When the 2007-2008 global financial crisis hit Portugal, the country entered a recession. In 2011, the government, led by the centre-left Socialist Party (PS), asked for a conditional bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission. Among the conditions were a set of austerity policies, namely a retrenchment of expenditure on social welfare. These were ultimately implemented by the centre-right coalition of the Social-Democratic and Popular Parties that ascended to power in the same year. Austerity policies severely affected family incomes due to the crosscutting decrease in nominal wages and social support. Poorer families were hit the hardest, despite the official rhetoric claiming 'sacrifices were being shared by all' (Farinha Rodrigues, Figueiras, & Junqueira, 2016). A widespread

This paper addresses the importance of school meals in balancing food budgets and diets among 45 low‐income families in Portugal. Drawing on interviews with both parents and children (aged 11–15 years) we found that children’s views on the quality of school meals affect their willingness to eat at school and heighten parental concerns with health, food and resources. For parents, school meals are crucial to ensure children’s dietary variety and balancing tight food budgets. Schools’ role in food poverty alleviation is also critically addressed, contributing to current and future sociological studies of children, school meals and food poverty.

This article addresses the question of life course de-standardisation in Portugal, drawing on a trajectory-based holistic approach. The de-standardisation hypothesis presupposes that, over recent decades, occupational and family trajectories became gradually more variable. Our methodological strategy to test these hypotheses uses entropy measures and assesses how cohort and gender influence standardisation. We used these measures to determine the heterogeneity in co-residence and occupational trajectories between the ages of 7 and 35. In a second stage, we used regression models to estimate if cohort, gender, education and socioeconomic class associate with co-residence and occupational entropy. The paper draws on data from the 'Family Trajectories and Social Networks: The life course in an intergenerational perspective' research project (n=1500), which included questions on co-residence and work employment history of Portuguese individuals born in three different cohorts (1935-40; 1950-55; 1970-75). Findings show that standardisation and de-standardisation dynamics coexist, operating differently depending on the life domain and the stage of life. While early family trajectories are more standardised in younger cohorts, later stages are slightly more diverse, particularly among women. As far as occupational trajectories are concerned, formative years are much more standardised in the younger cohort, while adulthood is de-standardised in all cohorts. We discuss results in light of the life course regime and gendering hypotheses.

Throughout the world, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted family routines, relationships, projects and sociability, threatening the health, income, social cohesion, and well-being of individuals and their families. Lockdown restrictions imposed during the first wave of the pandemic challenged the theories, concepts, and methods used by family sociologists and the intersecting fields of gender and social inequality. By restricting physical interactions to co-resident family members, the household regained a privileged role as a crucial social laboratory for studying the impact of COVID-19 on family life. The difficulties encountered by individuals in maintaining and dealing with close relationships across households and geographical borders, in a context in which relational proximity was discouraged by the public authorities, exposed the linked nature of family and personal relationships beyond the limits of co-residence. The main aim of this article is to investigate the social impacts of the pandemic on different types of households during the first lockdown at an early stage of the pandemic in Portugal. Drawing on an online survey applied to a non-probabilistic sample of 11,508 households between 25 and 29 March 2020, the authors combined quantitative and qualitative methods, including bi-variate inferential statistics, cluster analysis and in-depth case studies. The article distinguishes between different household types: solo, couple with and without children, extended, friendship, lone-parent families, and intermittent arrangements, such as shared custody. A cross-tabulation of the quantitative data with open-ended responses was carried out to provide a refined analysis of the household reconfigurations brought about during lockdown. The analysis showed how pre-existing unequal structural living conditions shaped the pathways leading to household reconfiguration as families sought to cope with restrictions on mobility, social distancing norms, and other lockdown measures. The findings stress that, in dealing with a crisis, multilevel welfare interventions need to be considered if governments are to cater to the differentiated social needs and vulnerabilities faced by individuals and families.

Este artigo pretende analisar a evolução das atitudes face à divisão conjugal do trabalho em Portugal, entre 2002 e 2014. Um dos objetivos centrais é o de aferir em que medida a evolução observada corresponde a uma modernização das atitudes. Avaliam-se igualmente as hipóteses de uma complexificação dos padrões atitudinais ou, em alternativa, de uma cristalização em torno de padrões atitudinais dicotómicos. Para tal foi efetuada uma análise comparativa das atitudes dos portugueses aferidas nos módulos Família e Género do ISSP (International Social Survey) em dois períodos distintos — 2002 e 2014 — sendo, de seguida, avançados alguns fatores explicativos para os padrões atitudinais encontrados. Mas se os padrões atitudinais encontrados em 2002 sofrem em 2014 uma evolução inequívoca, é também clara alguma incongruência nas atitudes dos portugueses em relação à conciliação do trabalho com a família, especialmente quando existem filhos pequenos. Estes e outros resultados são analisados à luz das especificidades do contexto socioeconómico português no período analisado e dos contributos de alguma investigação recente sobre as questões de género nas atitudes dos portugueses.