Household fluidity and family networks: Methodological

challenges

Part 2: Netherlands Kinship Panel Study

Clara Mulder

Situations of household fluidity / multi-spatial households:

Co-parenting

Living Apart Together relationships

Commuter couples (Marjolijn van der Klis)

Pieds a terre; second homes

Household fluidity in the Netherlands

Household determination: the ordinary situation (note: interviewer had a definition, but usually no problems)Do you have a partner / parents still alive / how

many children/siblings?Does X live here in this household or not?According to my information, you live in this

household with: X, Y,… Do you share this household with anyone else than …?

Measuring household fluidity in a survey: the Netherlands Kinship Panel

Study (NKPS)

Does X always form part of this household, or does s/he live elsewhere some of the time?

On average, how does X divide time between this household and the other location? (5 categories)

How many nights on average per four weeks does X sleep elsewhere?

With whom does X live when s/he is not here?

Do you know the postal code where X lives?

---What’s the name of the street/city?

Measuring household fluidity in a survey: the Netherlands Kinship Panel

Study (NKPS)

Problem: small numbers

Problem: this only works when respondent considers X as ‘living’ somewhere else some of the time.

Note: only feasible with computer-assisted interviewing (CAPI/CATI/CAWI)

Measuring household fluidity in a survey: the Netherlands Kinship Panel

Study (NKPS)

Questions on prevalence (how frequently do people live in a certain fluid situation)

Questions on determinants (to what extent do variables X1, X2, X3 influence living in a certain fluid situation)

Not: questions on consequences, evaluation, experience (or possibly with additional qualitative study – NKPS minipanel)

Research questions on household fluidity that can be answered using

NKPS

Is the Netherlands a household-based, individualized society?

Perhaps not or not completely:

Parents and children provide care

Parents take part in education decisions

Parents give gifts to children

Parents help children become homeowner (Amanda Helderman)

…probably more than a few decades ago

The role of the family outside the household (wider family context) in the

Netherlands

Family solidarity:

Instrumental solidarity (gifts, practical help)

Emotional solidarity (council, advice, interest in personal life)

Social solidarity (contact, joint activities)

Similarity between parents, children, siblings

Residential locations of family members (plus, for Anchor respondent, relocations)

Measuring the role of the wider family context in a survey: NKPS

…Many; see VICI research programme:To what extent is housing quality between family members similar,

and what role is played in this similarity by direct transfers, geographical proximity, housing-market opportunities and other factors?

How is residential choice associated with the geographical characteristics of family networks?

How is residential choice associated with attitudes towards work and family and adherence to family norms?

What part does the family context play in determining whether people from the major migrant categories in the Netherlands live in ethnically segregated areas, and whether they relocate into or out of these? (also uses Social-Statistical Database)

Research questions on the wider family context that can be answered

using NKPS