T. van der Lippe

Utrecht University | UU · Department of Cultural Anthropology and Sociology

There is growing evidence that heterosexual relationships in which traditional gender roles are reversed because women have attained higher societal status than their male partner are more precarious. We argue that this is the case because both partners in role-reversed relationships are evaluated more negatively than partners in more egalitarian o...

This study explores which factors affect employees' intention to participate in worksite health promotion (WHP) when they work from home. Employees increasingly work from home, yet existing WHP is mainly tied to the workplace. We lack knowledge on what might stimulate employees to make use of WHP specifically when they work from home. Drawing on th...

In two studies, we find that climbing the societal ladder has positive associations with women's well‐being and relationship outcomes but can also have negative consequences when women surpass their male partners in status. In Study 1 (N = 314), we found that women who reported having higher personal status also reported several positive relationsh...

Gender stereotypes prescribe mothers, but not fathers, to prioritize their family over their work. Therefore, internalization of gender stereotypes may predict higher guilt among mothers than fathers in situations in which they prioritize their work over their family. Study 1 (135 mothers and 116 fathers) indeed revealed that the stronger fathers'...

Previous studies found contradictory results on whether women benefit in terms of earnings from having a female manager. This mixed-method study draws on survey data from the Netherlands to determine whether female employees have higher wages if they work under a female manager and combines these with data from interviews with Dutch female managers...

There is growing evidence that couples in non-traditional relationships in which the woman attains higher status than her male partner experience more negative relationship outcomes than traditional couples. A possible reason is that non-traditional couples violate persisting gender stereotypes that prescribe men to be breadwinners and women to be...

Objective: To investigate if divorced parents celebrate their children's birthdays with their respective ex-partner and current partner, and whether they do so "jointly" with both. Background: Family rituals like birthday celebrations are important and meaningful events in people's lives, but little is known about who partakes in these in contempo...

Objective This study investigates the determinants of parental involvement in diverse types of stepfamilies. Background Most research has studied parental involvement in married stepfather families with resident children. This study also includes some of the more recent and emerging stepfamily types (e.g., living-apart-together [LAT] stepfamilies)...

Objective To identify subgroups of parents with distinct patterns of change in relationship satisfaction across the transition to parenthood and predict subgroup membership from prenatal levels of relational processes. Background The average decline in relationship satisfaction that is generally found across the transition to parenthood masks the...

The flexibility allowed by the mobilization of technology disintegrated the traditional work-life boundary for most professionals. Whether working from home is the key or impediment to academics’ efficiency and work-life balance became a daunting question for both scientists and their employers. The recent pandemic brought into focus the merits and...

An unequal division of housework has been found to be often regarded as fair, which may explain why women still do most household labor. This study extends previous research by also investigating childcare—an increasingly important part of household labor, which is likely to have a different meaning than housework. It examines how perceptions of fa...

The transition to parenthood is both a joyous and a challenging event in a relationship. Studies to date have found mostly negative effects of the birth of the first child on the parental relationship. We propose that partners' pre-pregnancy individual happiness may serve as a buffer against these negative effects. We predicted that parents who are...

Is it possible to identify a ‘riches line’, distinguishing the ‘rich’ from the ‘super-rich’? Recent work in political philosophy suggests that this is theoretically possible. This study examines for the first time the empirical plausibility of a riches line, based on novel data collected from a representative sample of the Dutch population. The dat...

This study concerns how male and female same-sex couples across countries organize their paid and household labor. Using unique data compiled from multiple national surveys in 7 western countries (N = 723), we examined same-sex couples’ paid and household task allocation and evaluate descriptively how this is associated with countries’ gender egali...

Objective: To explain whether divorced parents’ ex-partners and current partners belong to the family, and whether they both “jointly” do so. Background: It is uncertain who belongs to postdivorce families and how family boundaries become salient in family interactions. Method: We assessed whether divorced parents celebrated their child’s birthday...

Research on cooperation and care has largely overlooked the informal care for adults. Informal care is the care for those who experience (mental or physical) health issues. In this contribution we aim to explain the provision of informal care from a transaction cost approach. We do so by investigating the role of coordination problems and trust pro...

The guilt that mothers feel about the time and energy that they invest in work instead of their family is often proposed to be an important reason for why mothers ‘opt-out’ the career track. We sought to understand if mothers indeed experience more work-family guilt than fathers and how this relates to both their own gender role beliefs and organiz...

OPEN ACCES This article analyses old-age discrimination in managers’ hypothetical hiring decisions. We expect that older job candidates are less likely to be hired than equally qualified younger candidates. Statistical discrimination theory argues that when recruiters have more information about the candidate’s skills, age is less important for hir...

Working from home has become engraved in modern working life. Although advocated as a solution to combine work with family life, surprisingly little empirical evidence supports that it decreases work–family conflict. In this paper we examine the role of a supportive organizational context in making working from home facilitate the combination of wo...

In the original publication of this article

This special brings together innovative and multidisciplinary research (sociology, economics, and social work) using data from across Europe and the US to examine the potential flexible working has on the gender division of labour and workers’ work–life balance. Despite numerous studies on the gendered outcomes of flexible working, it is limited in...

This study examines how technology implementation within workplaces impacts job ending among employees. We advance the literature on the labor market consequences of new technologies by focusing on their impact within workplaces where they are implemented, rather than inferring from aggregate labor structural changes. We also address how the impact...

The Covid-19 pandemic is shaking fundamental assumptions about the human life course in societies around the world. In this essay, we draw on our collective expertise to illustrate how a life course perspective can make critical contributions to understanding the pandemic’s effects on individuals, families, and populations. We explore the pandemic’...

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the provision of supplemental family leave elicits higher work effort and extra-role behavior in employees. Drawing on arguments derived from signaling theory we test whether the beneficial effects of providing longer or better paid family leave on performance exist for all employees, or whether t...

The number of firms supporting work from home has risen dramatically as advances in communication technology have fundamentally transformed the way humans cooperate. A growing literature addresses working from home, but focuses only on individual workers, overlooking potential influence of co‐worker engagement. Our aim is to study the influence of...

To cope with an increased proportion of older workers, organisations develop old-age adaptation policies. Two strategies underlie these policies: phasing out and activating. Although the existence of these strategies is widely recognised, the reasons for their presence have rarely been explored. We identify three arguments that explain the extent t...

In this study, we investigate whether female managers contribute to greater gender equality in organizations. Specifically, we examine whether women’s and men’s earnings are affected by the share of female managers in their organization, and by being supervised by a female manager. We formulate opposing hypotheses arguing that women are either chan...

Women in positions of authority: Description and explanation of developments in the Netherlands from 1985 to 2008 Women still have limited access to positions of authority in the workplace. Although the slow progress in this regard is much debated, research shedding light on trends in women’s workplace authority remains scarce, particularly outsid...

The Dutch legislature obligated divorcing parents to draw up a parenting plan when they divorce because it believed such a plan to be beneficial for reducing procedural and family-related problems, and ultimately increasing child well-being. In this study, the authors evaluate the effectiveness of the parenting plan for both procedural, family and...

The critical years hypothesis is an influential hypothesis in the social sciences. According to this hypothesis, events occurring during adolescence or young adulthood are most important. This hypothesis is significant because if generations do indeed differ from each other because they were socialized in different contexts, the succession of gener...

Many organizations in Europe offer work–life policies to enable men and women to combine work with family life. The authors argue that the availability of organizational work–life policies can also reduce gender inequality in wages. The authors test their expectations using the European Sustainable Workforce Survey, with data from 259 organizations...

The mutual‐investment model predicts a positive relation between investments in training and employees’ willingness to behave cooperatively. In this paper, we argue that the extent to which employees increase their cooperative behavior after receiving training depends on the type of training provided, the skillfulness of the employee and the cohesi...

Employers are constantly seeking to improve employee performance by means of investing in employee training. The results of training are to a large extent dependent on employees’ willingness to behave productively in a cooperative manner. Yet, systematic evidence investigating the causal relation between training and employees’ cooperative behavior...

The reduction of working hours can help avoid work-family conflict, yet many people who would like to scale back do not actually do so. This vignette-experiment examines which considerations are most important in men and women's decision-making whether to scale back following childbirth. About 2,464 vignettes were conducted in the Netherlands, Swed...

The study explores how parents’ occupational field affects gender differences in educational fields. On the one hand, the theory of direct transfer predicts that adolescents enter fields similar to those of their parents because of intergenerational transmission of occupation-specific resources and that adolescents are more likely to draw upon the...

It is generally assumed that national commemorations have the power to increase national attachment. This is because such ceremonies highlight shared history, communicate core values, and have the potential to decrease conflicts in societies, while celebrating and mourning together enhances attachment to the group. Remarkably, only a limited number...

The influence of positive relationship processes, specifically perceived responsiveness, felt gratitude, and felt trust, on perceived adaptation to parenthood was investigated. It was hypothesized that both higher initial levels prior to pregnancy as well as increases over time in perceived responsiveness, felt gratitude, and felt trust predicted b...

Unemployment, especially in insecure times, has devastating effects on families, but it is not clear what happens to domestic work. On the one hand, unemployment frees up time for more housework by both men and women. On the other hand, once unemployed, women may take on more additional housework than men do, either because they capitalize on their...

In recent decades, work-life arrangements increasingly became an integral part of the organization of work. Arrangements such as telecommuting, flextime, part-time hours, and various types of leave arrangements are available to employees in many organizations. Top managers, such as CEOs, CFOs and members of boards of directors, are central to work-...

Commemorations of shared national history are important to the process of nation-building. Support for such national commemorations is not, however, evenly distributed in societies. Because this could endanger the possible integrative function of commemorative ceremonies, it is important to understand the sources of structural differences in suppor...

This research investigated how and for whom experiences of the workday spill over into relationship functioning at home. Two correlational studies and one experimental study were conducted among Dutch dual-earners with children. Moderated mediation analyses showed that work demands spill over into relationship behavior through the depletion of temp...

Various aspects of parental work schedules affect the opportunities and constraints that parents encounter when arranging care for their children. This study examined the extent to which the combination of couples’ work schedules was associated with their use of different types of child care, focusing on parental, formal, and informal child care. W...

This study aims to explain why boys and girls in secondary education choose different educational tracks. We argue that adolescents internalise gender expectations as to what is “appropriate” male and female behaviour in their gender ideology. Gender ideology can affect educational choices by influencing (1) how adolescents evaluate their competenc...

Although the rise in postdivorce joint physical custody has fueled scholarly interest in its impact on children, consequences for parents remain understudied. Because children's residence arrangements determine time and coordination demands associated with child care, this study investigated the relationship between postdivorce residence arrangemen...

Care leave applications in Dutch workplaces Care leave applications in Dutch workplaces A substantial number of people combine work and care in the Netherlands and Dutch law entitles employees to take short-term and long-term care leave if necessary. Although most employers are willing to honor care leave requests, workers make only limited use of...

In het overheidsbeleid van de afgelopen jaren zijn de 'eigen verantwoordelijkheid' van burgers en 'de participatiemaatschappij' steeds terugkerende thema's. Van mensen wordt verwacht dat ze op zowel het terrein van arbeid als van zorg meer doen. De overheid streeft naar het verhogen van de arbeidsdeelname en arbeidsduur (met name van vrouwen), en w...

The partner relationships of male prisoners prior to incarceration A comparative study between prisoners and the general population The current study examines the partner relationships of male prisoners prior to incarceration. Earlier studies on prisoners' partner relationships exclusively focused on the period during or after incarceration. Howeve...

This paper investigates the considerations of top managers regarding work-life arrangements. A dynamic and contextual approach is taken, using data from 26 semi-structured interviews with top managers from 13 organizations in 2008, before the economic crisis began, and again in 2011, when the ensuing recessions were well under way. Analysis shows t...

De partnerrelaties van mannelijke gedetineerden vóór detentie Een vergelijkende studie tussen gedetineerden en de algemene bevolking １ Summary The partner relationships of male prisoners prior to incarceration A comparative study between prisoners and the general population The current study examines the partner relationships of male prisoners prio...

Current labor market entrants face an increasingly challenging job search process. Effective guidance of job seekers requires identification of relevant job search skills. Self-control (i.e., the ability to control one’s thoughts, actions, and response tendencies in view of a long-term goal, such as finding employment) is assumed to be one such rel...

Summary Changes in top managers’ considerations around work-life arrangements during the economic crisis In this article we ask the question how the considerations of top managers regarding organizational work-life policies have changed during the recent time of economic crisis and how these changes can be understood from the organizational context...

Work motivation is critical for successful school-to-work transitions, but little is known about its determinants among labor market entrants. Applying a social identity framework, we examined whether work motivation and job searching are social-contextually determined. We expected that some job seekers are more sensitive to contextual influence, d...

This paper aims to investigate the motives behind people's wishes to move out of ethnically concentrated neighbourhoods. We focus on the impact of perceived social cohesion and negative interethnic attitudes and hypothesise on moving wishes of ethnic majority and minority residents in the Netherlands (i.e. Turks and Moroccans). Data were derived fr...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how work and family aspirations relate to occupational achievements and gender differences herein. Design/methodology/approach – Using data from 2009 the authors examined the relationship between career and childrearing aspirations and occupational achievements of Dutch parents. Using path mode...

Background: Cross-national research suggests that married people have higher levels of well-being than cohabiting people. However, relationship quality has both positive and negative dimensions. Researchers have paid little attention to disagreements within cohabiting and married couples. Objective: This study aims to improve our understanding of t...

Although spatial proximity no doubt facilitates interaction and assistance, no research to date has addressed the extent to which children who are emotionally closer to parents choose to live nearby. Using the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (N=1055), this research evaluates the relationship between parent-child cohesion at age 15 (measured retrosp...

The school-to-work transition constitutes a central developmental task for adolescents. The role of Big Five personality traits in this has received some scientific attention, but prior research has been inconsistent and paid little attention to mechanisms through which personality traits influence job-search outcomes. The current study proposed th...

Many studies have examined the impact of the size of the neighborhood minority population on prejudicial attitudes of majority residents. However, few studies have investigated how residents of different ethnic origins evaluate different ethnic outgroups based on the shares of these particular ethnic outgroups in their neighborhood. Based on the be...

Using data from a sample of Dutch dual-earner parents (N = 261), this study showed that parents' psychological availability acted as a link between negative and positive workday residuals (i.e., work-related negative mood, exhaustion, rumination, and work-related positive mood and vigor) and the quality of parent–child interactions after the workda...

Whereas prior research focused on the beneficial effects of time spent with others, this study investigated the association between solitary time and mental health by hypothesizing about the possible detriments as well as benefits. Additionally, we studied whether the association between solitary time and mental health was nonlinear and moderated b...

Using data from a new factorial survey experiment, we study the mechanisms that drive negative interethnic attitudes in urban neighbourhood encounters. Specifically, we examine the extent to which the general impression made by a resident depends on the ethnicity of that resident and on the aspects of the neighbourhood environment. Majority and min...

It is common wisdom in radical right research that men are over-represented among the radical right electorate. We explore whether a radical right gender gap exists across 12 Western European countries and examine how this gap may be explained. Using the European Values Study (2010), we find a radical right gender gap that remains substantial after...

In this article, we investigate why women are less likely than men to hold a position of workplace authority and why countries differ in this respect. We focus on the importance of investments in different types of human capital and the returns on them. Whether leave policies, the availability of part-time work, and gender desegregation in educatio...

In this article, we investigate why women are less likely than men to hold a position of workplace authority and why countries differ in this respect. We focus on the importance of investments in different types of human capital and the returns on them. Whether leave policies, the availability of part-time work, and gender desegregation in educatio...

This article investigates the association between work characteristics and parent–child interaction time. In addition to studying the commonly considered working hours, the authors investigated the effects of job demands and resources such as job insecurity, autonomy and non-standard hours. Moreover, they analysed whether these associations were di...

Using Dutch data (N = 6630), this article examines how sibling relationships (including full biological, half- and adopted siblings) differed for persons who experienced a negative life event (divorce, physical illness, psychological problems, addiction, problems with the law, victimization of abuse or financial problems) and those who did not. Res...

This paper studies the influence of state, workplace, and family support on the working hours of employed mothers and how these different support sources interact. Data taken from the European Social Survey 2004/2005 as well as country-specific information were used to estimate several hierarchical models. We find evidence that the availability of...

This research investigated how negative and positive residuals of the workday spill over into the partner relationship. To unravel the mechanism of this spillover, this study introduces the concept of “psychological availability,” which refers to the individual's ability and motivation to direct psychological resources at the partner. A survey was...

A long-standing debate questions whether homemakers or working wives are happier. Drawing on cross-national data for 28 countries, this research uses multi-level models to provide fresh evidence on this controversy. All things considered, homemakers are slightly happier than wives who work fulltime, but they have no advantage over part-time workers...

In this article, we investigate why women are less likely than men to hold a position of workplace authority and why countries differ in this respect. We focus on the importance of investments in different types of human capital and the returns on them. Whether leave policies, the availability of part-time work, and gender desegregation in educatio...

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we examined the impact of social contacts on immigrant occupational status and income. In addition to general social contacts, we also analyzed the effects of bonding (i.e., co-ethnic) and bridging (i.e., interethnic) ties on economic outcomes. Results show that general social contacts have a positiv...

This article analyses the effect of working conditions on the health of hospital employees across Europe. Hospital employees often have demanding jobs that increase their stress levels and, consequently, their risk of health problems. Work control - typified by employee autonomy and working time flexibility - helps them cope with high levels of wor...

Several studies in the migration literature have hypothesized that social contacts, in particular contacts with natives, are important for immigrant employ-ment. Empirical work, however, has been inconclusive whether social contacts indeed have a causal effect. This study uses the German Socio-Economic Panel (1984–2004) to estimate the effect of so...