Departments
Democracy and Social Conflicts
Political Economy of the Welfare State
Dynamics of Inequality in Welfare Societies
Life Course, Life Course Policy, and Social Integration
Health, Long‐Term Care and Pensions
Methods Research
Former Departments and Working Groups
Projects
Publications
Events
Jour Fixe
Colloquium on Health Policy
Current Semester
Archive
Summer 2026
Winter 2025/26
Summer 2025
WiSe 2024/25
Summer 2024
Winter 2023/24
Summer 2023
Winter 2022/23
Summer 2020 - Summer 2022
Winter 2019/20
Summer 2019
Winter 2018/19
Summer 2018
Winter 2017/18
Summer 2017
Winter 2016/17
Summer 2016
Winter 2015/16
Summer 2015
Winter 2014/15
Summer 2014
Winter 2013/14
Summer 2013
Winter 2012/13
Summer 2012 to Summer 2007
Method Lectures of the Bridge Professorship
Conferences - Lectures - Workshops
Master
About the SOCIUM
DIFIS
Research shows that children’s social background influences the extent to which they experience educational disadvantage when their families dissolve. However, some studies find larger dissolution penalties for children from lower social backgrounds than for children from higher backgrounds; other studies find the opposite. This study examines important sources of heterogeneous family dissolution effects by parental education. We assess differential effects of family dissolution across lower and higher educational outcomes, and how these vary across societal contexts. We estimate sibling fixed effects models based on the large sibling samples of the GDR (N=4,021) and FRG (N=10,949) of the German Life History Study. Findings indicate that family dissolution consequences for educational attainment are limited to children from low educated backgrounds. Yet, in the FRG, this disadvantage pertains to lower secondary education; in the GDR, it relates to upper secondary education. Family dissolution is not related to the attainment of tertiary education, for any of the educational background groups, in either country. This study underscores the importance of placing the interplay of family dissolution and social background into societal context.
