| 1. |
- Sirén, Sebastian, 1985-
(författare)
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Social Policy in Development Contexts : Drivers, Mechanisms and Outcomes
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Economic growth amidst staggering inequality in many low- and middle-income countries makes the quest to end global poverty more topical than ever. Calls to leave no one behind in the course of development underscore the need to reconsider the role of policy frameworks in emerging economies. Social policies have been expanded across the Global South during the last decades, and social protection is increasingly highlighted as a fundamental component of the global sustainable development agenda. This thesis, comprising three self-contained studies, analyses the drivers, mechanisms and outcomes of social policy reform in development contexts, asking which economic institutions could enable more rapid advancement towards ending poverty and reducing inequalities, and what conditions promote the expansion of such institutions?Study I investigates the driving forces of changes in social spending across 46 more recent democracies, with particular attention to the role of partisan politics. Using data from 1995 to 2015, multivariate fixed effect regressions reveal a positive association between left government and public social expenditures, also when controlling for structural and institutional factors. This finding indicates that interests and ideologies, articulated through partisan politics, matter for the evolution of social policy, also in development contexts.In light of the findings from this quantitative analysis, Study II investigates the mechanisms driving, and hampering, progress towards social policy expansion in a specific case. The politics surrounding a healthcare reform with the ambition to universalise access to public healthcare in Bolivia is examined using theory-guided process tracing methods. The study highlights how policy is shaped through an interaction between societal and state actors as well as how interests and ideas are intertwined in the process, but also how policy legacies give rise to reactive sequences militating against change.In Study III, the focus is on the outcomes of social policy. The study presents analyses of how government cash transfer systems moderate the effect of economic growth in both absolute and relative child poverty. Longitudinal data from 16 low- and middle-income countries included in the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) are analysed by means of descriptive statistics and multivariate regression techniques. Findings show that both economic growth and the expansions of transfer schemes are associated with declining absolute poverty. Meanwhile, growth is found to be related to reductions in relative child poverty primarily when combined with sufficiently extensive systems of government transfers, thus pointing to the relevance of social protection for inclusive growth.The findings from the three studies illustrate that central concepts from comparative welfare state research can be employed also in development contexts, converging on an analytical approach where changes in poverty and inequality are influenced by politics. Continued comparative analyses of social policies and their determinants in development contexts can accordingly generate much-needed insights into the causes of global poverty and inequality. Future research should further explore feedback effects of policy on politics and consider the potential synergies between social policy, equality, and economic growth.
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| 2. |
- Kridahl, Linda, 1984-, et al.
(författare)
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Depressive symptoms, gender equality and belongingness among older partnered individuals in Sweden
- 2023
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Ingår i: Community, Work and Family. - 1366-8803 .- 1469-3615.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Approximately one-third of all older adults in Sweden report periods with depressive symptoms. The study aims to find explanations for older partnered individuals’ depressive symptoms by focusing on their gender attitudes, household division of labor and conformity to younger partnered individuals’ commonly held gender attitudes and household division of labor. Analyses are based on a subsample (n respondents 1764) from the Swedish Generations and Gender Survey (2012/2013) including individuals aged 60–80. The analytical strategy is logistic regression. The findings show that individuals with traditional gender attitudes are more likely to report a high level of depressive symptoms than individuals with transitional (i.e. attitudes in between traditional and egalitarian attitudes) and individuals with egalitarian gender attitudes. Lower conformity to commonly held gender attitudes is also associated with a high level of depressive symptoms. However, neither the household division of labor nor conformity to common household division was associated with depressive symptoms. In later life, gender attitudes thus seem more important for depressive symptoms than the actual household division of labor. It may be that attitudes are more important than behavior among older couples, and a reason for this may be that behavior is likely more restricted by practical circumstances.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Ma, Li, et al.
(författare)
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Fathers’ uptake of parental leave : Forerunners and laggards in Sweden, 1993-2010
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Social Policy. - : Cambridge University Press. - 0047-2794 .- 1469-7823. ; 49:2, s. 361-381
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sweden is often considered a forerunner in family change and developments towardsless gendered family production patterns. In this study, we focus on recent developmentstowards more gender-equal sharing of parental leave in Sweden. We explore how fathers’use of parental leave has changed over time before and since the turn of the century. Asthe parental leave benefit is individual and earnings-based, we examine how fathers’ individualsocio-economic and demographic characteristics are associated with their parental leaveuptake over time, to determine whether there are forerunners and laggards in recent familychange. Multinomial logistic regression models were applied to data from national registers.Our study demonstrates a bifurcation in trends in recent decades. This is associated with theextension of reforms that reserve part of the leave for fathers, the so-called “daddy months”,but stretches beyond the impact of any such reforms. Taking a long leave of over twomonths was pioneered by better-educated residents of metropolitan areas and surroundingsuburbs, as well as Swedish-born fathers. Young fathers, low-income earners and foreign-bornfathers lagged behind in these developments. We regard the unstable labour marketsituation of the latter as a contributing factor in widening social inequalities in family-relatedbehaviour.
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| 5. |
- Kridahl, Linda, et al.
(författare)
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Are Mothers and Daughters Most Important? How Gender, Childhood Family Dissolution and Parents' Current Living Arrangements Affect the Personal Care of Parents
- 2021
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Ingår i: Social Sciences. - : MDPI AG. - 2076-0760. ; 10:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study examines adult children's propensity to provide personal care to older mothers and fathers. The theory of intergenerational solidarity facilitates the understanding of commitment and support between adult children and parents. Solidarity may depend on childhood events as well as the current situation, and we therefore focus on whether there was a parental breakup in childhood and the parent's current living arrangements. We also focus on the gendered aspects of the relations as earlier research has found stronger matrilinear relationships. The propensity for personal care was analyzed with regression analysis using the 2012 Swedish Generations and Gender Survey. The results show that daughters are more likely than sons to provide personal care to both parents. Parental breakup in childhood does not change the propensity of personal care to any parent. The probability of receiving care is higher for lone mothers than for mothers living with the father, but not for repartnered mothers. Adult children's care provision does not differ for lone fathers and fathers living with the mother, but children are more likely to provide care to lone fathers than to repartnered fathers. We interpret this to indicate that repartnering weakens ties to fathers but not mothers. The results indicate that the child's gender and the parent's living arrangements operate differently with regard to care for mothers and fathers. The most common pattern is care provided from daughters to mothers. For example, daughters of lone mothers are more likely to provide care than sons in the same situation. We conclude that intergenerational solidarity is not affected by parental breakup in childhood but that present living arrangements affect such solidarity in gendered ways.
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| 6. |
- Almqvist, Anna-Lena, et al.
(författare)
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Changes in gender equality? : Swedish fathers’ parental leave,division of childcare and housework
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Family Studies. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1322-9400 .- 1839-3543. ; 20:1, s. 19-27
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sweden is well known for its family policy and this study explores whether fathers’ parental leave is related to later division of childcare and housework. Two materials were used; a panel survey (2003, 2009) and an interview study (2008). Respondents in the survey had their first child between the waves and the interview-study focused on parents of 2–3 year olds. The survey is analyzed by logistic regression and the interviews by grounded theory. The results indicate that when fathers took long leave parents shared both household tasks and childcare more equally after the leave. Higher expectations of sharing childcare is related to a higher share of divided childcare once becoming parents, although it seems that some tasks are more often shared than others. When the father took long leave both parents mention that the child relates to the father as much as the mother in everyday life.
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| 7. |
- Forslund, Maria, 1982-
(författare)
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From the cradle to the grave - in sickness and in health? : The welfare state and health outcomes
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Sickness, whether manifested through actual sickness or through fear of sickness, is a part of human life. Sickness cash benefits was one of the earliest social security programs implemented in modern welfare states. Previous research on how sickness benefits are associated with health outcomes has emphasized the significance of income. Sickness is a social risk in terms of income loss, and sickness benefits has the potential to compensate such losses. Just as cash benefits are an essential part of the welfare state, so are public services. Public services, and healthcare in particular, are crucial for health outcomes. Yet, comparative research on healthcare is just beginning to take off in research. This thesis extends previous research in two ways. First, the thesis considers the impact of sickness cash benefits and healthcare for health outcomes, as well as the interplay between cash and care. Secondly, the thesis applies a life course perspective aligning comparative welfare state research and cumulative dis/advantage theory. The thesis thereby contributes with new knowledge, empirically as well as theoretically, which together provides a comprehensive assessment of important links between the welfare state and population health. Study I examines the relationship between sickness benefits and life expectancy at age 65 in 15 OECD countries, 1960–2015. The study is novel as it applies a life course perspective on sickness benefits, combining cumulative dis/advantage theory and a comparative welfare state approach. It adds to previous research by focusing on the cumulative access cohorts have had to sickness benefits during their time active in the labour market. The results support previous research showing that universal coverage of sickness benefits appears to be associated with lower mortality. Study II analyses the relationship between primary care and inequalities in self-rated health based on educational attainment in 24 countries 2002–2018. Previous research has pointed to an increasing educational gradient in health over the last decades. Primary care has been argued to be especially important when aiming to reduce such health inequalities. The results show that in countries where primary care is of higher quality, the educational gradient in self-rated health is lower. Study III analyses the interplay between healthcare resources and sickness benefits in relation to premature mortality in a sample of 14 countries for the time period 1980–2011. The study lends support to there being an interaction effect between healthcare and sickness benefits. Although healthcare and sickness benefits are two different aspects of the welfare state, future research should consider the interplay between cash and care. Taken together, the thesis demonstrates the importance of considering how different aspects of the welfare state and separate policy programmes works in conjunction. The thesis further emphasizes the importance of using a life course approach in analysing health outcomes of the welfare state and social policy.
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| 8. |
- Haandrikman, Karen, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Geographical Variation in Local Gender Contracts in Sweden
- 2021
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Ingår i: Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1874-463X .- 1874-4621. ; 14, s. 679-701
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite Sweden’s national gender-neutral family and social policies, local differences in gender contracts exist and have been related to differences in the structure of the labour market and cultural traditions. Existing studies are outdated and used relatively large administratively defined areas, which may lead to several measurement and interpretation errors. This paper examines geographical variation in gender contracts in present-day Sweden using individualized neighbourhoods on different scales. Gender contracts are operationalized using six indicators on the level of family, politics and labour. We identify five types of local gender contracts: the metropolitan gender contract, the progressive gender contract, the suburban gender contract, the commuter gender contract and the traditional gender contract. The most gender equal patterns are found in metropolitan and other urban areas, with high shares of fathers taking parental leave and the highest shares of women with high education and gainful employment, and low shares of young mothers. The analyses give evidence of considerable local variation instead of a dominant gender contract in each region. The findings may stimulate further research and local policies on gender inequality.
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| 9. |
- Mussino, Eleonora, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Parental leave use among newly arrived immigrant mothers in Sweden : Causes and consequences
- 2024
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Ingår i: Journal of European Social Policy. - : SAGE Publications. - 0958-9287 .- 1461-7269. ; 34:1, s. 85-100
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Immigration to Sweden is dominated by women and men of childbearing age, and many arrive with children. The labour-market integration of newly arrived mothers is of concern, and well directed social policy is crucial. Parental leave is based on residence, and until recently it was granted to all parents of foreign-born children of preschool age. This study uses population and social insurance registers to investigate whether newly arrived immigrant mothers use parental leave upon arrival, and whether use is an obstacle to future labour-market activity. Our results indicate that the majority of the newly arrived mothers do not take any parental leave, but also that there are great differences in uptake in relation to country of birth and reason for residence permit. However, there seem to be only marginal associations between parental leave use and subsequent labour-market attachment. Nevertheless, moderate use is associated with labour-market activity rather than being an obstacle to it. Our results contribute to the debate on the unintended effects of social policy on the integration of immigrants.
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| 10. |
- Debiasi, Enrico, 1989-, et al.
(författare)
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Unintended Perinatal Health Consequences Associated With a Swedish Family Policy
- 2024
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Ingår i: JAMA pediatrics. - : American Medical Association (AMA). - 2168-6203 .- 2168-6211. ; 178:6, s. 608-615
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Importance The 1980 and 1986 Swedish so-called speed premium policies aimed at protecting parents’ income-based parental leave benefits for birth intervals shorter than 24 and 30 months, respectively, but indirectly encouraged shorter birth spacing and childbearing at older ages, both risk factors for several perinatal health outcomes. Whether those policy changes are associated with perinatal health remains unknown.Objective To evaluate the association between the 1980 and 1986 speed premium policies and perinatal health outcomes.Design, Setting, and Participants This cross-sectional study investigated data from 1 762 784 singleton births in the Swedish Medical Birth Register from January 1, 1974, through December 31, 1991. Data were analyzed from October 11, 2022, to December 12, 2023.Interventions Speed premium policy introduction (January 1, 1980) and extension (January 1, 1986).Main Outcomes and Measures Total population register data were used in an interrupted time series analysis with segmented logistic regression to calculate the odds of preterm birth, low birth weight, small for gestational age (SGA) at preterm, and stillbirth measured before and after the speed premium policy reforms. Subgroup analyses by maternal origin were conducted to evaluate changes by different policy responses.Results Among 1 762 784 births analyzed, 4.8% were preterm (of which 12.0% were SGA), 3.2% had low birth weight, and 0.3% were stillbirths. The 1980 speed premium policy was associated with a 0.3% monthly increase in the odds of preterm birth compared with the period before the reform (odds ratio [OR], 1.0029 [95% CI, 1.002-1.004]), equivalent to a 26.4% increase from January 1, 1980, to December 31, 1985. After the 1986 relaxation of the policy, preterm birth odds decreased 0.5% per month (OR, 0.9951 [95% CI, 0.994-0.996]), equivalent to an 11.1% decrease across the next 6 years. Low birth weight displayed a similar pattern for both reform periods, that is, increased 0.2% (OR, 1.0021; 95% CI, 1.001-1.003) per month in 1980 through 1985 compared with baseline, and decreased 0.3% (OR, 0.9975; 95% CI, 0.996-0.998) per month in the following period, but was attenuated when considering low birth weight at term. Odds of SGA at preterm were decreased after 1980 (OR, 0.9965; 95% CI, 0.994-0.999) but not in 1986 (OR, 1.0009; 95% CI, 0.998-1.003), whereas stillbirths did not change following either reform (1980: OR, 1.0020 [95% CI, 0.999-1.005]; 1986: OR, 1.0002 [95% CI, 0.997-1.003]). Subgroup analyses suggested that perinatal health changes were restricted to births to Swedish- and Nordic-born mothers, the primary groups to adjust their fertility behaviors to the reforms.Conclusions and Relevance Despite its economic advantages for couples, especially for mothers, the introduction of the speed premium policy was associated with adverse perinatal health consequences, particularly for preterm births. Family policies should be carefully designed with a “Health in All Policies” lens to avoid possible unintended repercussions for fertility behaviors and, in turn, perinatal health.
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