Helping hands, slapping hands? Buffering effect of social support and relationships during unemployment in Germany

Mikucka, Malgorzata
(2014) Spring School on Family Complexity and Its Implications for Inequality — Location: Collegio Carlo Alberto, Torino, Italy (10.March.2014)

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  • Mikucka, MalgorzataUCLouvain
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Abstract
This paper analyses the buffering effect of social support and relationships during the transition to unemployment in Germany. I distinguish two possible mechanisms. The first assumes that social support and closeness have an overall positive effect on life satisfaction (social undermining and distance in relationships – negative effect), and states that the networks respond to the transition to unemployment by providing more support and closeness, and by decreasing social undermining and distance. The second mechanism assumes that social support and closeness have an overall positive effect on life satisfaction, and states that this effect becomes even more positive during the transitions to unemployment. I use German Family Panel (pairfam) data, which contain 70 measures of social support, social undermining, closeness, and distance in relationships. I investigate the relationships with parents, partner, relatives and non-relatives networks, and estimate the effects separately for men and women, and for people experiencing the transition to unemployment from employment, from schooling, and from homemaking. I use the statistical method of first difference models, which is conceptually equivalent to fixed-effects models. The results support both mechanisms, but only for a limited number of support / relationship variables. The relationship that provides more support and less conflict in response to transition to unemployment is mainly the relationship with the partner. On the other hand, support and relationship with parents and socializing networks gain importance during the transition to unemployment.
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Mikucka, M. (2014). Helping hands, slapping hands? Buffering effect of social support and relationships during unemployment in Germany. Spring School on Family Complexity and Its Implications for Inequality, Collegio Carlo Alberto, Torino, Italy. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/194592