ABSTRACT

This article examines parental coping strategies in response to the death of a partner in the Netherlands in the period 1863–1910. The author concentrates on two largely neglected strategies in particular: separation of widowed parent and minor child and the outmigration of the entire household to another municipality. The rich population register data from the Historical Sample of the Netherlands is exploited which contains the life trajectories of more than 2800 half-orphaned children. The results derived from sequence analysis and event-history analysis reveal a high degree of family stability following the partner’s death but point to gender differences in coping strategies: Whereas widowers were more likely to split up with their young children, widows were more likely to migrate together with them. These gender differences can be explained by the fundamentally different positions of men and women concerning childcare, work and poor relief in Dutch society during the period under consideration. Additionally, no significant differences between nuclear and non-nuclear households were found with regard to parental separation from minor children. This finding challenges the nuclear hardship hypothesis which predicts that non-nuclear family systems are better able to cope with family crises.

摘要

本文研究了应对父母在1863-1910年期间去世的父母应对策略。作者特别关注了两个在很大程度上被忽视的策略：丧偶父母与未成年子女的分离以及整个家庭向另一个城市的移民。利用了来自荷兰历史样本的丰富人口登记数据，其中包含2800多个半致孤儿童的生活轨迹。序列分析和事件历史分析得出的结果表明，伴侣死亡后家庭稳定程度很高，但指出应对策略中的性别差异：尽管w夫较容易与年幼的孩子分居，但寡妇更可能迁移与他们在一起。这些性别差异可以用上述时期在荷兰社会中儿童保育，工作和贫困救济方面的男女立场根本不同来解释。此外，在父母与未成年子女的分离方面，没有发现有核家庭和无核家庭之间的显着差异。这一发现对核困难假设提出了挑战，该假设预测无核家庭系统能够更好地应对家庭危机。