Suchergebnisse

Abstract
Many single parents (SPs) receive means-tested benefits (MTBs) in Switzerland. As a risk-management policy, MTBs can alleviate phases of financial hardship in SPs' life courses. Conversely, when SPs experience non-take-up (NTU), MTBs may turn into a stressor and impinge on their lives. This paper investigates how NTU can shape SPs' life courses. Thirteen SPs with full custody of their children who experienced NTU while facing economic hardship were interviewed in a qualitative panel in French-speaking Switzerland. A three-step analytical strategy involving thematic, categorical and chronological analysis of the qualitative data was conducted. The results show that SPs can compensate for the lack of MTBs by looking for alternative support from their families, friends and acquaintances or the labour market; by trying to bypass the MTB regulations so as to access them; by making changes to their lives to comply with MTB eligibility criteria or by giving up on the MTBs. NTU not only affects SPs financially but can also delay their professional careers, jeopardise their relationships with the children; delay new couple relationships and force them to live in an unpleasant environment. Intergroup inequalities affect SPs' paths as MTB clients. By overlooking the implications of SPs' childcare obligations and the hidden costs linked to separation, targeting practices may lead to tertiary NTU.

The identification of lone-parent households is a challenging task in an era of new family forms and related changes in the legislation regulating parental care and financial responsibilities. Official statistics hardly reflect the composite reality of households between which children circulate and in which relationships with biological and non-biological parents change during the life course. On the basis of an explorative qualitative study in Switzerland, we focus on the blurry boundaries used to define the transition to lone parenthood. We analyse the life course of individuals whose entry into the lone-parent state fits one of these patterns: (a) becoming a lone parent despite beginning parenthood within a couple (separation, divorce, or widowhood); (b) becoming a lone parent coinciding with becoming a parent (contraceptive failure, partner refusal of parenthood, or lone parenthood as a life choice). We explore the way in which individuals describe their transition to lone parenthood and to which extent they identify themselves as lone parents. We conclude that such transitions are often non-linear processes and are often characterized by much ambivalence. They involve an array of heterogeneous and multidirectional transitions that are not always captured by current surveys, and we suggest how we could improve future measurements of the timing and occurrence of lone parenthood.

Using a mixed-method design, this study explores the heterogeneity in employment trajectories before and after the transition to lone parenthood in Switzerland. First, we perform sequence and cluster analysis on data from the Swiss Household panel to identify typical employment trajectories around the transition to lone parenthood, and then estimate their association with individual and household characteristics (N=462). Finally, we contrast these results with findings from a content analysis of narrative interviews with lone mothers residing in Switzerland (N=38), focusing on values and norms concerning work and care. We identify five employment patterns characterized by either an increase in labor supply (especially for those with more/older children) or by stability in or outside the labor market (for highly educated or younger mothers respectively). The analyses of the interviews provide insights on how employment opportunities and decisions differ by entry mode into lone parenthood, the post-separation relationship with the children's father, and the ability to mobilize individual, social and institutional resources. The heterogeneity of employment trajectories calls for more attention to within-group differences rather than focusing exclusively on the divide between lone and coupled mothers. By identifying the multiplicity of factors shaping lone mothers' decisions on their labor market participation, this work feeds into the literature suggesting that effective policies encouraging lone mothers' labor-market participation should consider: (i) their normative priorities when facing work and care trade-offs, and (ii) the availability of informal and formal support.