February 20, 2026 | News | Congratulations
DGD Best Paper Award for Philipp Dierker
MPIDR researcher Philipp Dierker has won the Best Paper Award of the German Society for Demography (DGD). Philipp received the award on February 11 at the DGD's Workshop on “Changing Work Ability: Health, Disability, Care Work in the Context of Demographic Developments” for his paper "Re-partnering and single mothers‘ mental health and life satisfaction trajectories" in the Journal of Marriage and Family.
Philipp Dierker, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock, has won the 2026 Best Paper Award of the German Society for Demography (DGD). © MPIDR/Schulz
In his paper Philipp examined single mothers' mental health and life satisfaction trajectories around re-partnering transitions, and the driving factors of these associations. He compared the situation of single mothers in Germany and the UK. Single mothers often experience poorer mental health and lower life satisfaction due to increased stress, financial insecurity, and less support in everyday life. The study reveals that new partnerships can improve the life satisfaction of single mothers, especially through increased financial resources. Long-term partnerships increase satisfaction compared to more frequent partner changes, and despite financial advantages, a new partner does not usually bring relief around household chores to the household. Read the press release for this paper here.
“With this study we could highlight how much more difficult the situation is for single parents and that they need much more institutional support than is currently the case in either country. The overall conditions for financial independence of single parents, such as reliable child care, need to be established to enable them to engage in gainful employment”, Philipp explains.
Philipp Dierker is a researcher at the MPIDR in Laboratory of Fertility and Well-Being, he obtained his PhD at the University of Helsinki in 2025 and was participant in the International Max Planck Research School for Population, Health and Data Science (IMPRS-PHDS), a doctoral program that combines demography, epidemiology and data science.
Dierker, P.; Kühn, M.; Myrskylä, M.:
Journal of Marriage and Family 87:1, 157–181. (2025)
