, albeit briefly, elaborate on this older literature. There are a number of local communities in Fryslân which have been faced with the phenomenon of unemployment for generations. One author even claims that in these villages ‘... a kind of structural unemployment or at least (...) a surplus of poor workers’ was found as early as in 1749 (Spahr van der Hoek, 1960: 64). Topical are the so‑called ‘moor land villages’, originally small settlements of people ‑ mainly peat diggers ‑ who were not accepted elsewhere and were relegated to the moors. They lived under harsh conditions, 32 Though

we should add that other regional languages are coming to the fore as being of importance as well (Van der Borgt et al., 1996).


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their dwellings mostly being mere sod huts accommodating large families (often including their small stock), and in abject poverty, while socially speaking their situation was equally miserable. In a publication on the best‑known (if not: most notorious) of these three (if not of the moor land villages in general), namely De Harkema, the following characteristics are mentioned: ‘...the primitive accommodation and the low level of medical care and hygiene, the absence of regular work, the roving life of the men for the greater part of the year, in addition to hardly any contacts with the outside world or none at all, poor incomes and, consequently, a bad nutritional condition, close mutual ties, little or no sense of responsibility, alcohol abuse, mistreatment of children, et cetera’. (E.T.I.F., 1953: 86. For detailed descriptions reference is made to Spahr van der Hoek (1960; 1969). One of the best known moor land villages [Zwaagwesteinde/De Westerein] is described in Sikkema and Sikkema (1954). The book ‘A worker’s childhood memories’ [ Jelle Dam, 1857‑1935] also gives a good impression. Finally reference is made to the reminiscences of a physician living in this region in the second half of the 19th century (Greidanus, 1974). People provided for themselves on the one hand with what the moors produced ‑ such as sod for dwellings, fire wood, feed for the small stock, small game ‑ and, on the other, by picking up a living with occasional deals, odd jobs, et cetera, and (at first) petty crime as well. One author even observes that ‘in fact anything was allowed to make a living’ (Spahr van der Hoek, 1969: 148). For more details, special reference is made to E.T.I.F. (1953: 86), Spahr van der Hoek (1960: 74‑87; 1969: 145‑8). Actually, these briefly described conditions still prevailed in these villages in the recent past. For example, where living conditions are concerned, as late as around 1960 caravans and even hen houses served as living accommodation. After World War II the authorities published a few reports paying specific attention to the village of De Harkema. A publication of the Economic and Technological Institution for Friesland (E.T.I.F.) of 1953 describes the economic problems of the municipality to which the village belongs and contains a number of relevant policy recommendations. The employment situation in this municipality was bad (in sharp contrast with the situation in the Netherlands as a whole) and the village was considered the main depressed area in the municipality, emphasis being put on the fact that precisely this village showed a ‘work rhythm’ where unemployment for a great part of the year (seasonal unemployment) was a common feature (E.T.I.F., 1953: 90‑1). In spite of the bad economic conditions, people did not want to leave, the out‑migration surplus being relatively low (E.T.I.F., 1953; also see Bouma, 1956). The E.T.I.F., however, reached the rather drastic conclusion that the village (not only the largest community of the municipality, but, additionally, a village with deplorable housing conditions) should be reduced in size in view of the bad economic situation (especially in relation to employment). In particular the younger workers would have to leave, compulsorily

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if necessary. Therefore it was recommended to restrict new building in the village to a minimum (E.T.I.F., 1953). Another report, also published in 1953, dealt with the overall social situation of the village and also contained very negative descriptions, e.g. ‘The village is lagging far behind as to culture, education and especially hygienic conditions. On the one hand the villagers may be too careless, on the other hand the grinding poverty in the pre‑war period would never have allowed them to relieve themselves from their wretched situation.’ In this report, the percentage of ‘antisocial families’ was estimated at 60 percent or more (even a percentage of 90 percent was mentioned) and, according to the report, there was a general sense of inferiority (Bronnenboek, 1953: 291). Additionally, all this has contributed to the bad reputation the inhabitants of moor land villages ‑ and probably in particular those of the village discussed above in more detail ‑ enjoy in the rest of Friesland. As far as labour market related topics are concerned, this reputation is reflected in people’s opinion that the inhabitants deal with unemployment in a way all their own. Every now and again, things occur that seem to confirm the image, such as the discovery of a huge working ‘on the side’ affair in the early 1980s that even drew national attention (Hier en Nu, current affairs television programme of February 3rd, 1983; the daily Friesch Dagblad of January 31st and February 18th, 1983). To be sure, this culture does not necessarily imply that people are unwilling to work. On the contrary, in line with Frisian culture as a whole a strong work ethic may be expected, which one may ascribe to a masculine working class culture. The point we are trying to make is that, whatever qualities are indigenous to the Frisians, within their province there is also experience with a coping behaviour towards (regular, recurring) unemployment and all its consequences (in particular poverty). Verhaar has demonstrated that such adaptive behaviour can certainly be seen as typical for a specific area of Fryslân, viz. the municipality of Achtkarspelen, which brings him to the conclusion that within that area one can speak of a regional culture (Verhaar, 1997). It is this coping behaviour that we postulate as characteristic of the Frisian culture as a whole in the sense that it has led to values and behaviour, which are geared to lower socio-economic achievement. Above, we have already hinted at various arguments to underpin this line of reasoning: ‘typical Frisian factors’ that contribute to the lower economic performance of the province, the lagging behind of children in primary school and the advice to go to a lower type of secondary school even if one meets the standards for HAVO or VWO. To these we could add the observation by Jansma, that only one percent of the Frisians feel that it is important that their children should achieve something in this world ( Jansma, 2000). Indeed, why opt for more, if the economic situation is as it has been for so long: lower level jobs, lower level income, higher unemployment?


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To be sure, though we have steered away from the debate as to whether or not the Frisian culture is as unique and specific as the label ‘Frysk eigene’ seems to suggest (note our reference to working class culture for a hint on our position in this debate) we feel obliged to point out that the process we are now referring to is not unique. This process, in which parents transfer specific norms and values, i.e. relating to lagging behind in a socio-economic sense, is known as social reproduction. There is a long tradition in sociological theory in which this process, specifically referring to situations as the one we are dealing with in this article, is described (e.g. Lewis 1961, 1968; Wilson, 1987; Te Grotenhuis, 1993). Indeed, Verhaar’s study on Frisian youngsters is also part of this tradition. In a very well-known study, Paul Willis posed the question of why working-class kids choose working-class jobs (Willis, 1983/1977). Maybe we should rephrase that question of ‘Why do Frisian children choose a Frisian future?’ We will come back to that question in the last section of this article. 4. Youth and family: current policy as an impetus for change During the years 2003-2007 the so-called ‘Operation Young’ investigated the situation of Dutch youngsters, and in particular the way in which various government institutions (from a national, provincial and local level) and other organizations try to make a positive contribution to their journey towards adulthood. The need to set out with such a trajectory was felt, because it was generally acknowledged that the organization of youth policies (both in terms of policy making and policy execution) had grown into an intangible web.33 By way of example, on a national policy level youth in one way or another was a responsibility of the ministries of health and well-being, education, social affairs, immigration and integration, justice, internal affairs and town and country planning. In practice, if the situation of a child was at risk of becoming problematic, various institutions on the local level were supposed to intervene – however, if problems got worse the child would be referred to youth care, which is an organisation that falls under the provincial authorities. All this more or less apart from problems arising during school time, and the support organized through the school to deal with those. Not to mention the bureaucratic problems of transferring a child from one institution to anther, the cooperation between institutions or the administrative burden (especially for the child and his parents or guardians) of taking down personnel details over and over again (see Van Eijk, 2006 for full details of the analysis of Dutch youth policies). According to the advise given by Steven van Eijk, the national Commissioner on Youthand Youngsters Policy (who led Operation Young) an important contribution to the disentanglement of this Gordian knot would be achieved if local municipalities were to 33 Several

dramatic incidents highlighted this problem, though we feel that they were not the main reason to set out with Operation Young – they did, however, underscore the need to reflect on the situation of youth policies.

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become the coordinators of the execution of youth policies.34 The execution of youth policies would be supported considerably by the introduction of the so-called Centres for Youth and Family. Such Centres would provide all the normal everyday life-forms of support and advice (e.g. inoculation and monitoring of development, advice on child care and the like), but it could also be supportive for the signalling of problems, as well as providing (a way to) the support to deal with such problems, whatever their nature might be. According to Van Eijk, such centres could also provide all kinds of educational support for parents. This kind of support, we feel, offers an opportunity to tackle the problem described above, a problem which more generally speaking is also brought forward by Van Eijk as a very important issue to be dealt with: the social reproduction of socio-economic leeways. The fact that Van Eijk points at a serious problem when he brings up the issue of social reproduction in areas such as poverty, underachieving at school and unemployment is generally acknowledged. However, this acknowledgment includes a connotation that such problems mainly occur in the big cities, in particular in neighbourhoods where people from a Mediterranean descent ([former] Moroccans in particular) are in the majority. These too are the areas where national government intends to focus on in its attempt to create a turn-around. Yet, there are various districts where the same problems occur, and these areas are not on the list of priorities of the Cabinet. This goes for Fryslân (to elaborate on the description above: on average 17 percent of children in the Netherlands grow up in a leeway behind area, whereas the Frisian figure is almost twice as high – with certain districts even scoring far higher percentages), and also for some other parts of the country such as the Northeast of Groningen. This apparent neglect for such backwards districts is a shame, not only from a social or political point of view, but also from a scientific perspective. For Fryslân as an administrative entity (i.e. the Province) offers a unique opportunity to test the effectiveness of the educational support instruments needed to achieve this turn-around of the process of social reproduction. Within Fryslân all kinds of situational contexts are available: a large city (at least by Dutch standards) with even some (relatively speaking) slums and a number of immigrant inhabitants, smaller cities, villages and rural areas. This implies that a strategy can be developed in which the application of educational support can be tested in various circumstances. The fact that all these circumstances are within close reach of each other, makes it easier for the users of these strategies (people connected to the Centres for Youth and Family) and for researchers to communicate, monitor developments and results and while doing so develop the best (package of ) approach(es) and instruments.

34 Implying that the Province should be removed from the picture. On a national level, according to van Eijk,

a coordinating minister on Youth and Family should be introduced to disentangle the policy web, which has developed between the various ministries involved with youth policies.


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One might wonder what we mean when we speak of educational policies. To be sure, we do not have a policy in mind where the State takes over parental responsibility for raising children. What we are thinking of are forms of support, instruments, examples and the like that induce parents to think beyond their current boundaries when investing in the future of their children – if only one step. Currently, some programmes are made available that offer the means to provide this kind of educational support. One of these, by way of example, is Triple P. This is an evidence-based parenting program. Triple P is a parenting and family support strategy that aims to prevent behavioural, emotional and developmental problems in children by enhancing the knowledge, skills and confidence of parents. The program consists of a multi-level strategy, recognizing that parents have differing needs and desires regarding the type, intensity and mode of assistance they may require. The first level of support is designed for all parents interested in information about parenting and helps them promote their child’s development. We assume that the provision of these kinds of support in the long run will help to turn around the process of social reproduction. Of course, we admit that this assumption needs to be tested in practice. This may take some time, as given the indicators presented above the first indicator to test the effectiveness of the education support would be the results in primary education. We do think, however, that tackling the problem right at the beginning, from the cradle so to speak, is far more effective than waiting until children drop out of school or are unemployed, and it should at least make up for the arrears in their human capital by extra training on the job. Referring to the Frisian context, there is one kind of educational support that we want to bring up. To do so, we refer to Sesame Street, which is well-known to be a very effective support in the raising of children, in particular where basic literacy and numeracy are concerned. Frisian culture is reflected in the work of the Frisian broadcaster Omrop Fryslân. Building on the experience gained through Sesame Street we suggest that the Province of Fryslân invests in a programme for young children that invites them to broaden their horizons. Similarly, since 1989 in The Netherlands we have a programme called Jules unlimited, which introduces elderly children to exiting developments in sports, science and technique. Something along this line could be broadcast especially for Frisian children, inviting them to reach for new frontiers while building on the qualities of their own cultural heritage. 5. A cultural debate These last examples were amongst our suggestions when we presented a draft version of this paper during a conference in the Frisian capital of Leeuwarden. Apart from the quintessence of these suggestions from an educational point of view, they also demonstrated that we did not intend to be hostile to Frisian culture as such. How could we be, given that one of us is the first ever Dutchman to write his PhD in Frisian (Verhaar, 1997)?

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Moreover, we also pointed out that, as we said above, Fryslân (apart from a small part of its capital Leeuwarden) is not on the list of government priorities where policies to deal with neighbourhoods in arrears are concerned. However, André Rouvoet, the new Minister for Youth and Family, offers yet another opportunity. For at that moment he had not yet published his agenda, though it was already common knowledge that the Centres for Youth and Family and an emphasis on educational support would be at the very top of his list of priorities. In fact, without going into the question about what the specific role of Frisian culture might be, during a television interview dedicated to our arguments he underscored the importance of educational support to overcome the negative effects of social reproduction of lee ways (Goedemorgen Nederland [Good morning, the Netherlands], March 29th 2007). Thus we urged the Frisians to jump at this opportunity. However, as it turned out we had touched an open nerve. Various comments pointed out that we were absolutely wrong: Frisian culture implied that the province literally consisted of ‘the best country on earth’, statistics surely did not include the quality of living in this province, and how could we forget that people in Fryslân were happy. A leading labour politician even pointed out in a postcard that she sent us, that the Frisians were amongst the most generous where support of charities is concerned – so how could we imply that they were lagging behind? And surely, according to these critics, we must have been very wrong, when we suggested that Frisians are stupid and backward. It is interesting to see, how arguments can be manipulated when people feel threatened. For, if only concentrating on the latter point, we have continuously underscored our point that the underachievement of Frisian children at school does not reflect their qualities, and indeed that developing their full potential is our one and only aim, both from an ethical point of view and because tomorrow’s economy needs people to do so if they want to earn a decent living. The former point was apparently not heard, whilst the latter point was immediately translated into the idea that we wanted Fryslân to be buried under asphalt (roads and industrial areas), which certainly would be to the detriment of the landscape. Yet, in a more private way we have also been approached by many people who feel that there is some truth in the points we are making, to say the least. As far as we can tell, these people do not seek a public stage to bring out their arguments. Which makes us wonder, whether or not we have not only touched upon an issue relating to the future of Frisian children but also one relating to the functioning of public debate in Fryslân. Whether or not the latter is at stake, we have seen that when introducing such a sensitive line of reasoning one must be aware of the approach one takes to make sure that the message is effective. In the short run, one may wonder whether or not we chose the right approach – though we are inclined to wait for the somewhat longer run to see what happens when the dust has settled.


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Returning to Willis’ main question, however, one hypothesis comes to mind. According to Willis, the lads he studied opted for a future for which he used epitaphs such as ‘condemned’ (Willis: 174) – for surely, in the longer run a low level of socio-economic well being would result from their choices.35 The point being, that though these working-class kids knew this, they still opted for working-class jobs because these related to their cultural identity and heritage. In other words, whatever the future ‘damnation’ might be, their choice was a positive one. This would lead us to the suggestion that although children36 (and certainly their parents) know what the relatively meagre results of their choices are, they still do so because they opt to be Frisian. For, as the list of qualities presented by Zoon demonstrates, being Frisian and thus being an heir to Frisian culture is indeed something positive. How to make use of this attitude and still achieve a turn-around, is quite another matter. Moreover, returning to the public lecture in which Kees de Hoog celebrated his inauguration as professor in family sociology, we cannot help but notice that (contrary to the theme of that lecture) at least in this respect there does not seem to be an intergenerational change in family life – which underscores the sustainability of Frisian culture. References Boomsma, P., 1995. Sosjaal-ekonomyske ûntjouwings yn Fryslân - de fraach nei arbeid [in Dutch]. In: P.M. De Klaver, C.H.A. Verhaar and L.G. Jansma (eds), ‘Wurk foar Fryslân’. In: It Beaken 57(3/4): 138-66. Bouma, L.H., 1956. Rapport omtrent een sociologisch onderzoek inzake de arbeidersdorpen van de gemeente Achtkarspelen. I. Harkema‑Opeinde [in Dutch] s.l. (Leeuwarden): Social investigations in Friesland. Report no. 6 of the Stichting Friesland voor Maatschappelijk Werk. Bouma, L.H., 1958a. Rapport omtrent een sociologisch onderzoek inzake de arbeidersdorpen van de gemeente Achtkarspelen. II. Boelenslaan [in Dutch]. s.l. (Leeuwarden): Social investigations in Friesland. Report no. 7 of the Stichting Friesland voor Maatschappelijk Werk. Bouma, L.H., 1958b. Rapport omtrent een sociologisch onderzoek inzake de arbeidersdorpen van de gemeente Achtkarspelen. III. Twijzelerheide [in Dutch]. s.l. (Leeuwarden): Social investigations in Friesland. Report no. 8 of the Stichting Friesland voor Maatschappelijk Werk. Bouma, L.H., 1960. De arbeidersdorpen in de gemeente Achtkarspelen, deel IV Samenvatting van het sociologisch onderzoek. Terugblik en beschouwing [in Dutch]. s.l. (Leeuwarden): Social investigations in Friesland. Report no. 9 of the Stichting Friesland voor Maatschappelijk Werk. Bronnenboek, 1953. Bronnenboek bevattende gegevens ten grondslag liggend aan het rapport maatschappelijke verwildering der jeugd [in Dutch]. ‘s‑Gravenhage: Staatsdrukkerij en Uitgeversbedrijf. 35 Returning to his study in an interview in NRC Handelsblad (Dutch national newspaper, January, 25th/26th,

2003) some 25 years later Willis describes how meagre the future of his ‘lads’ turned out to be.

36 By way of illustration; in Verhaar’s study (1997), compared to Frisian and Dutch youngsters, the unemployed

youngsters from the municipality of Achtkerspelen were more aware of the importance of going to school and getting a diploma if one is to achieve something in the labour market.

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Dam, J. (s.a.). Jeugdherinneringen van Jelle Dam [in Dutch]. Buitenpost: publishing house Lykele Jansma (with an introduction by Lykele Jansma). De Hoog, C., 2003. Opgaan, blinken, verzinken en uit de as herrijzen. Gezinnen, gezinssociologie en gezinsbeleid 1946-2003 [in Dutch], Wageningen: Wageningen University. ETIF (Economic and Technological Institution for Friesland), s.a. (June 1953). Sociale en economische problemen van de gemeente Achtkarspelen [in Dutch]. Leeuwarden: E.T.I.F. no. 317. Florax, R., 1988.The University: A Regional Booster? Economic Impacts of Academic Knowledge Infrastructure. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1992 [PhD Thesis University of Twente]. Heslinga, M.W., 1954. Friese fabrieksarbeiders. Enige sociale aspecten van industrialisatie in Friesland [in Dutch], Assen: van Gorcum. Jansma, L.G., 2000. Libbenskôging in Fryslân [in Frisian], Ljouwert: Fryske Akademy. Lewis, O., 1961. The children of Sánchez. Autobiography of a Mexican family, New York: Random House. Lewis, O., 1968. A Study of Slum Culture – Backgrounds for La Vida, New York: Random House. Provinsje Fryslân, 2007. Sociaal rapport Fryslân 2007 [in Dutch], Leeuwarden. Sikkema, K. Sr. and K. Sikkema Jr., 1954. Zwaagwesteinde, het ventersdorp op de Friese heide [in Dutch]. Franeker: T. Wever/Fryske Akademy, Wâldrige no. 2. Spahr van der Hoek, J.J., 1960. De heidedorpen in de Noordelijke Wouden [in Dutch]. Drachten: Laverman/Fryske Akademy, Wâldrige no. 8. Spahr van der Hoek, J.J., 1969. Samenleven in Friesland [in Dutch]. Drachten: Laverman/Fryske Akademy no. 345, Wâldrige no. 16 (also published as a thesis in Groningen). Steketee, M., J. Mak and B. Tierolf, 2007. Kinderen in Tel [in Dutch]. Utrecht: Verwey-Jonker Instituut. Te Grotenhuis, H., 1993. Bijstandskinderen Opgroeien aan de rand van de verzorgingsstaat [in Dutch]. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press (PhD Thesis University of Amsterdam). Van Borgt, C., A. Hermans and H. Jacobs (Eds.), 1996. Constructie van het eigene. Culturele vormen van regionale identiteit in Nederland. [in Dutch], Amsterdam: P.J. Meertensinstituut. Van Eijk, S., 2006. Koersen op het kind, Sturingsadvies deel 1. ’s Gravenhage: Projectbureau Operatie Jong. Van Ruijven, E.C.M., 2004. Onderwijseffectiviteit in Fryslân, Leeuwarden/Ljouwert: Fryske Akademy, 2004. [Dissertation Groningen.] Verhaar, C.H.A., 1997. Achtkarspeler JWG-ers en in streekeigen kultuer [in Dutch], Ljouwert: Fryske Akademy (Dissertation Wageningen). Willis, P., 1983 [first edition 1977]. Learning to Labour ‑ How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs. Aldershot: Gower Publishing Company Limited. Wilson, W.J., 1987. The Truly Disadvantaged. The Inner City, the Underclass and Public Policy. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. Zoon, J.H., 1969. Friesland tussen Hoop en Vrees [in Dutch]. Drachten: Laverman, Fryske Akademy nr. 356.


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Consumer and household behaviour

‘Hidden persuaders’, values and gender codes in students’ selections of ads and commercials Anke Niehof Abstract For the course Lifestyles and Consumer Patterns students at Wageningen University have to do an assignment in the form of an analysis of an advertisement or commercial with regard to a number of questions. This has yielded analyses by 220 students of the 2002-2006 cohorts. These form the basis for this paper. The paper addresses two types of question. First, how does the selection of the students relate to their personal characteristics? Second, what do we find in the ads and commercials they selected? The latter includes several aspects: the messages conveyed by the advertised goods and commodities, values referred to in the way they are presented, the target audiences, and the gender codes that could be elicited. With regard to gender both conventional and deviating gender codes and images – ‘counterpoint’ images – could be identified. Altogether the exercise yielded predictable results as well as surprises. 1. Introduction For five years now students at Wageningen University who follow the course Lifestyles and Consumption Patterns (part I) have had to do the following assignment: Select a ‘rich’ advertisement in a magazine or a t.v. commercial. The appeal of the advertisement must go beyond the utilitarian value or the cheap price (bargain) of the good or commodity advertised. Present, describe and analyse the advertisement. Answer the following questions in the analysis: 1) How is the good or commodity presented; 2) What is it meant to communicate and to what values does it appeal; 3) What is the targeted audience; 4) What are the (hidden) gender codes; 5) Are the concepts of conspicuous consumption or conspicuous leisure applicable? In this paper I will explore the results of the students’ work. I will do so, first, by presenting the selection made by the students in relation to their characteristics, second, by examining the pattern that emerges from the contents of the selected advertisements or commercials in terms of the questions one to four of the assignment. For the first line of inquiry I will relate the selection made by the students to their nationality and gender. The total number of students who followed the course in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, or 2006 and did the assignment is 220. The course is given in the third year of the bachelor program and it is also obligatory for first year students of the related master Changing families and their lifestyles

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Anke Niehof

program who have done their bachelor elsewhere. The latter category includes ‘Erasmus’ students from other European universities and students from outside Europe, most of them Chinese. By the time the students have to do the assignment, they have been lectured on the sociological literature on consumer society and the ‘symbolic meaning of consumption’. The latter is defined by Antonides and Van Raaij (1998: 66) as referring to ‘both the expression of one’s personality, culture and history through consumption, and the interpretation of others’ consumption with regard to these factors.’ For the second line of inquiry the students provided me with a sample of advertisements from various magazines and television commercials. Through using their lens, the work of the students gives us an insight into the kind of goods advertised in magazine ads and on television, the audiences they are targeted at, the values they appeal to and the gender codes they carry. In the second part of the paper I will discuss the pattern that emerges from this analysis against the background of the literature on the role and meaning of goods in consumer society. Given the symbolic meanings of consumption (see above), one would expect the following elements in the selected ads and commercials: 1. An appeal to individuality and uniqueness, in line with Baudrillard’s (1998) conceptualization of consumer society as being driven by the search for difference, and the roots of consumer society in the individualism of the romantic era (Campbell, 1987). 2. An appeal to prestige and social status, richness and wealth, in line with the mechanism of conspicuous consumption as coined by Veblen (1975 [1899]) and the use of consumer goods to bridge the gap between the actual and the aspired way of life, as captured in McCracken’s concept of displaced meaning (cf. Corrigan, 1998: 45). 3. An appeal to important cultural and societal values that, according to Douglas and Isherwood (1979), consumer goods and the way they are used inform us about. Examples of such values in present-day society are family values, environmental values, and values of connectedness and friendship. 2. The students and their selection The students in the sample are not only students but also consumers. Moreover, after they have completed their studies and found a good job, which is why presumably most of them go to the university, they belong to the market that many of the ads they selected are targeted at. In his classic on consumer society Baudrillard compares increasing consumer aspirations and belief in the power embodied by consumer goods to the cargo cult myth. Referring to the younger generations in particular, he says: ‘Faith in consumption is a new element; the rising generations are now inheritors: they no longer inherit goods, but the natural right to abundance’ (Baudrillard, 1998: 32). The question is to what extent the students from different countries are aware of this inner logic of consumer society, and, even though they were exposed to the same lectures and reading materials, understood the assignment in the same way. 170


‘Hidden persuaders’, values and gender codes

Of the 220 assignments, I rejected 42 for further analysis, because the choice of 42 students was not ‘rich’ enough. Most commodities advertised in this group are very basic (high utility value) and/or in their presentation there is little appeal to any associations or values beyond their use or price, though there might be some reference to gender. The assignments were marked accordingly. Of the 42 rejected assignments ten relate to food or drink, nine are about daily body care. Quite a few are from providers of services, courses or utilities. The remaining ones are an odd mix. An ad from a well-known Dutch bank was also rejected because it was too ‘flat’, though it showed how banking is still a man’s business. Table 1 shows the distribution of the rejected and accepted selections in relation to the students’ characteristics. According to the figures in Table 1, gender did not make much of a difference for correctly understanding the purpose of the assignment. In the distribution according to nationality, however, the good performance of the non-Dutch European students stands out, while the Dutch students seem to perform slightly below average. The selection of the students in terms of the kind of commodity advertised in the ad or commercial of their choice can also be related to nationality and gender, which is done in Table 2. Originally I divided the commodities presented in the selected ads and commercials into 14 categories, but because the numbers would become too small I merged some, so that the number of categories used for further analysis is seven. For a good understanding of the remainder of the paper I will briefly describe the seven categories: Table 1. Approval and rejection of the students’ selection by students’ characteristics. Students’ characteristics

Nationality Dutch European, non-Dutch Non-European Gender Male Female Total

Approved

Rejected

N

(%)

N

(%)

N

(%)

127 26 25

(77.9) (96.3) (83.3)

36 1 5

(22.1) (3.7) (16.7)

163 27 30

(100.0) (100.0) (100.0)

47 131 178

(81.1) (80.9) (80.9)

11 31 42

(18.9) (19.1) (19.1)

58 162 220

(100.0) (100.0) (100.0)


Total

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Table 2. Distribution of topic selection according to students’ characteristics. Category1

Nationality2 Dutch

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Total

16 (57.1) 17 (73.9) 27 (71.1) 18 (78.3) 30 (71.4) 5 (62.5) 14 (87.5) 127 (71.3)

Gender2 European non-Dutch 3 (10.7) 3 (13.0) 8 (21.0) 2 (8.7) 6 (14.3) 3 (37.5) 1 (6.3) 26 (14.6)

NonEuropean 9 (32.2) 3 (13.0) 3 (7.9) 3 (13.0) 6 (14.3) 1 (6.3) 25 (14.1)

Male

6 (21.4) 4 (17.4) 6 (15.8) 5 (21.7) 19 (45.2) 1 (12.5) 6 (37.5) 47 (26.4)

Total Female

22 (78.6) 19 (82.6) 32 (84.2) 18 (78.3) 23 (54.8) 7 (87.5) 10 (62.5) 131 (73.6)

28 (100.0) 23 (100.0) 38 (100.0) 23 (100.0) 42 (100.0) 8 (100.0) 16 (100.0) 178 (100.0)

1Categories are: 1 = Food and drink; 2 = Clothing, shoes, handbags; 3 = Body care and fragrance;

4 = Watches and jewellery; 5 = Cars and appliances; 6 = Social marketing; 7 = Miscellaneous. 2Percentages between brackets.

Category 1: Food and drink, including special foods and snacks, and alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages. Category 2: Clothing, shoes and handbags, including fashionable clothes, lingerie, stylish shoes and sport shoes, and a few ads for stylish handbags, most of them bearing familiar brand names. Category 3: Body care and fragrance, including luxury products for daily body care and – mostly – perfumes. Category 4: Watches and jewellery, with watches being the most popular item. Category 5: Cars and appliances, including (predominantly) cars but also a motor bike, television sets, a (design) vacuum cleaner, and mobile phones. Category 6: S ocial marketing. Though only a small category I decided to keep it apart and not merge it with the (last) category of miscellaneous choices. These ads or commercials are rich in the sense that they refer to important societal values or social causes, not in the sense that they will lure buyers into conspicuous consumption or appeal to social prestige. The topics in this category include, for example, condom use for safe sex, human rights, protection of wild life, and illiteracy in the Netherlands. Category 7: Miscellaneous, including the topics of leisure, interior design (furniture), and cigarettes (the Marlboro Man is still among us).

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Conforming to the stereotype, male students are over-represented in the category that includes predominantly cars, but also electronic devices and mobile phones (Category 5). Likewise, female students are overrepresented in the categories of clothing, shoes and handbags (Category 2), and that of body care products and perfumes (Category 3). The non-European students seem to have a disproportionate preference for ads and commercials in the category of food and drinks, but the numbers are very small. The latter applies even more to the predominance of female students in the category of social marketing. But because of the small numbers, offering explanations for these two tendencies would amount to speculation. 3. The contents of the selection: commodities as messages In this section the emphasis is on the goods or commodities and how they are presented, or – to put it differently – on ‘commodities as messages’ (Solomon et al., 2002) and ‘the world of goods’ (Douglas and Isherwood, 1979). For this discussion it has to be kept in mind that the selection is not a representative sample from a universe of ‘rich’ advertisements in all eligible magazines or all television commercials. It is the selection of students, made during the years 2002-2006, of ads and commercials they found suitable or attractive, from sources they had access to. In this section I will look at the contents of the selected ads and commercials by following the questions the students had to answer, making use of the answers they came up with, but also correcting or adding to these when warranted. 3.1 Presentation of the good or commodity In a paper like this it is impossible to discuss this aspect properly because reprinting the ads is not feasible and describing them all would take too many words. To give the reader an idea, the ads or commercial that I find most attractive will be briefly described. For me, attractiveness lies in originality (choice of actors and themes featuring in the presentation), aesthetic features (with regard to colour or composition), or a powerful creation of a certain atmosphere. Obviously, the choice is subjective. Category 1: Food and drink In this category it is difficult to find really attractive ads or commercials. Recall that in this category relatively many assignments were rejected because they were not ‘rich’ enough (see above). Foods and drinks are mostly too basic to lend themselves to embellishment. Alcoholic beverages offer more prospects, since they are less basic (at least for most of us) and can be used to enhance status and prestige, or togetherness and friendship. However, my choice in this category is for the Nespresso (coffee) ad that features George Clooney. The ad is nicely done in coffee colours with the magnetic presence of George Clooney in the centre. It is an example of ads that feature a celebrity to enhance their power of attraction, of which there are quite a few in the selection.


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Category 2: Clothing, shoes, handbags My favourite in this category is an ad of two elderly Jamaican ladies who proudly wear their Puma sneakers. It is the unexpected combination of these two distinguished, spectacled, nicely dressed (complete with hat) old ladies with this casual type of footwear that attracts your attention. As the student who selected it says: ‘The picture doesn’t really fit. […] It makes you look twice’. Category 3: Body care and fragrance In this category I selected two, quite different, examples. One is of a perfume called Alien, which is presented by an elf-like, transparent looking woman, whose almost white hair is spread out and surrounds her shining face like a halo. There is a whiff of mystery about the picture. The text says: ‘Do you believe in the Extraordinary?’ The second one is an ad for a Chanel perfume called Coco Mademoiselle. The mademoiselle, for the part of her body visible in the picture, is dressed in nothing but a long pearl necklace and a coquettish little black hat with a white rose pinned on it. There is nothing mysterious about her; she radiates self-confidence and challenge. Looking directly at you, she seems to be saying: ‘Don’t you want to be as attractive as I am?’ The two perfumes would appeal to quite different female personalities. I like the specificity that sets them apart from the majority of the perfume ads, where we find just the predictable elements of eroticism and sex appeal, embodied by seductive-looking, often half-naked, wrinkleless and slender beautiful ladies. Like that of the Marlboro man, the image of the woman as an object of desire is still very much among us. Category 4: Watches and jewellery The ad chosen in this category is that of a Breitling watch. The picture shows an elegantly dressed lady (furs and hat) waiting for her suitcases that are being carried from the aeroplane by a man in uniform. Judging by the clothes she is wearing and the propeller aeroplane, the scene (in black-and-white) must be set in the 1950s. The sturdy watches at the bottom of the picture are in colour. Beneath the name of the company the writing of 1884 indicates the company’s respectable age. The lady is obviously a well-travelled person who can afford luxury and has style. Through her and the setting of the picture a message of style, elegance, reliability, and tradition is conveyed. Category 5: Cars and appliances In this category I selected two ads, one of a car and one of an appliance. The car ad is from Toyota, but the picture does not show a car. Instead, it shows a child curled-up and sleeping in what looks like a nest made of twigs that is floating on the water of a pond. Water-lily leaves surround the nest and the water is tranquil, just showing a few ripples. The scene has a fairy-tale-like quality. The text says ‘zero emissions’, explaining that Toyota’s hybrid technology is aiming at a ‘more sustainable tomorrow’. The second ad I selected is that of a Miele vacuum cleaner. The picture features an attractive man in his mid-thirties, casually dressed, who is sitting in a modern, stylish and sparsely furnished living room. A pile of books is next to his chair on the floor. The vacuum cleaner is in the forefront. It is small and 174



nicely designed, with red roses painted on its nose, the red of the roses matching the colour of the man’s chair. It is one of a Miele series called ART. Clearly, this is not a vacuum cleaner for family households where generally (still) women and not men do the cleaning; this ART piece is marketed to young urban professionals and bachelors with good taste. The categories 6 and 7 do, in my view, not include ads that are worthwhile describing here separately, although there are some interesting ones too. In the selection of the students there are a few commercials, but their quality does not justify an extensive description. The only element that sometimes features in commercials and is virtually absent in the ads, is that of humour. However, though some commercials are meant to be funny, presumably to hold the attention of the viewer, whether they are so depends on one’s sense of humour. 3.2 The values referred to This sub-section is about the semantic properties of the selected goods and commodities and the way they are presented. It is about the functional, social, or cultural values they refer to. As already explained above, the sample is not representative. The distribution of the values referred to in the selected ads and commercials does not reflect the relative strength of these values in the European countries the sources were sampled from. Because the students had to select a ‘rich’ advertisement or commercial, the selection from these sources is also biased in favour of luxury goods. Despite these disclaimers, we shall see to what extent the elements identified by sociological theory (see above) can be found in the material and whether the kind of commodity makes a difference. The exploration of the contents of the commercials and advertisements, in terms of images, actors, themes, settings, text, and visibility of status symbols, yielded a number of values. Additionally, the expected values based on the theory – individuality, uniqueness, prestige, wealth, and important societal values – were checked for their presence. Before looking at the results of this exercise some preliminary points have to be made. First, I did not use rigorously standardized indicators for the values but interpreted the messages conveyed by the pictures in a rather loose, impressionistic manner. Though I did it twice and got the same results, it is definitely a subjective element in the analysis. This cannot be avoided. As Stuart Hall (1997: 9) says: ‘there is no single or ‘correct’ answer to the question, ‘What does this image mean?’ or ‘What is this ad saying?’.’ Second, although in general one particular value or reference is dominant, sometimes there are two almost equally dominant ones. Hence, the total number of values found exceeds that of the number of commercials and ads in the sample. Third, I did not include the category of social marketing (Category 6, N=8) in this analysis because its ads or commercials are too different from the rest. They appeal to more general social causes and values and are targeted at the public at large. Fourth, though gender is part of the analysis in this section, it will be more specifically dealt with further on in this paper.


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The values the ads or commercials were found to refer to are the following: Value 1: Individuality, uniqueness, personal distinction; Value 2: Richness, wealth; Value 3: Style, class, elegance, good taste; Value 4: Achievement, success; Value 5: Freedom, independence; Value 6: Friendship, togetherness, relating to others; Value 7: Technological progress and reliability; Value 8: Gender: masculinity or femininity; Value 9: Pleasure, happiness, sexual freedom; Value 10: Love and romance; Value 11: Sustainability, preserving nature; Value 12: Vitality and health; and Value 13: Family values. The highest scoring value is the one that appeals to style, class, elegance, or good taste (V3), confirming the prevailing theory about consuming as a means to satisfy aspirations to higher status and prestige. The appeal to wealth and richness (V2) scores less, though the same kind of mechanism is involved. The second highest scoring value is the gender value (V8). Table 3. Values referred to according to category of commodity. Value1

V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V6 V7 V8 V9 V10 V11 V12 V13 Total

Category of commodity2

Total

1

2

3

4

5

7

1 7 8 3 2 3 1 3 2 30

2 9 4 1 1 6 4 2 1 30

2 2 1 3 2 12 6 5 1 6 40

4 5 7 2 7 1 1 27

2 9 12 3 5 1 10 4 1 1 1 1 50

2 2 5 1 3 2 3 2 1 21

13 16 42 7 15 10 20 28 13 11 6 13 4 198

1The values are the following: V1 = Individuality, uniqueness, personal distinction; V2 = Richness,

wealth; V3 = Style, class, elegance, good taste; V4 = Achievement, success; V5 = Freedom, independence; V6 = Friendship, togetherness, relating to others; V7 = Technological progress and reliability; V8 = Pleasure, happiness, sexual freedom; V9 = Masculinity, femininity; V10 = Love and romance; V11 = Sustainability, preserving nature; V12 = Vitality and health; V13 = Family values. 2Categories are: 1 = Food and drink; 2 = Clothing, shoes, handbags; 3 = Body care and fragrance; 4 = Watches and jewellery; 5 = Cars and appliances; 7 = Miscellaneous.

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This means that in relatively many ads or commercials the images of the ideal ‘feminine woman’ and – to a lesser extent – the ideal ‘masculine’ man are evoked, though – as we shall see below – there is quite some variation in the gender images. Another point to be made on the distribution is the relatively low score of the value that appeals to individuality and uniqueness (V1). Based on the conceptualization of consumer society as being driven by the search for difference one would expect a higher score. Values that are important in society at large, such as family values (V13) and respect for nature (V11) have a low score, implying that marketing organizations do not consider them sufficiently appealing for the kind of advertisements and commercials selected here. The low score of family values (V13) seems to contradict an observed trend of increasing positive valuation of the family in Europe (cf. Antonides and Van Raaij, 1998: 52-53). It is noteworthy that two out of the four ads that focus on this value are from China and were selected by Chinese students. The Toyota ad where sustainability is the key message (V11), which I discussed above, appears to be quite exceptional as an ad that focuses on environmental values. When looking at the distribution of values over the different categories (excluding Category 6) a distinct pattern seems to emerge. In the first category of food and drink the value of friendship and togetherness (V6) has the highest score, confirming the social significance of food and drink. Status (V3) scores well too, especially for certain alcoholic beverages but not beer. According to the pictures, beers are definitely for socializing, especially among men. Of the four scores for family values (V13), not surprisingly two are in the category of food and drink. In the second category of clothing, shoes, and handbags, status and elegance (V3) are of primary importance. Of the six gender (V8) scores in this category three are derived from lingerie ads that portray beautiful, desirable women. Gender and images of masculinity and femininity (V8) are predominant in the third category, especially in the perfume ads. Here we find the stereotypical image of the seductive woman. One of the ads even features a woman eating an apple (Eve!), a detail that the student concerned failed to notice at the time. The six scores for the value of health and vitality (V12) are wholly derived from ads and commercials on body-care products. In the fourth category of watches and jewellery the appeal to status and elegance (V3) is predominant, but the appeal to technological progress and reliability (V7) in the ads on watches gets an equally high score. In these ads there is often an appeal to both aesthetic and technological sophistication, especially of the watches that look very expensive (V2), as can be deduced from their design and the materials used. More than in the other categories the items in this one appeal to individuality. As in category four, in the fifth category of cars and appliances the reference to technology (V7) is also important, but the message which says that you enhance your status by buying this car or television set even more so. The appeal to wealth and richness (V2) scores high in this category as well, the car apparently still being the archetypical commodity for displaying conspicuous consumption. The category of miscellaneous is too heterogeneous to draw conclusions about a pattern.


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3.3 The target audience The answers to the question as to which audience these kinds of ads or commercials are targeting, do not require extensive discussion. Overwhelmingly the target audience is relatively young, from adolescents to adults under forty, and has money to spend. Admittedly, this might be a bias induced by the age group of those who performed the selection. Nevertheless, in the countries of the sampled ads and commercials populations are rapidly ageing and one would expect this to have an impact on advertisement culture and policies. Most people in their ‘third age’ (Laslett, 1991) do not want to be young again. They want the kind of consumer and luxury products that suit their age and lifestyle, and they will be sensitive to symbols of status and prestige different from those for the younger generation. 3.4 Gender codes For the analysis of the ads and commercials from a gender perspective, two main questions are addressed. The first is about the kind of images of men and women, masculinity and femininity evoked. The second is about the way gender role divisions are referred to. In addressing these I also looked for unexpected elements in the setting or syntax of the ads or commercial. By syntax I mean the way the commodity is pictured in relation to an occasion or specific setting and the reference to the rules governing this relationship (cf. Solomon et al., 2002: 54). These counterpoint images, as I call them, are interesting because they indicate changes in gender images and gender roles. Before addressing these two questions I want to return to the subject of the target audience discussed above. In terms of age and gender four categories of target audiences can be distinguished: teenage girls, teenage boys, adult women, and adult men. Strikingly, the category of teenage girls is amply represented and that of teenage boys hardly. I found only two examples of the latter. One is a Heineken commercial where a boy needs the beer to gather courage to approach the girls at a party. The other one is an ad for a Piaggio scooter that shows a face that is half-boy and half-gorilla and tells boys to ‘wake up the beast in them’ (possibly to compensate for the dull image of the scooter). Apparently, teenage girls are a more promising market than teenage boys, or – alternatively – girls do not mind being called girls, while boys want to be men, thus contradicting popular wisdom that ‘boys will be boys, but girls will be women’. Girls are a category by themselves. The Tommy Hilfiger brand has developed a line of perfumes especially for girls, including one called Tommy Girl. The way girls are pictured in one particular ad corresponds exactly to the picture on the front page of the book written on the subject of images of girls in the mass media by Susan Douglas (1995). The ad in our sample is for a ladies’ razor called Venus and pictures four girls having fun in a pink cabriolet car. The front page of Douglas’s book also shows four girls having fun in a similar car (also pink!). The only difference is that the ad of Douglas’s girls and their car is – by the look of them – from the 1950s. 178



Some commodities are more gendered than others. Drinks appear to be very much a gendered commodity. Judging from the syntax in the ads, beers are male and wines, liqueurs, and most non-alcoholic beverages (tea and coffee) are female. Beers are for male socializing, and appeal to male friendship and solidarity. There are two exceptions in the sample. The first is a Heineken beer ad, which sends a very different message. It pictures two stylishly dressed women who are (ball-room) dancing in the background and two pairs of high-heeled shoes standing next to a couple of cans of Heineken beer in the foreground. The message is that women too can drink beer and that drinking beer can also have class (provided it is Heineken, of course). I subsumed this ad under those that display counterpoint images (see above). The second example is a commercial with a very macho story of cowboys and fighting, featuring David Beckham. Reconciliation among the fighting men is brought about by a drink, not a ‘masculine’ beer but a Pepsi. Of the female drinks some are clearly for girls to have fun together, in others women appeal to the values of friendship and wellbeing in general. Images of the ‘masculine’ man and the ‘feminine’ women abound in the ads for clothing and, in particular, perfumes. Judging by the ads, sport shoes and sneakers are not gendered commodities. The ads have a unisex look, to appeal to men and women alike. While perfumes were always a female commodity, there are quite a few ads for fragrance for men (usually after-shave) in the sample. When comparing the perfume and after-shave ads, they have the sexual appeal in common but differ in one important aspect. Most perfume ads show the female body as an object of beauty and desire, the after-shave ads show fully clothed men. Never mind how sexy and attractive these men may look, they do not have to be half-naked to get the message across. The exception to the latter is an ad from Calvin Klein that shows the upper part of a naked man and woman, the man covering the woman’s breasts with his arm and a bottle of Calvin Klein One (unisex). Cars are still very much a male commodity, especially the big ones and the 4-wheel drives. Two car ads use the Dutch term ‘jongensdroom’ in the text, which literally translates as a boy’s dreams. The connotation in Dutch is that of dreams you have when you are young about what you will have or achieve when you are grown up but which will generally not come true. The few car ads that seem to be targeted at women are of rather small, elegantly designed cars with a lot of room in the boot (for the shopping), and are set in an urban environment. Table 4 provides a summary of the predominant images of men and women, and masculinity and femininity, I found in the ads and commercials in the sample. The last row gives the masculine and feminine archetypal qualities that still predominate. An exceptional ad is one that presents an image of male beauty. It features a handsome man wearing a gorgeous necklace (Swatch bijoux). From a feminist perspective non-sexist advertising would present authentic female experience, show positive female role models, reflect co-operation among women, and ‘represent a new humanity’ (Stern, 2000: 70-71). By the last qualification Stern Changing families and their lifestyles

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Table 4. Images of men/masculinity and women/femininity in the ads and commercials. Images of men and masculinity

Images of women and femininity

Male friendship and solidarity Men as irresistible, handsome and attractive, conquering women The rugged, individual, tough, adventurous man1 The father breadwinner The out-door man with a lot of leisure time and money to spend The young, urban, professional (yup) Masculine toughness

Girls having fun together Women as the eternal Eve, seducing men with their desirable bodies The modern, independent, self-confident, individual woman The modern housewife and mother The mysterious and exotic woman Elegance and style Feminine beauty

1As in ‘Marlboro Man’, characterized by Solomon et al. (2002: 53) as ‘quintessential US’.

(2000: 71) means that the advertising goal is ‘to depict the humanisation of both sexes, so that values such as nurturance, kindness and co-operation can be given the chance to change the world for the better.’ In the total selection there are ads and commercials that present gender images or refer to gender roles that more or less comply with these feminist criteria, but only a few. While most of the ads contain conventional (or sexist, as Stern would say) images of women, some of them present women as self-confident, independent persons (Stern’s positive female role models). We find them in car ads that feature women, in ads for casual clothing for women, and in the ad for Gauloises Blondes cigarettes (nicely contrasting with the Marlboro man). There are several ads or commercials that refer to gender roles. A funny one is a beer commercial ‘Bavaria beer: Call of the wild’. It shows men who are doing female work (cleaning the house, shopping) and then, simultaneously, drop these activities and go hunting and chopping wood together, after which they collectively storm the pub for a beer. In this way they reconfirm their masculinity; they are ‘real’ men again. The opposite narrative is provided by the man with the Miele ART vacuum cleaner (see description above). Here, we see an individual man, definitely a yuppy, who is obviously doing his own housework, albeit with a designer vacuum cleaner. In a French commercial about the liquid detergent Ariel there is also a man connected with domestic chores. The man, wearing spotless white clothes, is explaining the wonders of the detergent to his (sceptical) mother. The two last examples I included in my list of counterpoint ads. Two commercials can be put in this category as well. At first glance, both seem to confirm traditional family gender roles – father/breadwinner and mother/housewife – but there is an interesting little twist in both of them. The first one is a commercial about a Renault family car. The family – father, mother and children – is on 180



an outing and the car drives through the woods. This would be a conventional picture were it not that it is the mother who is in the driver seat, not the father. The second commercial is about a food product called Brinta ‘wake-up’ breakfast. The situation is hectic and the father has to go to work. But his breakfast is not waiting for him, prepared by a dutiful wife. She is too busy. The father is relaxed; he has his ready-made, all-in-one Brinta breakfast, and is not expecting his wife to prepare his breakfast. Table 5 summarizes the so-called counterpoint elements, meaning elements that deviate from conventional gender images and roles. Table 5. Elements deviating from conventional gender images and roles. Counterpoint gender images

Counterpoint gender roles

Self-confident, independent women Male beauty Gender equality Men as sexual objects, women as independent actors

Men doing household chores Mother taking the family out in the car Father taking care of his own breakfast Domestication of men, de-domestication of women

4. Concluding notes Above we already observed that some important societal values seem to be under-represented in the selected ads and commercials, notably family values and environmental values. Though the question remains to what extent ‘visual language reflects a truth about the world’ (Hall, 1997: 7), especially with regard to car ads and commercials, one would expect reference to environmental concerns. However, except for one, the car ads and commercials in the sample still picture cars as ‘a triumph of modern engineering and manufacturing’, as representing ‘scientific and technical progress’ and ‘the domination and control of nature’ (Budd et al., 1999: 87). The one exception is the Toyota ad that I discussed above as one of my favourites. Though it also stresses the miracles of technology, in this case the message is that technology is geared towards (pre)serving nature rather than controlling it. Regarding gender one can pose the question whether the second feminist wave and increasing participation of women in the labour market brought about a significant change in gender images produced by advertising and the way gender roles are pictured in advertisements and commercials. A study of 1699 television commercials from the 1990s in the United States found little evidence of change. The researchers found ‘no support for the hypothesis that women and men would be equally likely to be portrayed as sex objects’ and the data ‘tend to disconfirm hypotheses about a gender-neutral society [and] a gender-neutral family environment’ (Coltrane and Adams, 1997: 338). In spite of the counterpoint messages and Changing families and their lifestyles

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images that I could identify, on the basis of the material available for this paper the overriding impression is also that of continuing more or less stereotypical casting. And then the girls: do they represent a new type of woman in the making? In the ads targeted at them, the image of attractive (not so much sexy), self-confident young women who enjoy life, is cultivated. In an article in the Dutch daily Volkskrant (2006) the authors, a sociologist and a psychiatrist, argue that present-day girls seem to be unaware of the fact that the independence they experience is contained by societal structures and conventional sexual stereotypes. These girls neither acknowledge nor understand the struggle of women of their mother’s generation to achieve the right to self-determination; they seem to take it for granted. Young women nowadays suffer from sociological blindness, says sociologist Christien Brinkgreve in the article. She could be right, but that would make girls no different from the majority of the population. However, the fact that the image of girls-having-funin-a-pink-cabriolet-car (see above) survived for almost fifty years, does not give us the idea that the images of girls and women have basically changed. Acknowledgements I wish to thank the 220 students for their effort without which this paper could not have been written. Some of them did very well, by making an original choice and presenting a thorough analysis. However, I decided to mention none of them by name, including the outstanding ones. References Antonides, G. and W.F. Van Raaij, 1998. Consumer Behaviour: A European Perspective. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. Baudrillard, J., 1998. The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage. Budd, M., S. Craig, and C. Steiman, 1999. Consuming Environments: Television and Commercial Culture. New Brunswick, New Jersey and London: Rutgers University Press. Campbell, C., 1987. The Romantic Ethic and the Sprit of Modern Consumerism. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Coltrane, S. and M. Adams, 1997. Work – Family Imagery and Gender Stereotypes: Television and the Reproduction of Difference. Journal of Vocational Behavior 50: 323-347. Corrigan, P., 1998. The Sociology of Consumption. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage. Douglas, M. and B. Isherwood, 1979. The World of Goods: Towards an Anthropology of Consumption. London: Allen Lane. Douglas, S.J., 1995. Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media. New York: Three Rivers Press.

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Hall, S., 1997. Introduction. In: S. Hall (ed.), Representation: Cultural Representation and Signifying Practices, pp.1-13. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage, in association with The Open University. Laslett, P., 1991. A Fresh Map of Life: The Emergence of the Third Age. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Solomon, M., G. Bamossy and S. Askegaard, 2002. Consumer Behaviour: A European Perspective. Harlow, England, London, New York, etc.: Pearson Education Limited & Prentice Hall. Stern, B., 2000. Advertisements as women’s texts. In: M. Catterall, P. Maclaran, and L. Stevens (eds), Marketing and Feminism: Current Issues and Research, pp. 57-75. London and New York: Routledge. Veblen, T., 1975 [1899]. The Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: Augustus M. Kelly. Volkskrant, 2006. C. Brinkgreve and A. Soleman, Je borsten zijn je wapens [in Dutch]. Volkskrant, 26th August 2006.


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Economic motivations, task division, family type and financial management of Dutch households Johan A.C. van Ophem and Gerrit Antonides Abstract Little research has focused on the effects of partner attributes and family type in economic family decision-making processes, except the division of labor. Rather than focusing on the question of how household partners in general sort on particular attributes, we focus on the effects of relevant personal characteristics of household partners on household economic decision making. In particular we deal with the determinants and effects of demographic attributes, risk preference, time preference, attitude toward money, and whether or not the partners are spending their money freely, on the division of labor and financial management of the household. In addition, we study combinations of partners who are both economical, both spending freely, or one partner economical and the other spending freely. In the second part of this paper we analyse the relationship between family type – traditional, modern/egalitarian and individualised – and household financial management. The data are the fruit of close research co-operation of the authors with NIBUD, The Netherlands’ Institute for Budgeting by households. The NIBUD has collected the data by means of an Internet survey from May to November 2003. The results indicate that, in accordance with the literature, females tended to be more risk averse than males. It appeared that married persons were more risk averse than cohabiting persons, implying marriage as a rather safe choice. In comparing the respondents’ opinions regarding their own spending of money and their partners’ spending, we constructed four types of households, ranging from both partners being very economical to both partners spending very freely. Households with both partners being economical show more prudence in their financial behaviour than households in which partners are spending freely. This result is confirmed by the analysis of family type and financial behaviour. A household of the individualized family type is less inclined to behave in a financially prudent way. In the final section the authors discuss the implications for policy and research. 1. Introduction The formation of a household generally results in higher welfare of the partners than the sum of welfare when each of the partners stays single. Higher welfare can be attained from increased efficiency due to the combination of activities, economies of scale and psychological advantages. Here, we focus on the particular combination of household partners’ activities as a result of household decision making. Economic research has mainly focused on the division of paid and unpaid labor in households, in which the wage rate of the partners plays an important part. Partners with Changing families and their lifestyles

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Johan A.C. van Ophem and Gerrit Antonides

different wage earning capacity generally would decide for specialization in the division of labor, i.e. one partner working in the paid labor market and the other partner doing unpaid household labor (Becker, 1981). In this respect it is relevant how partners sort on certain characteristics, in particular wage-earning capacity. Other factors may also influence labor division, such as care for young children, norms and values. In marketing and economic psychology, attention has been paid to different roles of household partners in different stages of the decision-making process concerning the purchase of goods and services (Rosen and Granbois, 1983; Crispell, 1995) and to financial management of the household (Pahl, 1995; Burgoyne, 1995). Decision making and financial management have been related to a number of partner attributes associated with the power exerted in negotiations within the household (Scanzoni and Polonko, 1980; Woolley, 2003). Power may depend on institutional factors, e.g., family law, marriage market factors, and personal attributes, such as education, profession, etc. Little research has focused on the effects of partner attributes in economic family decisionmaking processes, except the division of labor. Rather than focusing on the question how household partners in general sort on particular attributes, we focus on the effects of relevant personal characteristics of household partners on household economic decision making. In particular we deal with the determinants and effects of demographic attributes, risk attitude, time preference, attitude toward money, and whether or not the partners are spending their money freely, on the division of labor and financial management of the household. In addition, we study combinations of partners who are both economical, both spending freely, or one partner economical and the other spending freely. In family sociology attention is paid to the relationship between control of money and control of household finance (see e.g. Pahl, 1995). Pahl has presented a typology of money management by households (families) ranging from the whole wage system to the one of independent management. In this paper we will proceed the other way round. We will investigate whether it is possible to relate a typology of families to the way money is handled in the household. Furthermore, family sociology has analysed the task division between the spouses in different family types. In De Hoog and Hooghiemstra (2002) and De Hoog and Vinkers (1998) four distinct family types were discerned: the traditional, the modern, the egalitarian and the individualised family type. Next, we provide a brief overview of the relevant theory. We continue describing the data set. We then present the results of empirical analysis and finally discuss the results. 2. Theory Economic decision making is influenced by a number of basic psychological motivations and capacities including, for example, the Big Five (Costa and McCrae, 1985), IQ, affectivity, and adult attachment (Luo and Klohnen, 2005). Here we focus on risk preference, time preference 186


Economic motivations, task division, family type and financial management

and money attitude. We assume that, like most basic psychological motivations, these factors may be both inherited and shaped during upbringing and education (Mischel, 1968). An important motivation in economic decision making, for example in job choice, investment and credit decision making, is risk preference. It is well documented that females are generally more risk averse than males (Byrnes et al., 1999; Grable, 2000). Hence, females are expected to invest relatively often in safe assets (Barber and Odean, 2001) and to be reluctant to take credit. Another relevant motivation in intertemporal decision making is time preference, with positive (negative) time preference defined as the propensity to prefer immediate (delayed) consumption outcomes. Bishai (2004), using an indirect measure of time preference, found that females have more negative time preference than males. In general, the higher educated have lower time preference than the lower educated (Fuchs, 1982). Hence, females and higher educated people are expected to save more and borrow less than males and lower educated people, given their financial assets. Attitudes toward money may be relevant to household financial decision making although its effects are not always clear (Furnham, 1984; Stone and Maury, 2006). However, we expect a positive attitude toward money to be associated with relatively careful household financial management. Most research on partner attribute combinations deals with assortative mating, i.e., households sorting on similar or dissimilar attributes (Watson et al., 2004; Rose, 2001; Jepsen and Jepsen, 2002). In general sorting on similar attributes has been found, except for earnings capacity. According to Becker (1981), dissimilar wage-earning capacity of spouses should result in specialization with respect to paid labor and household tasks, such that highwage partners work in the labor market and low-wage partners perform household tasks. A different strand of research focuses on the effect of attribute differences between spouses on the division of power exerted within the household (Safilios-Rothschild, 1970; McDonald, 1980; Mizan, 1994). In particular, different education, wages, or bargaining skills might lead to uneven power distributions between household partners. Dobbelsteen and Kooreman (1997) found that females gain a higher share in the management of household finances the lower the male’s wage rate and education. In our research we study household financial management as a result of attribute similarity or dissimilarity of household partners. In particular, we expect more (less) efficient financial management if the partners are both economical (uninhibited) in spending. Couples of the traditional family type have traditional ideas about the division of work, household tasks and marriage, education of their children and about the positions of men and women. In this family type, children have to obey their parents and there is little negotiation between parents and children. In the traditional nuclear family motherhood is Changing families and their lifestyles

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a dominant perspective. The socialization of children is governed by the principles of order, regularity and diligence. Spouses are seen as equal, although the wife focuses her efforts on household and children. The climate in the traditional family is more authoritarian than in the other family types. Traditional families are to be found among lower economic strata, non-western immigrants (from Turkey or Morocco), orthodox-Christian religious households and among households in which both spouses are lower educated. The ideas about financial management are traditional as well (see De Hoog and Van Ophem, 2006). Debt is to be avoided. Austerity is a virtue to be practiced. Since the borderline between the two types is fluent (see Te Kloeze et al., 1996), the modern and egalitarian family types are treated as one type in this paper. In the modern-egalitarian family type the ideas about marriage, socialisation and education of the children are traditional. But the family climate, especially the relationship between men and women is relatively democratic. Husbands take part in domestic work. Children should obey their parents, but their voices and preferences are taken into account. This family type tries to achieve egalitarianism between the spouses, but the husband is still the main breadwinner. Wives have part-time jobs. This type of family is to be found in the middle and upper-middle economic strata. Attitudes to debts are quite liberal in the sense that in circumstances where debts can be repaid easily, indebtedness is permitted. Neither austerity nor spending freely is seen as a virtue. In the individualistic family type husbands and wives have an equal task division. Both spouses are higher educated and career oriented. Both are working full time. Both are important decision makers. They spend a lot of money on different forms of child-care. The nanny or au pair is frequently to be found. Motherhood as the most important social identity is rejected. They are convinced that they are forerunners by their values, opinions and activities. This family type is aimed at individual freedom and self-actualisation. Austerity is not a virtue, and spending freely and having debts are not a problem. 3. Data and method The data are the fruit of close research co-operation by the authors with the NIBUD, The Netherlands’ Institute for Budgeting by households. The NIBUD collected the data by means of an Internet survey from May to November 2003. Readers from two daily newspapers that differed in their readership and content, were called upon to visit the NIBUD website and to fill in a questionnaire about money and money management. This resulted in a dataset with 5,200 respondents who filled in all questions fully and correctly. The analyses reported in this paper relate to a subset of couples with and without children. It should be noted that the research is not aimed at getting insight into the situation or the behaviour of vulnerable groups. Furthermore, it should be noted that two out of three persons in the Netherlands did have an Internet account at home in 2003 (CBS, 2007).

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Economic motivations, task division, family type and financial management

Several issues were addressed in the questionnaire next to socio-economic and sociodemographic questions such as age, education of respondent and partner, household income and income of the members of the household, marital status, household size, household type, net wealth of the household. The issues relate to the strategic (financial targets, reserve, planning in and over the life cycle), administrative (ways of book keeping and/or keeping notes, information search, budgeting, and operational level (making ends meet, opinions and attitudes towards money and financial management) of household decisions with respect to financial matters. Several personal motivations, relevant to economic decisions were measured from the respondents, including risk preference, time preference, and money attitude. Risk preference. Response on 7-point Likert scales ( ‘Agree,’ …’Disagree’) to each of the following statements: ‘Safe investments are more important than high yield,’ ‘Investing in stocks exclusively is risky,’ ‘I rather prefer safe investments,’ ‘I am ready to run risk in exchange for high profit’ (reverse score). Principal components analysis (PCA) yielded one component explaining 59% of the item variance. The scale value of risk aversion was computed as the factor score. Time preference. Response on 4-point scales (‘Definitely does not apply to me,’ ‘Does not apply to me,’ ‘Applies to me,’ ‘Definitely applies to me’) to each of the following statements: ‘I am ready to give up current well-being for future issues,’ ‘I focus on the present, and wait and see what the future brings,’ ‘I try to influence the future with my current behavior.’ PCA yielded one component explaining 48% of the item variance. Money attitude. ‘Agree’ versus ‘Don’t agree’ response with respect to the following statements: ‘I often fantasize about money,’ ‘Money is the only thing that can always help you,’ ‘Money can solve all your problems,’ ‘I do anything for money,’ ‘I often worry about finances.’ PCA yielded one component explaining 39% of the item variance. In addition to the personal motivations, the respondents reported how freely they were spending their money, and how freely their partners were spending money. Answers were given on a 5-point scale (‘Very economical,’ ‘Economical,’ ‘Neither economical nor spending freely,’ ‘Freely,’ ‘Very freely.’) 4. Results One of the aims of collecting the data was to have an overview of the financial management and financial behaviour of Dutch households. The distribution across household types was as follows: 34 per cent singles (70 per cent female); 6 per cent single parents (95 per cent female) and 60 per cent couples with or without children. On average, higher incomes were found among couples, higher education among couples without children and lower educational levels among the single parents.


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In agreement with the literature, in our survey females tended to be more risk averse than males (see Table 1). However, males showed slightly more negative time preference than females, in contrast with our expectations. Furthermore, people with university or higher professional education were less risk averse, had lower time preference, and more positive attitudes toward money than the lower educated. People who had learned how to deal with money when they were young had more negative time preference and more positive attitudes toward money than people who had not learned this. Next, we studied how the economic motivations influenced economic decision making (see Table 2). It appeared that married people were more risk averse than cohabiting people, implying marriage as a rather safe choice for these people. Also, risk aversion was associated with relatively difficult financial management of the family. We found rather strong effects of time preference on economic behavior. Negative time preference was associated with cohabiting and marriage settlements, more frequent accountkeeping and expense monitoring, easy financial management and positive opinions about dealing with money. Positive money attitudes were associated with marriage rather than cohabiting, easy financial management and positive opinions about dealing with money. Table 1. Reported motivations (factor scores) by respondent attributes. Risk preference

Gender Male 0.302 Female −0.124 F-value 150.554 (p

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