SOEP Research: Subjective Well-Being, Personality, Health

Mapping Life Satisfaction Over the First Years of Cohabitation Among Former Singles Living Alone in UK and Germany

Objective: As social norms and relationship dynamics evolve, it is important to examine how transitions from singlehood to partnership, cohabitation, and marriage relate to well-being Method: Using data from two large panel studies in the UK and Germany (1984–2019), we identified N = 27,459 individuals who reported being single and living alone at least once. Analyses focused on a subset (N = 1103; ...

Personality in the Classroom: Interactions of Parental SES and Students’ Big Five in Predicting School Performance

While socioeconomic status (SES) and personality have both been identified as relevant predictors of academic achievement, little is known about their possible interplay in predicting school performance. The present study used the latent moderated structural equations (LMS) method to investigate latent interactions between familial SES and parent-rated Big Five in a sample of German high school students ...

Dynamic Networks of Social Contact, Social Desire, and Affect Across Time Scales

Social relationships are central to well-being because they fulfill social affiliation needs. To explain how social needs are regulated, theories describe daily-life processes among social desire, social contact, and affect. Still, these processes remain empirically underexplored because of their complexity. In this study, we estimated multivariate associations of social desire and affect with social ...

Stress and Resilience in the Labor Market

Health System Resilience in the Context of Forced Migration: A Qualitative Framework Analysis of Germany’s Crisis Responses in 2015 and 2020

BackgroundHealth system resilience, the ability of a health system to maintain its functions under stress, has received increasing attention in recent years. Shortcomings in health system resilience are often most visible in the most vulnerable settings, including the care for asylum seekers and refugees. We therefore examined how the German health system responded to challenges and uncertainties during ...

Impact of Social Isolation on Mental Health Changes by Socio-Economic Status: A Moderated Mediation Analysis among Non-migrant, Migrant, and Refugee Subpopulations in Germany, 2016–2020

Background: Populations experiencing precarity face heightened mental health inequities, especially during crises. In this regard, it is established that socio-economic status (SES) and social isolation are critical factors influencing mental health outcomes, which interact syndemically. Understanding their interrelated mechanisms is crucial for developing effective public health strategies to support ...

Parental Health Shocks and Young Adults’ Life Trajectories (joint work with Anna Person)

As Western populations age, more adult children face parental health challenges. Caregiving responsibilities towards parents are becoming crucial concerns for families, healthcare systems, and societies. While this care is essential for elderly well-being, it also demands significant time, energy and emotional resources. Yet, the impact of care provision on caregivers’ lives remains understudied....

Primary Healthcare Models for Refugees Involving Nurses: A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis

Introduction Primary healthcare (PHC) is key to addressing the health and social needs of refugees. Nurses are often part of multidisciplinary teams in PHC, but little is known about their roles and responsibilities in refugee healthcare. We aimed to synthesise the existing knowledge about models of care (MoC) for refugees in primary care settings which involve nursing professionals.Methods Systematic ...

How Spousal Bereavement Shapes Life Satisfaction: Stability and Change Across Historical Time

Spousal death, mental health and survivor benefits

This paper investigates the mental health consequences of spousal death and the role of survivor benefits in mitigating these effects. Using Dutch administrative data and a staggered difference-in-differences, we first document a significant increase in the consumption of benzodiazepines - a proxy for deteriorating mental health - following widowhood (up to +3 percentage points, or +30%, in the...