Glenn Sandström

Umeå University | UMU · Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies

The increase in one-person households (OPHs) in the developed world is often seen as the result of a trend in which individualistic values and behaviors are replacing family solidarity. Nordic countries have been identified as frontrunners in this development. In Asia, equally developed countries like Japan retain elements of a strong-family system...

An established negative association between socio-economic status (SES) and divorce has applied to most Western nations since 1960. We expected a positive association between SES and divorce for low-divorce contexts historically because only individuals in higher social strata had the resources to overcome barriers to divorce. According to Goode’s...

This study examines the impact of hip fractures on trajectories of home care, care home residence, and mortality among individuals aged 65 and older and explores the impact of living arrangement, cohabitation, frailty, and socioeconomic position on these trajectories. Based on a linkage of nationwide Swedish population registers, our study included...

Historical studies on the institutionalization of the mentally ill have primarily relied on data for institutionalized patients rather than the population at risk. Consequently, the underlying factors of institutionalization are unclear. Using Swedish longitudinal microdata from 1900–59 reporting mental disorders, we examine whether supply factors,...

Aims All Swedish municipalities are legally obliged to provide publicly funded elder care to individuals in need. The Swedish Social Service Register collects data on such care. It is the only nationwide source of information on care home residency and use of home care but has rarely been used for research. This study aims to present the content an...

Since the 1990s, Sweden has implemented aging-in-place policies increasing the share of older adults dependent on home care instead of residing in care homes. At the same time previous research has highlighted that individuals receive home care at a higher age than before. Consequently, services are provided for a shorter time before death, increas...

The aim of the paper is to investigate if inbreeding had any health effects on individuals born 1890-1905 in Skellefteå, Sweden, with a follow-up period until 1950. The effects on longevity, fertility and impairments as outcome variables is of particular interest to clarify, as they provide a comprehensive picture of how inbreeding affects human de...

Sweden is among the countries with the highest share of single households in Europe, but not all are truly partnerless. We examine the potential vulnerability of individuals in living-apart-together relationships at age 30 and above, analyzing data from the Swedish GGS. We apply multinomial logistic regression. The results show that individuals eng...

Historical studies on the institutionalization of the mentally ill have primarily relied on data on institutionalized patients rather than the population at risk. Consequently, the underlying factors of institutionalization are unclear. Using Swedish longitudinal microdata from 1900-1959 reporting mental disorders, we examine whether supply-side fa...

This study investigates how the probability to live alone has developed among working age individuals with and without disabilities in Sweden during the period 1993–2011 when extensive political reforms to improve the integration of disabled individuals in society were implemented. The results show that individuals with disabilities are approximate...

In recent decades elderly care policies in Sweden have been characterized by a marked shift from institutional care to home care. Previous research has highlighted how this has resulted in the elderly receiving care at a higher age and increased reliance on family and kin for providing care. Using register data for the entire Swedish population age...

During the recent decades, social inequalities in mental health have increased and are now one of the most persistent features of contemporary society. There is limited knowledge about when this pattern emerged or whether it has been a historically fixed feature. The objective of this study was to assess whether socioeconomic and gender gaps in men...

Since death rates from the COVID-19 are highest among the oldest, the impact of the current pandemic in a given society depends to a large extent on the share of elderly persons and their living arrangements. Whereas the former is well known, the latter is not. Arguably, contagion itself and the severity of its symptoms are likely to vary among eld...

This paper compares the determinants of living alone among elderly women in six countries (Tanzania, Kyrgyzstan, Indonesia, Brazil, Spain, and Sweden) with very different family systems, policy contexts, levels of development, and socio‐economic characteristics. Different factors behind the residential choices of elderly women are estimated by mean...

This article compares the determinants of living alone in later life in Spain and Sweden, two countries with relatively similar levels of economic development from a global view point but different family systems and institutional contexts. With microdata coming from census (Spain) and linked administrative registers (Sweden), logistic regression t...

Stata program to produce publication ready tables of regression output exported directly to MS Word. Instructions for installation and usage can be found on my github page for the project https://github.com/glennsandstrom/estimates_table_docx Description estimates_table_docx takes a namelist of stored estiamtes and exports this to a publication qua...

By investigating changes in the association between women’s socioeconomic status, labor market activity and fertility outcomes during the Swedish baby boom 1900–60 this study reaches three main conclusions. First, the results show that a convergence of fertility behavior occurred across female socioeconomic strata during the peak baby boom period i...

In Europe and the United States, women’s educational attainment started to increase around the middle of the twentieth century. The expected implication was fertility decline and postponement, whereas in fact the opposite occurred. We analyse trends in the quantum of cohort fertility among the baby boom generations in 15 countries and how these rel...

Substantial research to date has shown how the observed variation in living arrangements in European countries can be interpreted in terms of the intensity of the underlying levels of familism. In Europe, some regions tend to be characterized by staunchly individualist, weak family societies; while in others strong family ties are predominant. Not...

MODELLING MORTALITY USING LIFE TRAJECTORIES OF DISABLED AND NON-DISABLED INDIVIDUALS IN 19TH-CENTURY SWEDEN

DISABILITY, LIFE AND DEATH IN A PAST POPULATION Life course analyses of disabled and non-disabled individuals in 19th-century Sweden

Background: Research into the causes of the mid-20th-century baby boom has concluded that the main proximate cause of the fertility increase during the 1940s was earlier and more universal marriage in the cohorts born after 1910, and that this association between nuptiality trends and fertility was particularly strong in Sweden. Objective: However,...

The Nordic countries are often put forward as forerunners in the acceptance of permissive divorce practices and in the shift away from a patriarchal family system during the twentieth century. This special issue focuses on the long term historical path dependencies that make Nordic institutions and norms regarding divorce stand out as liberal and i...

We use a set of linked reproductive histories taken from Sweden, the Netherlands, and Spain for the period 1871–1960 to address key issues regarding how reproductive change was linked specifically to mortality and survivorship and more generally to individual agency. Using event-history analysis, this study investigates how the propensity to have a...

During the 1960s and 1970s in Sweden, both the labour force participation rate of married women and the divorce rate increased more than any other period of the 20th century. Higher levels of extramarital fertility, non-marital cohabitation, and increasing age at first birth accompanied the rise of these two rates. These developments exemplify phen...

Due to insufficient historical population data, there is limited knowledge about the demographic outcomes of colonisation. This study provides demographic evidence of the difficulties faced by the Sami – an indigenous population in Sweden – during nineteenth-century colonisation, as indicated by (1) high risks of migration and (2) low survival rate...

Sweden’s rapid economic growth after World War II meant that the native labour supply was incapable of meeting the high demand, especially for industrial labourers. Three agreements on organised collective transfers were signed, but a large majority of the labour migrants came on their own initiative. Not all applicants were equally welcomed. In th...

A set of linked reproductive histories taken from the Spanish town of Aranjuez during the demographic transition is used to address key issues regarding reproductive change and reproductive choice. This paper builds on the existing literature and especially on the findings first shown in Reher & Sanz-Gimeno (2007) and in Van Poppel et al. (2012) wh...

In the past, parents' sex preferences for their children have proved difficult to verify. This study used John Knodel's German village genealogies of couples married between 1815 and 1899 to investigate sex preferences for children during the fertility transition. Event history analyses of couples' propensity to progress to a fifth parity was used...

This paper analyzes changes in the educational gradient of fertility among Swedish women who participated in the mid twentieth-century baby boom. Using individual-level data covering the entire Swedish population drawn from the Population and Housing Census of 1960, and the Multi-generation Register, the study determines fertility outcomes during t...

During the 1960s in Sweden, socioeconomic differentials decreased sharply and both the labor force participation of married women and aggregate divorce rates increased more rapidly than during any other period of the twentieth century. The aim of this paper is to investigate how the socioeconomic composition of the couple influenced the probability...

Using a combination of census data and aggregated divorce statistics, this study investigates how socio-economic conditions influenced the risk of divorce among men in different occupations during the 1920s and 1930s in Sweden. The results support the theoretical presupposition that the stability of marriage was associated with the degree of econom...

This study outlines a long history of divorce in Sweden, recognizing the importance of considering both economic and cultural factors in the analysis of marital dissolution. Following Ansley Coale, the authors examine how a framework of multiple theoretical constructs, in interaction, can be applied to the development toward mass divorce. Applying...

This study examines how the divorce rates in Sweden have varied over time and across different geographical areas during the period 1911-1974, and how these variations can be connected to the political, socio-economic and cultural development in Sweden. The analysis provides empirical support for the hypothesis that increased divorce rates have bee...