November 27, 2025 | News | Congratulations

Philipp Dierker has Received his Doctorate

Philipp Dierker, from the Department of Social Demography, successfully defended his doctoral thesis, “Partnership Dynamics and Changes in Health and Well-Being: A Bidirectional Relationship,” at the University of Helsinki. His findings are relevant to family sociology, public health, and social policy because they identify groups at particular risk during partnership transitions.

Philipp Dierker defends his doctoral thesis at the University of Helsinki. © MPIDR

Philipp’s dissertation examines the relationship between partnership transitions—union formation, re-partnering, and dissolution—and health, well-being, and health behaviors. The dissertation highlights the bidirectional relationship in which health influences and is influenced by partnership changes.

Analyses use longitudinal survey and register data from Germany, the UK, and Finland, applying panel methods, event studies, and behavioral genetic methods. The study considers gender, socioeconomic status, and genetic predispositions to explain heterogeneity in outcomes. Health outcomes are broadly measured, including subjective well-being, self-reports, and register-based indicators of mental and physical health. Two sub-studies with a special focus on single mothers underscore the unique challenges associated with their family arrangements.

“This dissertation makes important contributions to our understanding of the links between family and health using survey, register, and genetically informed data”, says Mikko Myrskylä, one of Philipp's supervisors.

Philipp was part of the International Max Planck Research School for Population, Health and Data Science (IMPRS-PHDS), a doctoral program that combines demography, epidemiology and data science. The dissertation was supervised by Mikko Myrskylä, Mine Kühn and Sanna Kailaheimo-Lönnqvist. He was a student at the University of Helsinki.