It is well-documented that residential moves are connected to life events such as separation or widowhood. However, much less is known about the residential choices that follow these events in middle and later life (between ages 50 and 70) and how the location of family members outside the household relates to these choices. Comparing the cases of Belgium and Sweden, this paper addresses (i) the extent to which (im)mobility after separation or widowhood is associated with the presence of older parents and adult children nearby; (ii) the extent to which the choice of destination is associated with the location of older parents and adult children for those separated, widowed, and married individuals who moved, and (iii) how these patterns vary among men and women. We answer these questions employing logistic regression models and discrete-choice models fitted to Belgian and Swedish register data from 2012 to 2014. The results show unique patterns of mobility around separation and widowhood which differ from those of continuously married individuals. Separated and widowed men and women in both countries are generally more likely to make a move towards their parents than continuously married ones. Widowhood is also associated with an increased propensity for a move towards one's children. In contrast, separation is associated with a lower propensity for moving towards one's children, especially among men.

Older people's ability to thrive independently of their adult children is an important feature of a universalistic welfare system. However, population ageing puts this notion under stress. In separate multinomial logistic regression models for older men and women, we examined whether adult children's gender, number and proximity were associated with older parents' relocations into residential care facilities, and whether the effects of these children's characteristics on older parents' institutionalisation vary by parents' severe health problems, operationalised as closeness to death - specifically, dying within the two-year observation period. Analyses were based on the Swedish register data between 2014 and 2016 (N = 696,007 person-years). Older parents with at least one co-resident child were less likely to move or become institutionalised than those without a co-resident child. We did not find a relationship between older adults' institutionalisation and the closest child's gender. The negative effect of having a non-resident child living nearby on the likelihood of becoming institutionalised was more pronounced for mothers than fathers. Having a child nearby decreased the likelihood of moving to an institution more for mothers who had severe health problems than for those in better health. We found no evidence of a relationship between number of children and likelihood of institutionalisation.

Background: Estimating excess mortality and years of life lost (YLL) attributed to coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) infection provides a comprehensive picture of the mortality burden on society. We aimed to estimate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on age- and sex-specific excess mortality and YLL in Sweden during the first 17 months of the pandemic. Methods: In this population-based observational study, we calculated age- and sex-specific excess all-cause mortality and excess YLL during 2020 and the first 5 months of 2021 and cause-specific death [deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, other causes and deaths excluding COVID-19] in 2020 compared with an average baseline for 2017–19 in the whole Swedish population. Results: COVID-19 deaths contributed 9.9% of total deaths (98 441 deaths, 960 305 YLL) in 2020, accounting for 75 151 YLL (7.7 YLL/death). There were 2672 (5.7%) and 1408 (3.0%) excess deaths, and 19 141 (3.8%) and 3596 (0.8%) excess YLL in men and women, respectively. Men aged 65–110 years and women aged 75–110 years were the greatest contributors. Fewer deaths and YLL from CVD, cancer and other causes were observed in 2020 compared with the baseline adjusted to the population size in 2020. Conclusions: Compared with the baseline, excess mortality and YLL from all causes were experienced in Sweden during 2020, with a higher excess observed in men than in women, indicating that more men died at a younger age while more women died at older ages than expected. A notable reduction in deaths and YLL due to CVD suggests a displacement effect from CVD to COVID-19.

Background: Divorce is associated with a weakened relationship between the child and the nonresident parent, usually the father. This loss of contact is likely to be even further exacerbated if this parent lives at a substantial distance from the child.

Objective: This paper analyzes how the distance between children and nonresident parents, the year after a parental separation, has changed during a 40-year period in Sweden, and whether this is related to changes in child custody policies.

Methods: We use Swedish population register data that includes exact geographical coordinates for children and their nonresident parents in the year after separation. We analyze how average distance and the likelihood of living very close to, or very far from, a nonresident parent has changed over this period, using OLS and logistic regression models.

Results: Results show a gradual decrease in the distance between children and nonresident parents from the 1970s until the early 1990s, after which the trend stalled at a low level. In 2011, 50% of all children lived within 2 kilometers of their nonresident parent. We find no evidence of direct policy effects, indicated by any sudden changes in distance after the introduction of a new custody policy. High-income parents have changed their post-divorce residential patterns at a faster pace than low-income parents.

Conclusions: Our results indicate a diffusion process where distances between children and nonresident parents gradually decreased until the 1990s.

Contribution: This paper demonstrates that the change has not been directly influenced by custody law reforms promoting dual parent responsibility.

Objectives This is the first population-level study to examine inequalities in COVID-19 mortality according to working-age individuals' occupations and the indirect occupational effects on COVID-19 mortality of older individuals who live with them.

Methods We used early-release data for the entire population of Sweden of all recorded COVID-19 deaths from 12 March 2020 to 23 February 2021, which we linked to administrative registers and occupational measures. Cox proportional hazard models assessed relative risks of COVID-19 mortality for the working-aged population registered in an occupation in December 2018 and the older population who lived with them.

Results Among working aged-adults, taxi/bus drivers had the highest relative risk of COVID-19 mortality: over four times that of skilled workers in IT, economics, or administration when adjusted only for basic demographic characteristics. After adjusting for socioeconomic factors (education, income and country of birth), there are no occupational groups with clearly elevated (statistically significant) COVID-19 mortality. Neither a measure of exposure within occupations nor the share that generally can work from home were related to working-aged adults' risk of COVID-19 mortality. Instead of occupational factors, traditional socioeconomic risk factors best explained variation in COVID-19 mortality. Elderly individuals, however, faced higher COVID-19 mortality risk both when living with a delivery or postal worker or worker(s) in occupations that generally work from home less, even when their socioeconomic factors are taken into account.

Conclusions Inequalities in COVID-19 mortality of working-aged adults were mostly based on traditional risk factors and not on occupational divisions or characteristics in Sweden. However, older individuals living with those who likely cannot work from home or work in delivery or postal services were a vulnerable group.

This study examines how similarity in work-family related attitudes matter for relationship satisfaction and union dissolution among Swedish couples. It utilizes a data set from 2009 (the Young Adult Panel Study) containing information on 1055 opposite-sex couples (married or co-residential), and registered union dissolutions up to 2014. Results indicate that couples who have similar notions on the importance of being successful at work; on the importance of having children; or on the importance of having enough time for leisure activities are more likely to be satisfied with their partner relationship than couples who have dissimilar attitudes. However, there are no effects of similarity in attitudes regarding the importance of living in a good partner relationship or doing well economically on relationship satisfaction, and we do not find any impact of similarity in attitudes of any kind on actual breakups. We find no support for specialization theory, which would predict that dissimilarity in work orientation would increase relationship quality. The study concludes that having similar priorities regarding work, career, and family does seem to matter for relationship quality, at least when it comes to the partners' satisfaction with the relationship.

This study investigates if neighbourhoods can alter the strong relationship between parental background and children’s adult outcomes. In particular, we examine if neighbourhood effects are heterogeneous in such a way that they are particularly important for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, and if school quality has a mediating effect in this equation. Using register data and individualized neighbourhoods, we follow five full birth cohorts of individuals born from 1983 to 1987. We examine the interaction between social background and neighbourhoods in shaping (i) the risk of children relying on social welfare when they are aged 30, and (ii) the probability of belonging to the highest income decile at age 30–34. Growing up in a resource-rich neighbourhood is associated with better life outcomes. Contrary to what several neighbourhood theories predict, we find that neighbourhood effects operate similarly regardless of social background. Differences in peer composition of schools does not explain these local neighbourhood effects, whereas own school results attenuate neighbourhood effects substantially. Our findings are in contrast to results from the United States studies but are in line with historical Swedish studies; and contribute to further disentangling the various mechanisms through which the neighbourhood operates. 

Objective: This study examines the roles of commitment and gender equality for marriage formation in a highly individualized and gender-egalitarian context.

Background: Marriage is commonly perceived as a more committed form of union than cohabitation. Individualization perspectives propose that this discourages marriage formation, whereas gender perspectives suggest that this is only the case for couples living inegalitarian lives.

Method: The roles of marriage attitudes and gender equality for marriage formation are studied among 1085 cohabiting men and women born in Sweden in 1968–1980 using the 2003 wave of the Young Adult Panel Study, which is based on a stratified random sample. The authors examine how cohabitants perceive: (1) the level of commitment in cohabitation versus marriage and (2) the division of housework in their current relationship, and link these factors to population register data showing the individuals' likelihood of marrying in 2004–2007.

Results: Cohabitants are more likely to marry if they believe that marriage indicates relationship seriousness, but less likely if they see a marriage as more difficult to leave than cohabitation. Gender equality, measured as satisfaction with the division of housework, appears to be positively related to marriage formation. Whether perceiving marriage as a particularly committed form of union is more positive for marriage formation among gender-equal couples remains unclear, as the direction of the findings varies and statistical power is low.

Conclusion: Even in a highly individualized context, cohabitants seek certain forms of commitment through marriage. Gender equality plays a role, but needs further investigation.

Educational gradients in parental leave length are opposite for women and men: highly educated women return to work faster than those with low education while highly educated men are absent longer than less educated men. Explanations for the opposite gradients are typically made at the individual- or couple-level. To date, no quantitative study has documented whether the opposite educational gradients hold also within workplaces. In this study, we use employer-employee matched Swedish register data with fixed-effects models to examine whether the educational gradient applies also among co-workers in the same workplace. The results show that three-quarters of the educational effect typically attributed to the individual father disappeared when comparing fathers within workplaces. The educational gradient of mothers remained largely unchanged. These findings provide the first population-level evidence for the primacy of the workplace in determining fathers' care choices.

Background: Exposure to many contacts is the main risk factor for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, while risk of serious disease and death is chiefly determined by old age and comorbidities. Relative and population-attributable fractions (PAFs) of multiple medical and social exposures for COVID-19 outcomes have not been evaluated among older adults.

Objectives: We describe the effect of multiple exposures on the odds of testing positive for the virus and of severe disease (hospital care or death) and PAFs in Swedish citizens aged 55 years and above.

Methods: We used national registers to follow all citizens aged 55 years and above with respect to (1) testing positive, (2) hospitalization, and (3) death between 31 January 2020 and 1 February 2021.

Results: Of 3,410,241 persons, 156,017 (4.6%, mean age 68.3 years) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, while 35,999 (1.1%, mean age 76.7 years) were hospitalized or died (12,384 deaths, 0.4%, mean age 84.0 years). Among the total cohort, the proportion living without home care or long-term care was 98.8% among persons aged 55–64 and 22.1% of those aged 95 and above. After multiple adjustment, home care and long-term care were associated with odds ratios of 7.9 (95% confidence interval [CI] 6.8–9.1) and 22.5 (95% CI 19.6–25.7) for mortality, with PAFs of 21.9% (95% CI 20.9–22.9) and 33.3% (95% CI 32.4–34.3), respectively.

Conclusion: Among Swedish residents aged 55 years and above, those with home care or long-term care had markedly increased risk for COVID-19 death during the first year of the pandemic, with over 50% of deaths attributable to these factors.