This research project explores the important yet underexamined link between men's health and their ability to start and maintain a family. It seeks to understand how health, in its many forms, impacts the chances of finding a partner, having children, and creating a stable family life. A key focus is on how health disparities, particularly among men from disadvantaged backgrounds, can create significant barriers to fulfilling these life goals.
The project has two main objectives:
Data Utilization: It aims to utilize a set of health measures from Swedish military conscription registers that have rarely been used for research. This will provide a deeper understanding of how various health factors affect family formation and the pathways leading to it.
In-depth Analysis: The project will investigate how health in early adulthood influences family formation and dissolution. This involves studying specific health issues, like visual and hearing impairments, and how these might impact life opportunities, including education, occupation, and income.
The importance of this project lies in its potential to contribute significantly to the understanding of the long-term effects of health on family dynamics, especially for men, an often-overlooked demographic in this context. The research aims to pave the way for more equitable health and family support systems that acknowledge and address the role of men's health in family life.