This cross-cutting issue aims to stimulate research focusing on the permeability of stresses and resources across different life-course domains, such as family, work, education, leisure time or well-being trajectories. More specifically, it encourages further exploration of the impact of critical events and transitions on people’s adaptation and coping with stresses and life course hazards. We divide this CCI into four research themes.
1. Multi-dimensionality of vulnerability across the life course
This theme is consistent with a life course perspective that sees human lives as multi-dimensional and comprising interdependent trajectories. The following questions are of primary concern for this theme:
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How do conflicting demands on time between the spheres of family, work and leisure lead to various health consequences, including subjective well-being, in middle-aged adults?
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How are migration trajectories intertwined with the formation and dissolution of partnerships, fertility or employment trajectories?
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How are household composition and family relationships related to leaving the parental home as well as the partnership and occupational patterns of young adults?
2. Spill-over effects
While the occurrence of events and transitions may be specific to one life sphere, spill-over effects may well occur from one trajectory to another. The following questions are central for this theme:
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How do employment interruptions (work sphere) affect the quality of a partnership (family sphere)?
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How does the birth of a child affect general life satisfaction, as well as more domain-specific trajectories of satisfaction with work or leisure?
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To what extent does the well-being, risk of break-up, labour force position and participation of immigrants change by marrying a native, as opposed to marrying someone from their own ethnic group, in the short and long terms?
3. Subjective and factual dimensions of vulnerability
This theme is based on the assumption that compensations and reconfigurations of vulnerability can be factual (such as changes in employment or family status), but can also refer to a more subjective level (involving attitudes, identity configurations, perceptions, etc.). Examples of research questions relevant to this theme are:
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How are the subjective perceptions of job stability and prestige by both sexes related to their childbearing intentions?
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Do employees belonging to different immigrant groups have different perceptions of workplace discrimination or job stress?
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How does marital satisfaction change among long-term married couples, and how are they influenced by health problems and care-giving responsibilities?
4. Coping and adaptation processes
This theme aims to inspire work that examines the coping and adjustment processes adopted by individuals immediately after undergoing critical transitions. Typical questions of this research theme are:
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How does economic status modify the effect of divorce on psychological well-being?
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How does employment modify the effect of the transition to single parenthood on health?
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How do social networks and education modify the re-employment prospects of unemployed and displaced persons?
