This dataset contains information on number of children and other biographical data of 670 women and men who held elite positions in German politics in year 2006 and/or 2017. All data, except for the politician's position and party, is respective to the year 2017. Four kinds of data sources were used for data collection, in order of priority: (1) Munzinger biographical online database (www.munzinger.de), (2) numerous volumes of Kürschner's collection of self-written short biographies of members of federal and state parliaments, (3) the encyclopedia Wikipedia and (4) media reports; webpages of the politician, parties or parliaments.
Social Network Science (SNS) is the field concerned with studying social systems in a relational way from the perspectives of the social and natural sciences. This data set consists of 25,760 biographical records retrieved from the Web of Science, ranging from 1916 to 2012. Each publication belongs to one of five subfields. To facilitate analyses of the social aspect of SNS, the names of 45,580 distinct authors are provided, linked to the papers in 68,227 publication-author relations. Author names have been disambiguated semi-automatically. To enable analyses of the cultural aspect of SNS, 23,026 distinct linguistic concepts are provided. These concepts resemble words or word combinations extracted from titles (for all publication years) and from abstracts and author keywords (only for publications published after 1990/1991). They are linked to the papers in 202,181 publication-concept relations.
Social Network Science (SNS) is the field concerned with studying social systems in a relational way from the perspectives of the social and natural sciences. This data set consists of 25,760 biographical records retrieved from the Web of Science, ranging from 1916 to 2012. Each publication belongs to one of five subfields. To facilitate analyses of the social aspect of SNS, the names of 45,580 distinct authors are provided, linked to the papers in 68,227 publication-author relations. Author names have been disambiguated semi-automatically. To enable analyses of the cultural aspect of SNS, 23,026 distinct linguistic concepts are provided. These concepts resemble words or word combinations extracted from titles (for all publication years) and from abstracts and author keywords (only for publications published in, or after, 1990). They are linked to the papers in 201,608 publication-concept relations.
The data product NEPS-SC6-ADIAB is provided cooperatively by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg, and the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories e.V. (LIfBi), Bamberg. NEPS-SC6-ADIAB consists of the survey and test data of Starting Cohort 6 - Adults "Adult Education and Lifelong Learning" of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) and the administrative data of the IAB. The sample of this Starting Cohort includes persons of working age (born 1956 to 1986) living in Germany who were recruited for the ALWA study of the IAB, a refresher sample of these birth cohorts for the NEPS and an augmentation sample from birth cohorts between 1944 and 1955. The data collection from the second wave (2009/2010) onwards took place on a yearly basis. In general, NEPS aims to study educational trajectories in different contexts as well as the development of competencies over the individual life course. For this, data are collected on competence development, educational processes and educational decisions as well as on educational returns. In addition, NEPS asks a broad range of questions, especially on numerous biographical and socio-demographic characteristics. The NEPS-SC6-ADIAB can be used to investigate research questions that, for instance, require highly accurate income data over the life course. Furthermore, the enrichment of NEPS-SC6 data results in an extension of the observation period as the administrative data of the IAB date back to 1975.
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At the beginning of the 1990s, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) launched a project to conduct international comparative surveys on family and birth rates in European countries (Fertility and Family Surveys - FFS). For the past three decades, Europe has seen profound changes in birth rates, education and family structures. In this context, various authors speak of a "second demographic upheaval". In many European countries, the following trends are emerging: declining birth rates, together with combined birth rates which remain below the level necessary for generational survival (1.49 in Switzerland at the time of the survey in 1994 and 1.50 in 1996), a declining tendency to marry and the emergence of new family forms (consensual couples, single-parent families, blended families). If these trends continue, significant demographic consequences are to be expected, with correspondingly drastic consequences for social and economic organisation (one issue is above all the ageing of the population). The collection of biographical data makes it possible to collect detailed information at the individual level, which supplements the census data. The course of life in our society is becoming increasingly complex and diverse. Censuses can collect little information on the biography of individuals, but this information is essential for understanding and explaining changes in behaviour in terms of birth rates and partnership. The collection of biographical data thus provides an important basis for statistics and scientific research. Another objective of this study is to provide information to those involved in the development of family and social policies. An optional module of the questionnaire (not adopted by Switzerland) is dedicated to population policy and serves to monitor the effectiveness of this policy. The plan for an international survey on family and birth rates in Europe therefore pursues the following objectives: - Providing information on families and birth rates that complements census and marital status data and can be used for scientific purposes, but also for political and administrative purposes; - Provision of data that can be used to develop more precise population scenarios; - Testing of new hypotheses concerning the determinants of parental and partnership behaviour; - Investigation of problems related to family and birth policies; - Comparisons of recent developments in family and birth rates in European countries. Each participating country carries out a representative sample survey based on a standardised questionnaire. The data collected are therefore comparable with those of other countries. The Swiss Federal Statistical Office had planned to conduct a survey on family and birth rates as part of its microcensus programme. Official statistics in our country have few data that allow an analysis of the profound changes in this area. The project of the Economic Commission for Europe offered Switzerland the opportunity to conduct such a survey and at the same time participate in an international comparative research programme. The basic concept for this was drawn up in 1992. The Swiss Federal Statistical Office, which collaborated with the Institute of Sociology at the University of Zurich and the Laboratoire de démographie économique et sociale at the University of Geneva, was in charge of the overall management of the project on behalf of the Federal Council. The objectives of the survey were as follows: - To provide an overview of recent developments and the current situation of the family and the birth rate in Switzerland; - To study the interactions between education, employment, family lifestyles and birth rates; - To shed light on the changes in attitudes and values about family and child. This survey allows (lifecourse-related) longitudinal analyses as a supplement to the (momentary) cross-sectional studies of the situation in the areas of birth rate, tendency to marry and household structure based on census and civil status data. This information is intended for those involved in social and family policy decisions and for scientific research.
The objective of this project (part of the National Research Programme 43, "Education and Employment") is to shed light on the relationship between work and identity under the condition of current changes in labour relations. On the one hand, it examines how identities change when continuity in employment in a profession is no longer given and learning becomes a permanent requirement for people. On the other hand, it must be determined what role identity plays in the process of acquiring new qualifications in in-company training or as a formal qualification, embarking on a new professional direction or opening up a new field within the current occupation. In this context, education is addressed through personal educational history, job-related qualification requirements and further professional training. The project proceeds in three methodological steps. In the first phase, biographical interviews will be conducted with 59 people who have had a continuous or discontinuous career. The analysis focuses on the individual constructions of professional biography and identity. In the second stage, expert interviews and document analyses on personnel policy, further training and work organisation will be conducted in 14 companies, which provide varying degrees of flexibility in their work. In addition, employees are interviewed in writing; the questions are derived from the types established in the first phase and the organization-specific conditions. The evaluations serve to examine types of interrelationships between professional development and identity development and to concretise company measures to support an identity-promoting approach to work flexibilisation. In the third phase, measures are developed in cooperation with the studied companies with the aim of negotiating a fair "psychological contract". In the interest of active knowledge transfer, contact with educational institutions is sought at an early stage so that possible consequences can be discussed with them on an ongoing basis. In addition to practical orientation, the theoretical goal is to discuss the existing criticism of the research area of work and identity, e.g. the assumption of the stability of both work and identity as well as the neglect of the ecological perspective, and to integrate it into an expanded concept.
Existing research on the relationship between work and identity under conditions of increasing work flexibility has provided equivocal results on the threats and challenges for personal identity development within less continuous professional careers. New types of employment-related behaviour have been demanded, such as self-control, self-economisation, and self-rationalisation contained in the concept of "entreployee", in order to conform to requirements stemming from less stable, but also more autonomy-oriented, employment relationships. Some evidence for this new type of employee behaviour has been found, with questions arising about positive and negative effects for the individual having to handle employment risk more, while at the same time also being able to more autonomously organize work and life. Similarly, research on psychological contracts - as direct expression of the reciprocal expectations and obligations by employee and employer - in firms with high work flexibility has shown that employees only partially can gain from offers of competence development and delegation of responsibilities for their own personal development in compensation for increased job insecurity. Interestingly, it seems that those employees can gain more who conform to a traditional, i.e. very continuous, model of work biography and identity. This seeming inconsistency motivates the proposed study, in which hypotheses about different fits between more and less fluid identities in more and less traditional work settings will be explored in a longitudinal investigation. Also, individuals with a higher vs. lower level of personal resources in term of socio-economic status and qualification will be included in the sample in order to further test the assumption that work flexibility might mainly bear opportunities for those with high levels of personal resources for coping with instability and employment risk. A sample of about 250 individuals, equally distributed across these three factors (continuity-oriented vs. non-continuity-oriented identity; employment in one organization with medium to high level of flexibility vs. patchwork employment; low socio-economic status/very little formal vocational training vs. medium socio-economic status/formal vocation or professional training) will be studied in three waves by means of a questionnaire comprising questions on personal identity (biographical continuity, ecological consistency, control orientation, self-esteem), work biography, competence development, and psychological contract. The questions on personal identity will be used to assign the individuals to the two identity types "continuity-oriented" vs. "non-continuity-oriented", which are based on previous own research. Additionally, background information on the organizations, in which the individuals are employed, will be collected in order to determine the degree of flexibility, elements of the psychological contract from the employer's perspective, and measures for competence development undertaken in the companies. The longitudinal approach will permit to form and test predictions about coping patterns by different groups in the sample in view of demands arising from work flexibility, leading to a better understanding of personal, organizational and societal prerequisites for a sound personal identity development.
Existing research on the relationship between work and identity under conditions of increasing work flexibility has provided equivocal results on the threats and challenges for personal identity development within less continuous professional careers. New types of employment-related behaviour have been demanded, such as self-control, self-economisation, and self-rationalisation contained in the concept of "entreployee", in order to conform to requirements stemming from less stable, but also more autonomy-oriented, employment relationships. Some evidence for this new type of employee behaviour has been found, with questions arising about positive and negative effects for the individual having to handle employment risk more, while at the same time also being able to more autonomously organize work and life. Similarly, research on psychological contracts - as direct expression of the reciprocal expectations and obligations by employee and employer - in firms with high work flexibility has shown that employees only partially can gain from offers of competence development and delegation of responsibilities for their own personal development in compensation for increased job insecurity. Interestingly, it seems that those employees can gain more who conform to a traditional, i.e. very continuous, model of work biography and identity. This seeming inconsistency motivates the proposed study, in which hypotheses about different fits between more and less fluid identities in more and less traditional work settings will be explored in a longitudinal investigation. Also, individuals with a higher vs. lower level of personal resources in term of socio-economic status and qualification will be included in the sample in order to further test the assumption that work flexibility might mainly bear opportunities for those with high levels of personal resources for coping with instability and employment risk. A sample of about 250 individuals, equally distributed across these three factors (continuity-oriented vs. non-continuity-oriented identity; employment in one organization with medium to high level of flexibility vs. patchwork employment; low socio-economic status/very little formal vocational training vs. medium socio-economic status/formal vocation or professional training) will be studied in three waves by means of a questionnaire comprising questions on personal identity (biographical continuity, ecological consistency, control orientation, self-esteem), work biography, competence development, and psychological contract. The questions on personal identity will be used to assign the individuals to the two identity types "continuity-oriented" vs. "non-continuity-oriented", which are based on previous own research. Additionally, background information on the organizations, in which the individuals are employed, will be collected in order to determine the degree of flexibility, elements of the psychological contract from the employer's perspective, and measures for competence development undertaken in the companies. The longitudinal approach will permit to form and test predictions about coping patterns by different groups in the sample in view of demands arising from work flexibility, leading to a better understanding of personal, organizational and societal prerequisites for a sound personal identity development.
Existing research on the relationship between work and identity under conditions of increasing work flexibility has provided equivocal results on the threats and challenges for personal identity development within less continuous professional careers. New types of employment-related behaviour have been demanded, such as self-control, self-economisation, and self-rationalisation contained in the concept of "entreployee", in order to conform to requirements stemming from less stable, but also more autonomy-oriented, employment relationships. Some evidence for this new type of employee behaviour has been found, with questions arising about positive and negative effects for the individual having to handle employment risk more, while at the same time also being able to more autonomously organize work and life. Similarly, research on psychological contracts - as direct expression of the reciprocal expectations and obligations by employee and employer - in firms with high work flexibility has shown that employees only partially can gain from offers of competence development and delegation of responsibilities for their own personal development in compensation for increased job insecurity. Interestingly, it seems that those employees can gain more who conform to a traditional, i.e. very continuous, model of work biography and identity. This seeming inconsistency motivates the proposed study, in which hypotheses about different fits between more and less fluid identities in more and less traditional work settings will be explored in a longitudinal investigation. Also, individuals with a higher vs. lower level of personal resources in term of socio-economic status and qualification will be included in the sample in order to further test the assumption that work flexibility might mainly bear opportunities for those with high levels of personal resources for coping with instability and employment risk. A sample of about 250 individuals, equally distributed across these three factors (continuity-oriented vs. non-continuity-oriented identity; employment in one organization with medium to high level of flexibility vs. patchwork employment; low socio-economic status/very little formal vocational training vs. medium socio-economic status/formal vocation or professional training) will be studied in three waves by means of a questionnaire comprising questions on personal identity (biographical continuity, ecological consistency, control orientation, self-esteem), work biography, competence development, and psychological contract. The questions on personal identity will be used to assign the individuals to the two identity types "continuity-oriented" vs. "non-continuity-oriented", which are based on previous own research. Additionally, background information on the organizations, in which the individuals are employed, will be collected in order to determine the degree of flexibility, elements of the psychological contract from the employer's perspective, and measures for competence development undertaken in the companies. The longitudinal approach will permit to form and test predictions about coping patterns by different groups in the sample in view of demands arising from work flexibility, leading to a better understanding of personal, organizational and societal prerequisites for a sound personal identity development.
Existing research on the relationship between work and identity under conditions of increasing work flexibility has provided equivocal results on the threats and challenges for personal identity development within less continuous professional careers. New types of employment-related behaviour have been demanded, such as self-control, self-economisation, and self-rationalisation contained in the concept of "entreployee", in order to conform to requirements stemming from less stable, but also more autonomy-oriented, employment relationships. Some evidence for this new type of employee behaviour has been found, with questions arising about positive and negative effects for the individual having to handle employment risk more, while at the same time also being able to more autonomously organize work and life. Similarly, research on psychological contracts - as direct expression of the reciprocal expectations and obligations by employee and employer - in firms with high work flexibility has shown that employees only partially can gain from offers of competence development and delegation of responsibilities for their own personal development in compensation for increased job insecurity. Interestingly, it seems that those employees can gain more who conform to a traditional, i.e. very continuous, model of work biography and identity. This seeming inconsistency motivates the proposed study, in which hypotheses about different fits between more and less fluid identities in more and less traditional work settings will be explored in a longitudinal investigation. Also, individuals with a higher vs. lower level of personal resources in term of socio-economic status and qualification will be included in the sample in order to further test the assumption that work flexibility might mainly bear opportunities for those with high levels of personal resources for coping with instability and employment risk. A sample of about 250 individuals, equally distributed across these three factors (continuity-oriented vs. non-continuity-oriented identity; employment in one organization with medium to high level of flexibility vs. patchwork employment; low socio-economic status/very little formal vocational training vs. medium socio-economic status/formal vocation or professional training) will be studied in three waves by means of a questionnaire comprising questions on personal identity (biographical continuity, ecological consistency, control orientation, self-esteem), work biography, competence development, and psychological contract. The questions on personal identity will be used to assign the individuals to the two identity types "continuity-oriented" vs. "non-continuity-oriented", which are based on previous own research. Additionally, background information on the organizations, in which the individuals are employed, will be collected in order to determine the degree of flexibility, elements of the psychological contract from the employer's perspective, and measures for competence development undertaken in the companies. The longitudinal approach will permit to form and test predictions about coping patterns by different groups in the sample in view of demands arising from work flexibility, leading to a better understanding of personal, organizational and societal prerequisites for a sound personal identity development.
Existing research on the relationship between work and identity under conditions of increasing work flexibility has provided equivocal results on the threats and challenges for personal identity development within less continuous professional careers. New types of employment-related behaviour have been demanded, such as self-control, self-economisation, and self-rationalisation contained in the concept of "entreployee", in order to conform to requirements stemming from less stable, but also more autonomy-oriented, employment relationships. Some evidence for this new type of employee behaviour has been found, with questions arising about positive and negative effects for the individual having to handle employment risk more, while at the same time also being able to more autonomously organize work and life. Similarly, research on psychological contracts - as direct expression of the reciprocal expectations and obligations by employee and employer - in firms with high work flexibility has shown that employees only partially can gain from offers of competence development and delegation of responsibilities for their own personal development in compensation for increased job insecurity. Interestingly, it seems that those employees can gain more who conform to a traditional, i.e. very continuous, model of work biography and identity. This seeming inconsistency motivates the proposed study, in which hypotheses about different fits between more and less fluid identities in more and less traditional work settings will be explored in a longitudinal investigation. Also, individuals with a higher vs. lower level of personal resources in term of socio-economic status and qualification will be included in the sample in order to further test the assumption that work flexibility might mainly bear opportunities for those with high levels of personal resources for coping with instability and employment risk. A sample of about 250 individuals, equally distributed across these three factors (continuity-oriented vs. non-continuity-oriented identity; employment in one organization with medium to high level of flexibility vs. patchwork employment; low socio-economic status/very little formal vocational training vs. medium socio-economic status/formal vocation or professional training) will be studied in three waves by means of a questionnaire comprising questions on personal identity (biographical continuity, ecological consistency, control orientation, self-esteem), work biography, competence development, and psychological contract. The questions on personal identity will be used to assign the individuals to the two identity types "continuity-oriented" vs. "non-continuity-oriented", which are based on previous own research. Additionally, background information on the organizations, in which the individuals are employed, will be collected in order to determine the degree of flexibility, elements of the psychological contract from the employer's perspective, and measures for competence development undertaken in the companies. The longitudinal approach will permit to form and test predictions about coping patterns by different groups in the sample in view of demands arising from work flexibility, leading to a better understanding of personal, organizational and societal prerequisites for a sound personal identity development.
Existing research on the relationship between work and identity under conditions of increasing work flexibility has provided equivocal results on the threats and challenges for personal identity development within less continuous professional careers. New types of employment-related behaviour have been demanded, such as self-control, self-economisation, and self-rationalisation contained in the concept of "entreployee", in order to conform to requirements stemming from less stable, but also more autonomy-oriented, employment relationships. Some evidence for this new type of employee behaviour has been found, with questions arising about positive and negative effects for the individual having to handle employment risk more, while at the same time also being able to more autonomously organize work and life. Similarly, research on psychological contracts - as direct expression of the reciprocal expectations and obligations by employee and employer - in firms with high work flexibility has shown that employees only partially can gain from offers of competence development and delegation of responsibilities for their own personal development in compensation for increased job insecurity. Interestingly, it seems that those employees can gain more who conform to a traditional, i.e. very continuous, model of work biography and identity. This seeming inconsistency motivates the proposed study, in which hypotheses about different fits between more and less fluid identities in more and less traditional work settings will be explored in a longitudinal investigation. Also, individuals with a higher vs. lower level of personal resources in term of socio-economic status and qualification will be included in the sample in order to further test the assumption that work flexibility might mainly bear opportunities for those with high levels of personal resources for coping with instability and employment risk. A sample of about 250 individuals, equally distributed across these three factors (continuity-oriented vs. non-continuity-oriented identity; employment in one organization with medium to high level of flexibility vs. patchwork employment; low socio-economic status/very little formal vocational training vs. medium socio-economic status/formal vocation or professional training) will be studied in three waves by means of a questionnaire comprising questions on personal identity (biographical continuity, ecological consistency, control orientation, self-esteem), work biography, competence development, and psychological contract. The questions on personal identity will be used to assign the individuals to the two identity types "continuity-oriented" vs. "non-continuity-oriented", which are based on previous own research. Additionally, background information on the organizations, in which the individuals are employed, will be collected in order to determine the degree of flexibility, elements of the psychological contract from the employer's perspective, and measures for competence development undertaken in the companies. The longitudinal approach will permit to form and test predictions about coping patterns by different groups in the sample in view of demands arising from work flexibility, leading to a better understanding of personal, organizational and societal prerequisites for a sound personal identity development.
Interest in the topic of violence against women has grown strongly over the last two decades. During the nineties, and following studies on the subject in Canada and the United States, the focus has shifted to violence against women in general, and no longer exclusively on domestic violence against women. Following the preparatory work of two UN institutes (UNICRI in Turin and HEUNI in Helsinki), and once the method had been standardized (identical questionnaire and survey method), national studies on this issue have been planned in approximately 30 countries. The Swiss survey is based on a telephone interview, between April and August 2003, of 1975 women aged 18 to 70 living in the German-speaking and the French-speaking parts of Switzerland. The sample thus obtained is representative of the female population. The method used was the computer-assisted telephone survey, which had already proved adequate in previous victimization surveys. This choice was also motivated by the great complexity of the questionnaire. The latter should indeed allow to apprehend different categories of violence, relating to different types of relationship between the author and his victim (marriage, cohabitation, former partners, colleagues, strangers) since the age of 16 years (experiences lived in childhood are not taken into account). There are several objectives for this study: - to increase the awareness of this problem among the authorities and the public - to promote prevention - to provide reliable information for the development of legislation, policies and means of assistance to victims - to set up an internationally comparable database - to help the police in their work practices concerning violence against women - to formulate and test certain hypotheses On thjs basis, here are the hypotheses and research questions: - What is the extent of this type of violence in Switzerland, compared to other countries? How to explain these differences? - How has the situation of domestic violence evolved since the study by Gillioz et al. (1994)? - How important are various factors, including situational and biographical, in experiences of violence? - What is the influence of the past and current criminal history of men on their tendency to domestic violence? - What particular interaction effects are revealed among the variables studied? - How is the role of the police perceived among the victims? - Does (institutionalized) aid to victims achieve its objectives?
The loss of an intimate partner in the second half of life is a major challenge and a critical life event. Even if, for most individuals, a critical life event is stressful and psychologically and socially destabilizing, the ways of coping with it and the long-term outcomes (ranging from increased vulnerability to stabilization and growth) are very different. Whether or not this critical life event turns out to be a chronic stressor depends on the individual's personal and social resources. Based on recent research, we propose a complementary and extended view of the crisis and chronic stress models of adjustment to critical life events (Amato, 2000) Lorenz et al., 2006). In fact, turning point experiences bear the potential for new chances, the awakening of a person's potential, overcoming the crisis and contributing to personal growth. For others, however, the same turning point is not only a crisis, but can also mean the onset of chronic disadvantage and stress with the threat of loss of control and increased physical, psychological and social vulnerability. What we also know from life-span and differential psychology is that there is a considerable continuity in psychological well-being over the life-span, independent of adversities and losses (Perrig-Chiello, Jäggi, Buschkühl, Stähelin, & Perrig, 2009). Based on these insights, the rationale of our project is a transactional model of personality, which claims that individuals try to cope with negative life events (turning points) by activating their available personal and external resources. This view postulates that individuals – based on their biographical experience (e.g., attachment style, past experiences with silent and age-normed transitions, quality of relationship with partner/spouse) and on their actual physical, psychological (e.g., personality; control beliefs; self-esteem; and personal, familial and cultural values) and social resources (e.g., having children, relatives, friends to rely upon) – develop strategies, which allow them to adapt their life perspectives in order to bring continuity in their lives and assure their well-being. We therefore expect that there is a considerable biographical continuity in the way individuals cope with critical life events, and that the loss of an intimate partner is solved in very similar ways. We conceptualize these strategies as adaptive mental mechanisms (such as control beliefs). Based on an integrated bottom-up/top-down conception of subjective well-being (Schimmak, 2007), we expect that the impact of both top-down (dispositional variables, personality) and bottom-up variables (life conditions, financial satisfaction) are essential for the explanation of the outcome variables. However, we anticipate that top-down processes contribute substantial amounts of variance to well-being measures compared to bottom-up effects, which are expected to be less important. Based on subjective well-being research, we hypothesize that the process of coping with loss involves several phases. First, the period during which the loss occurs (i.e., the first year of loss) is a time of destabilization (periphase). This is followed by a phase of active adaptation to the new situation (second and third years after the loss, past-phase). Finally, a phase of stabilization and return to the habitual baseline level can be expected. Building upon this theoretical framework and considering the different research gaps outlined above, this project will focus on the following areas: a) The incidence of bereavement, separation and divorce (cause, point in time) in a representative sample belonging to two age groups (middle and old age). These groups will represent both the German and French-speaking parts of Switzerland. b) The reasons and circumstances of bereavement, separation and divorce, i.e., the quality of the relationship, marital and sexual satisfaction, agency (initiator or reactor), perceived level of anticipation and control (mastery). c) The determinants that lead either to (increased) vulnerability or growth after experiencing the loss of an intimate partner. This analysis will take into account the following individual resources: psychological resources (personality; coping style; character strength; personal, familial, cultural and spiritual values; control beliefs; early childhood experiences/attachment; experience of silent and age-normed transitions), social resources (having children, partner, parents, friends), and financial resources and SES. d) The short-term and long-term outcomes and the process of coping with this critical life event: psychological well-being (mastery, life satisfaction, sense of life), physical well-being (subjective health, health complaints, medication intake), social well-being (emotional and social loneliness, quality of contacts) and financial well-being in the different phases of coping. We will examine the first year of loss (phase of destabilization, peri-phase), the phase of adaptation (2-3 years after loss) and the post-phase or phase of stabilization (3-5 years after loss).
More specially, tthe scientific goals are: - To initiate a prospective study, where men and women recently divorced and widowed after a long-term marriage are compared to long-term married persons (controls) (data collection 1st wave 2012; second wave 2014, third wave 2016). - To investigate the reasons and circumstances of bereavement, separation and divorce, i.e., the quality of the relationship, marital and sexual satisfaction, agency (initiator or reactor), perceived level of anticipation and control. - To analyse the determinants that lead either to vulnerability or growth after experiencing the break-up of marriage or partnership. These analyses will take into account the following individual resources: past critical life events and life trajectories (using a life calendar); psychological resources (personality; coping style; character strength; personal, familial, cultural and spiritual values; control beliefs; early childhood experiences/attachment; experience of silent and age-normed transitions), social resources (children, partner, parents, friends), financial resources and SES. - To examine the process of psychosocial adaptation to the critical life event and the short-term and long-term outcomes: psychological well-being, physical well-being (subjective health, health complaints, and medication intake), social well-being (emotional and social loneliness, quality of contacts) and financial well-being in the different phases of coping. We will examine the first phase of loss (phase of destabilization, i.e. first two years), the phase of adaptation (2-5 years after loss) and the phase of stabilization (5> years after loss). The middle and long-term scientific goals of the study are (2013/2014 and beyond): - Dissemination of research findings (publication in national and international journals, presentation at national and international conferences), and practice (publications, presentations, training, teaching).
Research aimes Phase II (2015 - 2018):
- Continuation of survey (3rd wave 2016): a) to track the trajectories of psychological adaptation to spousal loss and marital breakup after a long-term relationship; b) to explore continuities and change in marital satisfaction in long-term married. - Intervention for vulnerable individuals (complicated grief after separation, divorce, widowhood) recruited from the 2nd wave 2014 (and additinal recruitement). - Exploration of identity processes and social groups as resources for overcoming psychological vulnerability (especially due to loneliness) in older age.
