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SocIAS - Social Inequalities in Ageing Societies

Work-Care-Reconciliation in Later Life and Their (Unequal) Health and Participation Consequences from a Comparative Welfare State Perspective

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About the Project

About the Project

Objective

The project studies new forms of inequality that emerge in the second half of life. It examines how reconciliation of paid employment and unpaid family care across the life course results in unequal patterns of health and participation in later life. Moreover, the project investigates which contextual factors may mitigate such inequalities.

 

The project consists of four work packages, each addressing one core aim. The work packages are integrated using a sociological micro-macro perspective:

Cultural Norms and Ideals Welfare States Work - Family Reconciliation (WFR) Participation Health • Young & Mid - Adulthood • Late Career • (Grand)Childcare • Health - related help/care • Volunteering • Political participation • Education/Sport/Leisure • Cognitive Functioning • Physical & Mental Health Inequalities • Cohort, Gender, Ethnicity • Education, Class, Migration
Four aims - four work packages

The project has four interlinked work packages, each addressing a conceptual (WP4) or empirical (WP1-WP3) challenge to a transdisciplinary field. Each work package makes a contribution not only to the state of research,  but also informs evidence-based policy-making. The four aims are:

 

WP1: Documenting the consequences of work-care reconciliation (or conflict) for physical, mental and cognitive  health and social participation in later life, and thereby documenting the wider consequences of combining paid employment and unpaid (family) work.

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WP2: Detecting between-group inequalities in these consequences and identifying potentially vulnerable groups for later life exclusion or loss of independence.

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WP3: Investigating the role that different spatial-temporal contextual characteristics - particularly: welfare policies and their cultural foundations - play in mitigating such inequalities, thereby allowing to identify interventions that may reduce risks for unequal trajectories of ageing..

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WP4: Systematizing and synthesizing existing theoretical approaches into an overarching conceptual framework which is suited to study and explain the accumulation of inequalities across different levels and dimensions of individual, social and societal life​.​​

work packages
Relevance and Contribution

Policy responses to demographic ageing influence how we reconcile employment and unpaid care. This comes at costs for affected individuals since caregiving bears as health and economic risks: Moreover, such consequences often perpetuate over the entire life course.

Yet, these consequences differ between social groups (men, women, lower- and higher-educated, ethnic groups), exacerbating existing social-structural gaps in health and social participation in later life.

Approach and method

Our research questions are answered using a theory-driven quantitative empirical research approach. We use large-scale comparative secondary data sets are used, such as the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), which we combine with exogenous measures quantifying the cultural and social-political context. We futher use single-country longitudinal data.

Team

Our Team

Portrait of Ariane Bertogg

Prof. Dr. Ariane Bertogg

Project Manager

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Portrait of Andrea Cass

Andrea Cass, M.Sc.

Project Member

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Portrait of Kübra Akkaya

Kübra Akkaya, M.A.

Project Member

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Publication

Publications and Output

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Bertogg, A., Nazio, T. & Piolatto, M. 2026. A Gendered Aftermath? Medium-Term Implications of COVID-19 for Affective Well-Being Among Mothers and Fathers in Finland, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. Soc Indic Res (182). doi: 10.1007/s11205-026-03825-9 

 

Tattarini, G., Uccheddu, D. &  Bertogg, A. 2026. Staying sharp: gendered work–family life courses and later-life cognitive functioning across four European welfare states. American Journal of Epidemiology (195), 442-454. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwaf194

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Bertogg, A., Dotti Sani, G. M., Zamberlan, A., & Bashevska, M. 2026. Housework and psychological distress during the COVID-19 crisis: A gender- and context-sensitive relationship? Acta Sociologica (69), 294-314. doi: 10.1177/00016993251320208

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Bertogg, A. & Manzoni, A. 2026. Intergenerational Support and Later Life Health: Associations by Role, Type and Direction of Support. Journal of Marriage and Family (88), 807–824. doi: 10.1111/jomf.70049.

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Bertogg, A., & Stokes, J. E. 2025. Is There a Cognitive Footprint of Political Systems? The Case of Separation and Reunification of East and West Germany and Its Association With Later Life Cognitive Health. Research on Aging (48), 351-364. doi: 10.1177/01640275251383810

 

Bertogg, A. &  Brandt, M. 2025. Socio-Environmental Crises and Cognitive Ageing. Exploring the Cognitive Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Climate Crises on Older Adults’ Memory and Verbal Fluency. KZfSS Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie (77), 849–879. doi: 10.1007/s11577-025-01028-7

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Reports & Policy Papers

More to come soon

Other Publications & Outreach Activities

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