Richard A. Settersten Jr. (Oregon State University), Laura Bernardi (University of Lausanne), Juho Härkönen (European University Institute and Stockholm University) and 15 other colleagues explain how a life course perspective can make an important contribution to understanding the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals, families and population.

Gousia & colleagues used the Understanding Society longitudinal study to investigate the effects of employment on chances of housing autonomy among young people in the UK. They found significant negative effects of past as well as anticipated unemployment, as well as some important gender differences.

To better understand and to shine more light on infertility, Jasmin Passet-Wittig and Martin Bujard (German Federal Institute for Population Research), Julia McQuillan (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) and Arthur L. Greil (Alfred University) looked specifically at individuals’ perceptions about their ability to reproduce in Germany.

Using SHARE data, Roberta Rutigliano (University of Groningen) finds that the expectation of receiving occasional grandparental childcare has a positive influence on first birth transition for all included countries, while the expectation of receiving regular grandparental childcare has a positive influence only for pro-traditional and pro-natalist countries.