Volume 55 - Article 1 | Pages 1–42  

Resilience or social reproduction? Parental job loss and children’s prosocial development and caregiving after the Great Recession

By Gabriele Mari

Abstract

Background: Family resilience foregrounds personal and relational transformations that might help families overcome adversity. Yet why and from whom resilience is required is often overlooked. Economic downturns are exemplary sites to examine these questions.

Objective: I study children’s prosocial development and caregiving as interrelated expressions of family resilience in households affected by job loss during the Great Recession in Ireland. From a social reproduction perspective, I posit that the demands and capacities for resilience are unequally shared within families and across generations and follow a gendered pattern.

Methods: I rely on cohort data from children’s early years to adolescence (Growing Up in Ireland, 2008–2022) to estimate growth-curve and OLS models for prosocial development and outcomes tied to caregiving.

Results: Children whose mothers experienced job loss are rated more prosocial over time. Girls with younger siblings drive this finding. At age 13, the same group is more likely to share and fulfil caregiving duties. Findings suggest that mothers might have leaned on their children to maintain some paid work after job loss, stimulating their daughters’ prosocial development and involvement in caregiving.

Contribution: The study highlights how economic downturns reinforce the gendered and generational underpinnings that bind the paid and unpaid work of family resilience.

Author’s Affiliation

• Gabriele Mari - Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, the Netherlands EMAIL

Similar articles in Demographic Research

Work–family balance during the pandemic: Longitudinal evidence from 27 European countries
Volume 55 - Article 22    | Keywords: COVID-19, family-to-work balance, gender, longitudinal analysis, resilience, work-to-family balance

The intergenerational association between migration and early childhood development in Germany: A comparative cross-sectional study of forced and voluntary migrant families (2004–2021)
Volume 55 - Article 8    | Keywords: childhood, family structure, intergenerational effects, mental health, migration, parents, refugees, resilience

Changing roles of marriage and family status for labor migration? The case of rural China
Volume 55 - Article 5    | Keywords: cohort trends, event history analysis, gender, labour migration, rural China

The effect of financial strain and parental depression on child behavioral difficulties during the Great Recession in Ireland: A fixed effects analysis
Volume 55 - Article 3    | Keywords: child behavioral difficulties, family stress model, fixed effects, Great Recession, hybrid models, Ireland, Ireland

Partnering in turbulent times: Hooking up, dating, and romantic relationship formation in college, 2019–2024
Volume 54 - Article 37    | Keywords: college students, COVID-19, gender, partner choice, relationship formation, romantic love, sexual orientation