PD Dr. Florian Schulz

Biografische Notiz | Short vita

Diplom und Promotion im Fach Soziologie an der Universität Bamberg. Seit 2015 wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am ifb. Seit 2019 Geschäftsführer des Journal of Family Research, seit 2020 zudem Mitherausgeber dieser Zeitschrift. Privatdozent an der Universität Bamberg.

Diploma (M. A. equivalent) and Ph. D. in sociology at the University of Bamberg. Since 2015 senior researcher at the ifb. Since 2019 managing director of the Journal of Family Research, since 2020 co-editor of this journal. Private lecturer at the University of Bamberg.

Forschungsprofil | Research profile

In seiner Forschung befasst sich Florian Schulz vor allem der Analyse sozialer Strukturen und sozialer Ungleichheiten in Deutschland und im internationalen Vergleich. Im Zentrum seines Interesses steht die Frage, wie individuelle Chancen, Lebensverläufe und soziale Ungleichheitsmuster innerhalb spezifischer Kontexte produziert und reproduziert werden. Vor diesem Hintergrund widmet sich die empirische Forschung von Florian Schulz den Strukturen, dem Wandel und den normativen Rahmenbedingungen des Familien- und Arbeitslebens, sowie des Zusammenspiels von Familie und Arbeit. In aktuellen Forschungsprojekten untersucht er beispielsweise die Zeitverwendung von Kindern, die Aufteilung von bezahlter und unbezahlter Arbeit in frühen und späteren Phasen des Lebenslaufes und den möglichen Zusammenhang von Konflikten zwischen Arbeitswelt und Familienleben und dem Wohlbefinden von Frauen, Männern und Kindern.

Florian Schulz is doing research on social structures and social inequalities in Germany and in international comparison. He focuses on the question how individual opportunities, life courses and patterns of social inequality are produced and reproduces within specific contexts. His current empirical research tackles demographics, structures, change, and normative settings of family, work, and the intersection of family and work. Current research topics include time use in childhood, the division of paid and unpaid work in earlier and later phases of the life course as well as the possible connection of work-family conflict and well-being of women, men and children.

Ausgewählte Veröffentlichungen | Selected publications

Reimann, Mareike, Florian Schulz, Charlotte K. Marx, & Laura Lükemann (2022): The family side of work-family conflict: A literature review of antecedents and consequences. Journal of Family Research, doi:10.20377/jfr-859

Objective: To review the empirical literature on family antecedents and consequences of work-family conflict. Background: Over the last decades, family living and working life have changed profoundly, affecting families' needs and expectations towards reconciliation, as well as perceptions of work-family conflict. Previous reviews of the relevant literature in this flourishing field of research have predominantly focused on the work side of sources and consequences of these conflicts. However, a review of the family side of work-family conflict is still missing. Method: The review of the existing literature followed the guidelines of "PRISMA - Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses." 100 quantitative empirical studies were identified by relevant keywords, including research between 1988-2021. Results: The review of international and interdisciplinary empirical evidence remarkably shows the heterogeneity in research on family antecedents and consequences of work-family conflict in the directions of family-to-work and work-to-family. In addition, the findings of existing studies are inconsistent, if not ambivalent. However, the review also demonstrates a growing body of literature that considers or even focuses on the family side of work-family conflict. Conclusion: The family plays an essential role in reconciling the private and the working life, as it is a source of conflict and a resource for dealing with conflicts at the same time.

Schulz, Florian & Marcel Raab (2022): When the last child moves out: Continuity and convergence in spouses' housework time. Journal of Marriage and Family, doi:10.1111/jomf.12873. (replication files)

Objective: To examine how mothers' and fathers' time allocation for routine housework changes when the last child moves out of the family household. Background: During the transition to the empty nest, parental households are reduced to the situation before parenthood. Mothers and fathers are released from their direct parenting roles and parental time binds. This gradual transition creates a context in which housework time allocation is likely to be rearranged. Methods: Changes in mothers' and fathers' absolute and relative routine housework hours were estimated with longitudinal fixed effects regression models, using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (1991–2020) on 890 households experiencing the transition to the empty nest. Results: Mothers' reduced their time for routine housework by 9 minutes on regular weekdays at the transition to the empty nest, whereas fathers' routine housework hours were largely unaffected when the last child moved out of the parental household. Mothers' routine housework share was slightly below 80% in the years around this event. Separate analyses for mothers with different education revealed only minor variations in the gendered trajectories of housework time. In sum, mothers continued to do the majority of housework in this phase of the life course despite some slight convergence. Conclusion: The transition to the empty nest contributes slightly to the life-course convergence of housework time and, thus, similar to all major life-course transitions following the birth of children, tends to reduce housework inequality in couples.

Schulz, Florian & Mareike Reimann (2022): Parents‘ experiences of work-family conflict: Does it matter if coworkers have children? Journal of Family Research, doi:10.20377/jfr-780. (replication files)

Objective: To examine how the perception of work-family conflict relates to the share of parents in women's and men's direct coworking environments. Background: The idea of relational demography posits that individuals' relative positions within their coworking environments have an impact on their wellbeing. Depending on women's and men's parenthood status and the corresponding (dis-)similarity compared to their colleagues, this idea was applied to the perception of work-to-family and family-to-work conflicts. Method: Time-based and strain-based work-to-family and family-to-work conflicts were analyzed by gender and parenthood with random effects panel regression models using longitudinal data from the LEEP-B3-survey, a large-scale linked employer-employee survey from Germany (2012/2013 and 2014/2015; 2,228 women and 2,656 men). The composition of the respondents’ working groups was included as a moderating variable. Results: Mothers and fathers of children aged 0-11 years reported higher work-to-family and family-to-work conflicts than parents of older children and childless women and men. For mothers of children aged 0-11 years, a higher share of parents in their working groups was associated with less time-based family-to-work conflict. For fathers of children aged 0-11 years, the same associations were found for overall work-to-family conflict, strain-based work-to-family conflict as well as for all dimensions of family-to-work conflict. Conclusion: Similarity between the team members regarding parenthood seemed to reduce mothers' and fathers' perceptions of work-family conflict beyond several other characteristics of the individuals and the workplaces.

Schulz, Florian (2021): Mothers', Fathers' and Siblings' Housework Time Within Family Households. Journal of Marriage and Family, 83, 803-819, doi:10.1111/jomf.12762. (replication files)

Objective: To investigate time use of housework for all members of family households, especially focusing on how time allocation varied by siblings' gender composition. Background: Three knowledge gaps were addressed: the allocation of housework time between all family members; children's contributions to housework, focusing on the relevance of sibling structure; and the differences in time allocation of housework by parental education within family households. The study contributes to the understanding of the family as the primary socialization environment and the foundations of gender inequality of unpaid work time in the life course and in society. Methods: 478 four?person households were sampled from the German Time Use Study from 2001/2002 and 2012/2013. Using information from 3,743 time diaries, absolute and relative time use for total housework on Mondays through Fridays was analyzed according to siblings' gender composition, applying linear regression. Results: Mothers and daughters spent more time on housework in shared family households than fathers and sons. Total housework time was lowest in households with two sons and highest in households with two daughters. Older daughters spent more time on housework than younger daughters, and sons with a sister spent more time on housework than sons with a brother, regardless of the birth order. Parents' education had no impact on the time allocation in this sample. Conclusion: Children's gender plays a role in their interaction with their parents, and both gender identity at the individual level and the dyadic gender compositions of families must be considered when explaining the household allocation of housework.

Leopold, Thomas, Jan Skopek & Florian Schulz (2018): Gender convergence in housework time: A life course and cohort perspective. Sociological Science, 5, 281-303, doi:10.15195/v5.a13. (replication files)

Knowledge about gender convergence in housework time is confined to changes studied across repeated cross-sections of data. This study adds a dynamic view that links broader social shifts in men’s and women’s housework time to individual life-course profiles. Using panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (1985–2015), our analysis is the first to trace changes in housework time across the entire adult life course (ages 20–90) and across a large range of cohorts (1920–1990). The results revealed two types of gender convergence in housework time. First, the gender gap converged across the life course, narrowing by more than 50 percent from age 35 until age 70. Life-course profiles of housework time were strongly gendered, as women’s housework time peaked in younger adulthood and declined thereafter, whereas men’s housework time remained stably low for decades and increased only in older age. Second, the gender gap converged across cohorts, narrowing by 40 percent from cohorts 1940 until 1960. Cohort profiles of housework time showed strong declines in women and moderate increases in men. Both cohort trends were linear and extended to the most recently born, supporting the notion of continued convergence in housework time.

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