Federal Institute for Population Research

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Einsame junge Frau steht auf Seebrücke und schaut in die Ferne (refer to: Loneliness: Especially younger people are feeling increasingly lonely) | Source: © fotoduets/stock.adobe.com

FReDA Policy BriefLoneliness: Especially younger people are feeling increasingly lonely

In the last five years, the feeling of loneliness has increased in Germany. Today, one in three people between the ages of 18 and 53 feels lonely at least some of the time – including many younger people under 30, as new BiB analyses show.

Peer-Reviewed Articles in Scientific JournalsThe impact of complex family structure on child well-being: evidence from siblings

Mostafa, Tarek; Gambaro, Ludovica; Joshi, Heather (2018)

Journal of Marriage and Family 80(4): 902–918

DOI: 10.1111/jomf.12456

Evidence from the United Kingdom Millennium Cohort on children at ages 3 and 5 with older siblings addresses the questions of whether those living with both biological parents and only full siblings have better emotional and behavior outcomes than other children, and whether nonfull siblings affect children's outcomes independently of parents' partnership status. Adjusting for measured family circumstances and resources in cross-sectional regressions accounted for much of the adverse association of family complexity with child outcomes. Controlling for unobserved family and child fixed effects did not, however, attenuate all estimates further. Fixed unobservable factors appeared to be masking underlying associations. Allowing for them intensified some, albeit modest, estimates. These revealed excess externalizing behavior problems for boys with single or stepparents but only full siblings. For girls with single mothers, the chances of internalizing problems were raised. Whether siblings were full or not made little difference to outcomes in general.

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