Role of hospitalisation for substance misuse in marital status transitions: a 47-year follow-up of a Swedish birth cohort.

BACKGROUND: Substantial research suggests that the risk of substance misuse is higher among individuals who remain unmarried or experience marital dissolution, whereas marriage tends to be protective. However, few studies have considered the role of substance misuse for transitions between discrete marital status categories. The current study aims to estimate associations between substance misuse and marital status transitions from ages 20-66. METHODS: Our study population was a national Swedish cohort born in 1953 (n=71 901), followed from 1973 to 2019. Annual marital status and hospitalisation records for substance misuse were derived from the Total Population and National Patient registers, respectively. We used a five-state multistate model to estimate associations between substance misuse and marital status transitions-the state space included never married, married, divorced and widowed with death as the absorbing state. We further used fixed-effect models to estimate the effects of substance misuse on transitions out of marriage. RESULTS: Findings suggested that individuals' substance misuse was associated with an increased risk of transitioning from married to divorced (HR=3.54, 95% CI 3.40 to 3.69) or widowed (HR=1.71, 95% CI 1.46 to 2.01), and transitioning to death from all states. Substance misuse was also negatively associated with transitioning from never married to married (HR=0.59, 95% CI 0.57 to 0.61), and into remarriage after divorce (HR=0.86, 95% CI 0.80 to 0.92). The fixed-effect results suggested that substance misuse increased the risk of transitioning to divorce and widowhood, net of sociodemographic characteristics. CONCLUSION: Substance misuse is associated with an increased risk of marital dissolution and death when accounting for nearly 50 years of marital biographies.

Job loss and job instability during the COVID-19 pandemic and the risk of depression and anxiety among Swedish employees.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to permanent and temporary job losses but the mental health consequences of different types of employment transitions are not well-understood. In particular, knowledge is scarce concerning furloughs, which was a common job protection strategy in many high- and upper middle-income countries during this crisis. This study focuses on how different types of job instability and job loss during the pandemic influences depression and anxiety in the context of Sweden. A subset of participants from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health were contacted in February 2021 and again in February 2022. A total of 1558 individuals participated in either or both waves and worked before the pandemic. We examined whether i) workplace downsizing, ii) furlough, or iii) unemployment/job loss were associated with depression and anxiety over this one-year period during the pandemic. Logistic regression models with cluster-robust standard errors were estimated, adjusting for sociodemographic factors and prior mental health problems. Effect modification by sex and prior mental health problems was also examined. In comparison to stable employment, being furloughed was unrelated to mental health, while experiencing workplace downsizing during the pandemic was associated with an increased risk of anxiety (adjusted Odds Ratio (OR) = 2.09, 95% Confidence interval (CI) = 1.08-4.05). Job loss/unemployment increased the risk of depression (OR = 1.91, 95% CI = 1.02-3.57) compared to being stably employed, but the risk estimate crossed unity when considering prior mental health status. No effect modification by sex or by prior mental health problems was found. This study found that while job loss and downsizing during the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with depression and anxiety, respectively, being furloughed was not. These findings thus suggest that job retention schemes in the form of short-time work allowances, as implemented in Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic, may prevent mental health problems among employees during economic crises.

It's giving me the blues: A fixed-effects and g-formula approach to understanding job insecurity, sleep disturbances, and major depression.

Research suggests that work-related factors like job insecurity increases the risk of major depression (MD), although it is unclear whether the association is causal. Research further suggests that job insecurity increases sleep disturbances, which is also a risk factor for MD. Based on current knowledge, it is possible that job insecurity operates through sleep disturbances to affect MD, but this pathway has not been examined in the literature. The current study extends the literature by using two complementary, counterfactual approaches (i.e., random- and fixed-effects regression and a mediational g-formula) to examine whether job insecurity causes MD and whether sleep disturbances mediate the relationship. A methodological triangulation approach allowed us to adjust for unobserved and intermediate confounding, which has not been addressed in prior research. Findings suggest that the relationship between job insecurity and MD is primarily direct, that hypothetically intervening on job insecurity (in our g-formula) would reduce MD by approximately 10% at the population level, and this relationship operates via sleep disturbances to some degree. However, the indirect pathway had a high degree of uncertainty.

Importance of living arrangements and coparenting quality for young children's mental health after parental divorce: a cross-sectional parental survey.

Background: Parental separation has been associated with adverse child mental health outcomes in the literature. For school-aged children, joint physical custody (JPC), that is, spending equal time in both parents' homes after a divorce, has been associated with better health and well-being than single care arrangements. Preschool children's well-being in JPC is less studied. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of living arrangements and coparenting quality with mental health in preschool children after parental separation. Methods: This cross-sectional population-based study includes 12 845 three-year-old children in Sweden. Mental health was measured by parental reports of the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire and coparenting quality with a four-item scale. The living arrangements of the 642 children in non-intact families were categorised into JPC, living mostly with one parent and living only with one parent. Results: Linear regression models, adjusted for sociodemographic confounders, showed an association between increased mental health problems and living mostly and only with one parent (B=1.18; 95% CI 0.37 to 2.00, and B=1.20; 95% CI 0.40 to 2.00, respectively), while children in intact families vs JPC did not differ significantly (B=-0.11; 95% CI -0.58 to 0.36). After adjusting the analyses for coparenting quality, differences in child mental health between the post divorce living arrangements were, however, minimal while children in intact families had more mental health problems compared with JPC (B=0.70; 95% CI 0.24 to 1.15). Factorial analysis of covariance revealed that low coparenting quality was more strongly related to mental health problems for children in intact families and JPC compared with children living mostly or only with one parent. Conclusions: This study suggests that coparenting quality is a key determinant of mental health in preschool children and thus should be targeted in preventive interventions.

The Intergenerational Transmission of Early Childbearing: Examining Direct and Indirect Associations in a Swedish Birth Cohort.

Background. Research shows that early childbearing is associated negatively with educational attainment and socioeconomic status (SES). Children born to young versus older mothers often do less well in school, and many have early first births. Some studies suggest that mothers' early childbearing operates through SES to influence the daughters' early childbearing, and some argue that the association is strong net of SES. The current study tests these direct and indirect associations. Methods. We estimate the pathways through which mothers' early childbearing influences daughters' early childbearing in several steps. First, we examine bivariate associations between mothers' early childbearing and SES, followed by bivariate associations between mothers' SES outcomes and their daughters' early childbearing. We then estimate the average marginal effects (AMEs) of mothers' early children on daughters', and a KHB decomposition to examine direct and indirect associations. Results. Findings suggest both direct and indirect associations. Nested models show that, net of a range of SES characteristics, mothers' early childbearing increases the probability of daughters' by approximately 8%; and KHB results suggest 37% mediation, with daughters' school performance (12%) and household educational attainment (10%) contributing the highest shares. Conclusion. Mothers' early childbearing and subsequent SES collectively influence the long-term wellbeing of children. Thus, early childbearing has consequences both within and across generations.

Birds of a Feather Have Babies Together?: Family Structure Homogamy and Union Stability among Cohabiting Parents.

The association between childhood family structure and offspring wellbeing is well-documented. Recent research shows that adult children of divorced parents will likely marry someone whose parents' divorced (i.e., family structure homogamy) and are subsequently likely to divorce themselves. This literature has focused primarily on marital unions, despite the rise in cohabitation and nonmarital childbearing. Research suggests that marriage and cohabitation are different types of unions and have different implications for the wellbeing of children. Therefore, we extend the literature by examining the role of family structure homogamy in matching patterns and union stability among unmarried, cohabiting couples. Data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study suggest that unmarried, cohabiting mothers and fathers are both more likely to be from nonintact childhood family structures and are significantly more likely to dissolve their unions compared to married parents who both tend to be from intact childhood family structures.

The Effect of Parental Divorce on the Health of Adult Children.

Decades of research have produced evidence that parental divorce is negatively associated with offspring outcomes from early childhood, through adolescence, and into the adult years. This study adds to the literature on the effects of parental divorce by examining how the timing of a parental divorce influences the total effect on adult health. Furthermore, we look at how this long-term effect of parental divorce depends on mediators such as the family's socioeconomic status, parental involvement, cognitive test scores, behavioural problems, smoking, and the offspring's own experience with divorce. The analyses use data from the National Child Development Study, which includes nine waves of data beginning at birth in 1958 and continuing through age 50. Results from a structural equation model suggest that a parental divorce experienced before age 7 does influence adult health by operating primarily through family socioeconomic status and smoking in adulthood.

Mothers' Partnership Instability and Coparenting among Fragile Families.

OBJECTIVES: The rise in nonmarital childbearing has raised concerns about coparenting among unmarried parents with increasingly complicated relationship trajectories. We address this issue by examining associations between mothers' partnership transitions and coparenting and the moderating role of maternal race/ethnicity and child gender. METHODS: Data from the Fragile Families Study and ordinary least squares regression techniques are used to examine whether mothers' partnership transitions are related to coparenting. Lagged and fixed effects models are employed to test the robustness of the findings to selection. RESULTS: Coresidential and nonresidential, dating transitions are negatively associated with coparenting, but the association is stronger for coresidential transitions than for dating transitions. Coresidential transitions are stronger predictors of coparenting for White parents than for Black parents and for parents of sons than for parents of daughters. CONCLUSIONS: Policies aimed at strengthening families should emphasize relationship stability, regardless of the type of union, to promote high quality coparenting among at-risk populations.

"Like Parent, Like Child?": The intergenerational transmission of nonmarital childbearing.

Data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (N=11,180) are used to examine the intergenerational transmission of nonmarital childbearing for US men and women. Findings suggest that being born to unmarried parents increases the risk of offspring having a nonmarital first birth, net of various confounding characteristics. This intergenerational link appears to particularly operate via parents' breaking up before offspring are age 14 and offspring's young age at first sex. While the link across two generations in nonmarital childbearing is not accounted for by parents' socioeconomic status (measured as fathers' education), several mediating factors vary by socioeconomic background. Gender and race/ethnicity also moderate the intergenerational transmission of nonmarital childbearing. This research sheds light on the prevalence of, and process by which, nonmarital childbearing is repeated across generations, which has important implications for long-term social stratification and inequality.

Problems with veteran-family communication during operation enduring freedom/operation Iraqi freedom military deployment.

Twenty Reserve component (Army and Marines) and Army National Guard male veterans of Operational Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom discuss their deployment and postdeployment family reintegration experiences. A Grounded Theory approach is used to highlight some of the ways in which family miscommunication during deployment can occur. Communication with civilian family members is affected by the needs of operational security, technical problems with communication tools, miscommunication between family members, or because veterans have "nothing new to say" to family back home. These communication difficulties may lead to an initial gulf of understanding between veterans and family members that can cause family strain during postdeployment family reintegration. We end with a discussion of veteran family reintegration difficulties.

Intergenerational Relationships and Union Stability in Fragile Families.

Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Well being Study (N= 2,656), we examined the association between intergenerational relationships and parents' union stability five years after a baby's birth. Results showed that more amiable relationships between parents and each partner's parents, and more time children spent with paternal grandparents, were associated with increased odds that parents were co-residing by the time their focal child was age five. More time that children spent with maternal grandparents reduced union stability, although this result was not robust to methods that better address selection. These findings underscore the importance of the broader social contexts affecting couple stability. Findings further suggest that even amidst changing demographic conditions, intergenerational family ties are important for couples-and by extension-their children.