Program released: ISA14 RC06 session "Family Studies based on Quantitative Analyses of Surveys" (2014-07-19 Yokohama)

International Sociological Association (ISA) RC06 (Committe of Family Research) paper session at 2014 XVIII ISA World Congress of Sociology organized by TABUCHI Rokuro (田渕 六郎) + TANAKA Sigeto (田中 重人) :

Session Title: Family Studies based on Quantitative Analyses of Surveys
Date: 2014-07-19 (Sat.) 08:30-10:20
Venue: Pacifico Yokohama, Yokohama, Japan

Five Oral Presentations:
(1) The Effects of Sibling Structure on Fertility Decision in Taiwan
(2) Female Employment and the Socioeconomic and Family Factors in Japan
(3) Family Money Management Arrangements: Using the 2010 Statistics on Income and Living Conditions Survey to Study the Portuguese Case
(4) Work-Life Conflict in the Economic Recession [in Sweden] [Canceled]
(5) The “French Study of Individual and Conjugal Trajectories” Survey (2013)
(6) Gendered Life Courses and Personal Networks in Switzerland [Changed to oral presentation]

Two Three Distributed Papers:
(7) Re-Entering the Labor Market after Childbirth among Japanese Women
(8) A Current Picture and Overall Trends of Japanese Family Based on Japanese General Social Survey Cumulative Data 2000-2012

See http://www.sal.tohoku.ac.jp/~tsigeto/isa14/rc06-s6.html
and https://isaconf.confex.com/isaconf/wc2014/webprogram/Session3796.html

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2014-05-25 Created ; 2014-05-27 Subtitle added for the 3rd paper; 2014-05-28 Country name specified for the 4th paper; 2014-07-30 Program changed

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2014-07-30 Draft of the report below

Session Report

The session “Family Studies based on Quantitative Analyses of Surveys” started in 8:30 on the last day of congress, with a small audience (fewer than presenters!). The number of participants fortunately increased during the session, reached about 40 at its maximum.

The session organizers, TABUCHI Rokuro and TANAKA Sigeto, planned this session in order to facilitate international sharing of information on quantitative data analysis on family issues, and dialogue among scholars from different societies, to develop mutual understandings and the possibility of future collaborative research. We selected eight papers for this session, addressing family issues with quantitative analysis for a variety of contemporary developed societies from Asia and Europe. Those societies are under the common condition of the second demographic transition, facing social problems such as fertility decline, work-family conflict, and gender inequalities. Our papers discuss those issues in the different context for each society. In particular, changing (or unchanged) gender differences in the family system are a major concern for all of our papers.

There were program changes. Linda LANE canceled the paper listed as the forth oral presentation of this session. Instead, Gaëlle AEBY was on the stage as the fifth presenter of the session. We thus had five oral presentations and two distributed papers. Each presentation has 12 minutes and additional 6 minutes for discussion. Here we introduce the five presentations and the floor discussions following them.

HSIEH Chih-Lung’s presentation, “The Effects of Sibling Structure on Fertility Decision in Taiwan,” was on sex-preference and fertility decision. Findings from analyses of Panel Study of Family Dynamics (PSFD) data described how son-preference effected the choice of having children depending on the sex and birth order structure of the existent children. Discussion was held on how we could interpret the findings with the current state of fertility in Taiwan, where population statistics indicate that most parents have only one or two children.

INUI Junko’s presentation, “Female Employment and the Socioeconomic and Family Factors in Japan,” was on determinants of employment of married women, with an attention to husbands’ income. Findings from analyses of National Family Research of Japan 2008-2013 Panel Study (NFRJ-08Panel) data supported the hypothesized negative effect of husbands’ income on wives’ employment, as suggested by Paul H. Douglas and Arisawa Hiromi’s works. Discussion was mainly on methodological issues such as the definition and descriptive statistics about the independent variables.

M. Alexandra FERREIRA-VALENTE’s presentation, “Family Money Management Arrangements: Using the 2010 Statistics on Income and Living Conditions Survey to Study the Portuguese Case,” was on intra-household money management patterns based on Jan Pahl’s typology. With Portuguese 2010 EU-SILC (European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions) data, respondents’ households were classified into 6 types of family money arrangement patterns. Family and socio-economic variables were then tested as determinants of the pattern. Questions were asked about the typology of family money arrangement and about interpretation of the results.

Wilfried RAULT’s presentation, “The French “Study of Individual and Conjugal Trajectories” Survey (2013),” was a report of findings from a survey conducted last year. Preliminary results were reported on the couple formation including PACS. Simple tabulation of sexual relationship, cohabitation experiences, and so on, by basic demographic variables indicated a clear trend in some aspects of French couple formation processes.

Gaëlle AEBY’s presentation, “Gendered Life Courses and Personal Networks in Switzerland,” was on relationship between life course pattern (clustered based on sequence analysis of co-residence and occupation history) and personal networks (measured with name generator). Results from Family tiMes Survey in Switzerland revealed gender differences in life course pattern as well as its effects on personal networks. Questions were asked about methodological issues such as the validity of the measurement of personal networks.

In the last several minutes of the session, the authors of the two distributed papers made short speeches. NISHIMURA Junko introduced the paper “Re-Entering the Labor Market after Childbirth among Japanese Women.” Results from the analysis of the 1960-1979 birth cohort subsample from the Japanese Panel Study of Consumers (JPSC) explained the determinants of Japanese women’s re-entering in the labor market after childbirth and occupational changes after that. SHISHIDO Kuniaki introduced the paper “A Current Picture and Overall Trends of Japanese Family Based on Japanese General Social Survey Cumulative Data 2000-2012.” It showed changes in Japanese families during this decade focusing on marital status, women’s work, and housework, based on JGSS data.

In spite of the short time allocated to each presentation, the session successfully proceeded as scheduled. We thank to the cooperation of all those who participated. There were some discussions interrupted due to time restriction, regrettably. We hope they could continue discussion after the session.

Data featured in the papers above are open or are scheduled to be open to academic use worldwide. We can thus use data collected through surveys tuned to social contexts and themes of research. It is our pleasure that this session contribute to progress of joint/comparative research on family issues among societies.