Mothers' Mobility after Separation: Do Grandmothers Matter?

Abstract

Starting from a life course perspective, this study aims to gain more insight into mobility patterns of recently separated mothers, focusing especially on moves to the location of their own mother: the maternal grandmother. Separated mothers, having linked lives with their own mothers, may benefit from their practical and emotional support. Additionally, the grandparents' home can be a (temporary) place to stay shortly after divorce. Data come from the System of social statistical datasets (Statistics Netherlands). This unique dataset combines longitudinal data from a vast number of administrative registers. It covers the complete Dutch population, making it exceptionally well suited for life course and mobility research. We studied mothers with minor children between 1/1/2008 and 31/12/2010. Our study included 579,500 mothers, of whom about 8,800 (1.5%) experienced a separation in 2008. Separated mothers moved to the grandmother's municipality more often than non‐separated mothers, which might be partially motivated by the need for childcare. They also coresided with the grandmother more than non‐separated movers, mostly because of a vulnerable socio‐economic position. Although often temporary, coresidence appears to have a prolonged impact on the mothers' location choice; mothers frequently stayed in the grandmother's municipality after moving out. Finally, our results indicated that some mothers seemed to use the parental home as a stepping stone to cohabit with a new partner. © 2016 The Authors. Population, Space and Place published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Moving back to “mamma”? Divorce, intergenerational coresidence, and latent family solidarity in Sweden

“…Nevertheless, other opportunities for intergenerational coresidence increase its likelihood in the face of family dissolution as divorced adult children are more likely to re‐enter the nest when the mother lives in the same municipality as them (cf. Das et al, ). A similar effect was not found for fathers.…”

“…The lower the child's income, the higher is the likelihood that she/he will move in with his/her parents after a divorce. This is a finding that adheres to previous international studies in the field (Das et al, ; DaVanzo & Goldscheider, ; Gram‐Hanssen & Bech‐Danielsen, ; Smits et al, ; Timonen et al, ). Also, connecting to Arundel and Lennartz (), it might be argued that because the individuals included in our sample have already chosen residential independence, returns are more likely to be the result of a constraint than a preference.…”

“…The needs of separating or divorcing children tend to be more heterogeneous when they are parents themselves. On the one hand, the primary caretaker (usually the mother) is likely to need both economic support, due to increasing expenses and the loss of economies of scale, and help in taking care of their children (Das et al, ). Separating fathers, at the same time, might experience a higher need vis‐à‐vis childless men to live close to their ex‐partner in order to maintain frequent contact with their children—especially when shared custodial arrangements are in place—and to preserve their and their children's location specific capital.…”

“…In particular, mainly due to data limitations, we observe the association between union dissolution (from marriage or cohabitation) and intergenerational (re)coresidence among native Swedish individuals who have at least one minor natural child with their ex‐partner. Previous research from European and North American countries has shown that divorcees are indeed more likely to coreside with their parents (Das, de Valk, & Merz, ; Gram‐Hanssen & Bech‐Danielsen, ; Grundy, ; Guzzo, ; Messineo & Wojtkiewicz, ; Ruggles & Heggeness, ; Sarkisian & Gerstel, ; South & Lei, ; Stone, Berrington, & Falkingham, ; Sullivan, ). We advance this research by asking whether family dissolution increases intergenerational coresidence also in Sweden.…”

Union dissolution and migration

“…The exit of a partner -or any family member for that matter -from a family should therefore reduce locational conflict and present an opportunity to move to a more ideal location (e.g., for job opportunities, proximity to family members, access to schools, to form a new union, etc.) (Mincer 1978;Das, de Valk, and Merz 2016). Therefore, one would expect union dissolution to be associated with an increase in migration rates.…”