Rense Nieuwenhuis » single parent

Triple Bind on Off Kilter Podcast

Rense Nieuwenhuis — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 12:00:24 +0000

The Off Kilter podcast is about poverty and inequality — and everything they intersect with. Each week, host Rebecca Vallas is joined by experts, advocates, activists, and other smart people to break down the issues of the day — and how to fight back.

This week, Laurie Maldonado and myself are very proud to be guests on the podcast, to talk about our book The Triple Bind of Single-Parent Families. I don’t often find myself in a radio studio in Washington DC, and it was a great experience. The host Rebecca Vallas was smart, witty and so well prepared. She was very supportive, and I love what she wrote on the Triple Bind:

The U.S. has long demonized single parents – and especially single moms – like nowhere else in the western world. A new global anthology of research on treatment of families and single parents called The Triple Bind of Single-Parent Families offers a damning critique not of single moms, but of how the U.S. is hanging them, and their families, out to dry.

You can listen to our interview on Off Kilter (and subscribe to the always excellent podcast!) everywhere good podcasts are served, including:

Or simply listen to it here:

Out Now! The triple bind of single-parent families – new open access book

Rense Nieuwenhuis — Wed, 07 Mar 2018 07:05:36 +0000

We are happy to announce The triple bind of single parent families: resources, employment and policies to improve wellbeing.

Single parents face a triple bind of inadequate resources, employment, and policies, which in combination further complicate their lives.

This book – multi-disciplinary and comparative in design – shows evidence from over 40 countries, along with detailed case studies of Sweden, Iceland, Scotland, and the UK. It covers aspects of well-being that include poverty, good quality jobs, the middle class, wealth, health, children’s development and performance in school, and reflects on social justice.

Leading international scholars challenge our current understanding of what works and draw policy lessons on how to improve the well-being of single parents and their children.

Don’t buy our book!

Well, you can. There is a beautiful hardback version available. But you don’t have to. The open access .PDF of the book is free to download, thanks to generous support of Knowledge Unlatched.

Free download: http://oapen.org/search?identifier=643492
Policy Press website: http://policypress.co.uk/the-triple-bind-of-single-parent-families

Family Policies and Single Parent Poverty (poster edition)

Rense Nieuwenhuis — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 07:02:14 +0000

Single parent families have an increased risk of living in poverty, which is partially associated with their higher risk of not being in employment, or to work fewer hours or in lower prestige occupations. Last week, I reported on our new publication in the Community, Work & Family journal, with Laurie C. Maldonado, on the link between family policies and single parent poverty. We found that paid leave and family allowances reduce the poverty risk of all families with children, and particularly so among single parent families.

We created a poster, to highlight our main findings. It can be downloaded from this website.

Key findings:

Single-parent households are found to be more likely to be poor than two-parent households, and single mothers are more likely to be poor than single fathers.
Employment is associated with lower poverty, particularly in professional occupations and for dual earners.
Parental leave, if paid, reduces poverty most strongly among single mothers, because it facilitates their employment.
Family allowances reduce poverty among two-parent households with up to 3 percentage points, and among single-parent households (mothers and fathers) up to 13 percentage points.
Findings based on data from LIS Database, covering 519,825 households in 18 OECD countries from 1978 to 2008, combined with data from the Comparative Family Policy Database.

Family policies and single parent poverty in 18 OECD countries, 1978–2008

Rense Nieuwenhuis — Thu, 08 Oct 2015 11:33:07 +0000

Who benefits more from family policies: single-parent families or two-parent families? Laurie C. Maldonado and I answer this question with respect to poverty reduction, in a new publication in Community, Work & Family. We presented this at the 2014 Work and Family Researchers Network (in New York), and our paper was the runner up to the best junior scholar paper award.

The paper is found, of course, online. If you have difficulties accessing it, please do not hesitate to contact me directly for a copy.

From the abstract:

This study examined towhat extent family policies differently affect poverty among single-parent households and two-parent households. We distinguished between reconciliation policies (tested with parental leave and the proportion of unpaid leave) and financial support policies (tested with family allowances). We used data from the Luxembourg Income Study Database, covering 519,825 households in 18 OECD countries from 1978 to 2008, combined with data from the Comparative Family Policy Database. Single parents face higher poverty risks than coupled parents, and single mothers more so than single fathers. We found that employment reduces poverty, particularly for parents in professional occupations and for coupled parents who are dual earners. Longer parental leave, a smaller proportion of unpaid leave, and higher amounts of family allowances were associated with lower poverty among all households with children. Parental leave more effectively facilitated the employment of single mothers, thereby reducing their poverty more than among couples and single fathers. We found some evidence that family allowances reduced poverty most strongly among single fathers. An income decomposition showed that family allowances reduce poverty among two-parent households with up to 3 percentage points, and among single-parent households (mothers and fathers) up to 13 percentage points

Maldonado, L., & Nieuwenhuis, R. (2015). Family policies and single parent poverty in 18 OECD countries, 1978–2008 Community, Work & Family, 18 (4), 395-415 DOI: 10.1080/13668803.2015.1080661

Prepare versus Repair? On Social Investment for Single Parent Families

Rense Nieuwenhuis — Thu, 07 May 2015 16:15:26 +0000

With the social investment paradigm increasingly present in European social policy making, I am very pleased to announce my newest publication, together with Laurie C. Maldonado. Our article “Prepare versus Repair? Combining Parental Leave and Family Allowances for Social Investment Against Single-Parent Poverty” (.PDF), was published in the Belgian Review of Social Security, in an excellent special issue on child wellbeing. The special issue has contributions by experts including Dominic Richardson, Jonathan Bradshaw, and Gøsta Esping-Andersen.

From our contribution:

The position of single-parent families directly relates to one of the major critiques of the social investment strategy. Despite efforts to improve employment and make work pay to prevent poverty, European welfare states have witnessed disappointing trends in poverty (Vandenbroucke and Vleminckx, 2011). Cantillon (2011) argued that social investment policies are better suited for work-rich households than work- poor households at the bottom of the income distribution. This critique begs the empirical question of whether a transition to ‘in kind’ social investment policies can be sufficiently effective in improving employment to protect households against poverty, and if reducing transfers has rendered tax-benefit systems inadequate (cf. Nelson, 2011). We examine this below, focusing on family policies. Specifically, we assess whether social investment (reconciliation policies) is a more effective strategy than social protection (family allowances) for single-parent families.

We conclude:

Social investment, by facilitating employment, can be a beneficial strategy to reduce poverty among single-parent families but we argue that this strategy alone is not sufficient. Family allowances, too, reduce poverty. Therefore, in order for welfare states to genuinely invest in single-parent families, we recommend combining strategies that prepare and repair.

The special issue is available online, and access is open to anyone.

Call for Papers: The political context of single-parent families

Rense Nieuwenhuis — Wed, 18 Mar 2015 08:46:56 +0000

The political context of single-parent families is particularly relevant, as single parenthood represents a new social risk with adverse outcomes. This open panel invites theory-driven empirical studies on the political context of single- parent families. We specifically invite papers that address:

Social Policy Responses: descriptions and analyses of social policy innovations focused on single-parent families. What social policies are adopted for single-parent families, and how are these policies debated? What are the determinants of (EU member) states adopting policies? Is there a trend towards targeting or universalism? How does Social Investment translate to policies for single-parent families?

Social Policy Outcomes: descriptions and analyses of how social policies affect single-parent families. What are the various policy arrangements for single-parent families? Do single?parent families benefit more from universal welfare state policies, or from policies targeted on specific needs of such families?

This panel will be part of the annual Policy and Politics conference, September 15-16th in Bristol. The full call for this panel is found online (.PDF). More information, and guidelines on submitting an abstract, are to be found on the conference website.

For further questions, leave a comment below of e-mail me at rense.nieuwenhuis@sofi.su.se