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Effect of Family Structure on Life Satisfaction: Australian Evidence

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  • M. D. R. Evans

    (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne)

  • Jonathan Kelley

    (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne)

Abstract

Women's workforce participation increased strongly over the 1980s and 1990s, with the increases being generally larger for married than non-married women, and with the increases being especially large in middle age, as shown by ABS data. Multivariate analysis of IsssA data covering this period shows that there is actually rather little time trend per se. Instead, underlying the apparent shift over time, there are large compositional changes in the female population and there is a strong ""birth cohort or ""vintage"" effect such that succeeding cohorts of women have higher propensities to work throughout their lives than did their predecessors. Among the compositional changes, the strong rise in women's educational attainments and the large decline in fertility both exert substantial influences elevating women's workforce participation and hours worked. There were no evident time effects associated with particular policy initiatives, but some of these are too colinear with time to analyse separately. We tested many interactions with time to assess in particular whether the effects of education and of family situation are declining over time, but no significant interactions with time were found. Thus, for example, there are now many more highly educated women, leading to higher rates of women's employment overall, but the relative importance of education has not changed significantly. Similarly, there are now more childless women, and women with children have fewer of them, so declining fertility has elevated employment, but the impacts of childlessness and of diverse family sizes have not changed, according to these models. Finally, note that we tested a number of potential effects of the family of origin, but none was significant, suggesting that analyses of women's labour force participation and hours worked using datasets that lack these variables probably do not suffer from omitted variables bias."

Suggested Citation

  • M. D. R. Evans & Jonathan Kelley, 2004. "Effect of Family Structure on Life Satisfaction: Australian Evidence," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2004n24, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
  • Handle: RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2004n24
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    Cited by:

    1. Mark Wooden & Nicole Watson, 2007. "The HILDA Survey and its Contribution to Economic and Social Research (So Far)," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 83(261), pages 208-231, June.
    2. Jonathan Kelley, 2017. "Human Gains and Losses from Global Warming: Satisfaction with the Climate in the USA, Winter and Summer, North and South," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 131(1), pages 345-366, March.
    3. Zhou Jiang & Xiaowen Hu, 2016. "Knowledge Sharing and Life Satisfaction: The Roles of Colleague Relationships and Gender," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 126(1), pages 379-394, March.
    4. Chang, Hung-Hao, 2013. "Functional food consumption and depression among the elderly — What can we learn from a longitudinal survey?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 187-193.
    5. Daniele Vignoli & Elena Pirani & Silvana Salvini, 2014. "Family Constellations and Life Satisfaction in Europe," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(3), pages 967-986, July.
    6. Christopher Ambrey & Christopher Fleming, 2014. "Public Greenspace and Life Satisfaction in Urban Australia," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(6), pages 1290-1321, May.
    7. Scutella, Rosanna & Wooden, Mark, 2008. "The effects of household joblessness on mental health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 88-100, July.
    8. Ambrey, Christopher L. & Fleming, Christopher M., 2011. "The influence of the natural environment and climate on life satisfaction in Australia," 2011 Conference (55th), February 8-11, 2011, Melbourne, Australia 100548, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    9. David G. Blanchflower & Andrew J. Oswald, 2005. "Happiness and the Human Development Index: The Paradox of Australia," NBER Working Papers 11416, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Chau-kiu Cheung & Raymond Ngan, 2012. "Filtered Life Satisfaction and Its Socioeconomic Determinants in Hong Kong," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 109(2), pages 223-242, November.
    11. O’Leary, Nigel & Li, Ian W. & Gupta, Prashant & Blackaby, David, 2020. "Wellbeing trajectories around life events in Australia," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 499-509.
    12. Ambrey, Christopher L. & Fleming, Christopher M. & Chan, Andrew Yiu-Chung, 2014. "Estimating the cost of air pollution in South East Queensland: An application of the life satisfaction non-market valuation approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 172-181.
    13. Şahin Kapıkıran, 2013. "Loneliness and Life Satisfaction in Turkish Early Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Self Esteem and Social Support," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 111(2), pages 617-632, April.
    14. Mikucka, Malgorzata, 2015. "The Life Satisfaction Advantage of Being Married and Gender Specialization," MPRA Paper 59698, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Sarah Kelley & M. D. R. Evans & Jonathan Kelley, 2023. "Happily Distant or Bitter Medicine? The Impact of Social Distancing Preferences, Behavior, and Emotional Costs on Subjective Wellbeing During the Epidemic," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(1), pages 115-162, February.
    16. David W. Johnston & Olena Stavrunova, 2021. "Subjective Wellbeing Dynamics," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 54(4), pages 518-529, December.
    17. Morten Blekesaune, 2018. "Is Cohabitation As Good As Marriage for People’s Subjective Well-Being? Longitudinal Evidence on Happiness and Life Satisfaction in the British Household Panel Survey," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 505-520, February.
    18. Nick Parr, 2010. "Satisfaction with life as an antecedent of fertility," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 22(21), pages 635-662.
    19. Metsä-Simola, Niina & Martikainen, Pekka, 2014. "The effects of marriage and separation on the psychotropic medication use of non-married cohabiters: A register-based longitudinal study among adult Finns," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 10-20.
    20. Krzysztof Zagorski & Mariah Evans & Jonathan Kelley & Katarzyna Piotrowska, 2014. "Does National Income Inequality Affect Individuals’ Quality of Life in Europe? Inequality, Happiness, Finances, and Health," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(3), pages 1089-1110, July.
    21. Jonathan Kelley & M. D. R. Evans & Jennifer Lowman & Valerie Lykes, 2017. "Group-mean-centering independent variables in multi-level models is dangerous," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 261-283, January.
    22. Sofie Vanassche & Gray Swicegood & Koen Matthijs, 2013. "Marriage and Children as a Key to Happiness? Cross-National Differences in the Effects of Marital Status and Children on Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 501-524, April.
    23. M. D. R. Evans & Jonathan Kelley & C. G. E. Kelley & S. M. C. Kelley, 2020. "Income Inequality in the Great Recession did not Harm Subjective Health in Europe, 2003–2012," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 15(5), pages 1451-1473, November.
    24. T. Tang, 2007. "Income and Quality of Life: Does the Love of Money Make a Difference?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 72(4), pages 375-393, June.

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