June 17, 2015 | News
Christine Schnor receives Otto Hahn Medal
On June 17, former MPIDR researcher Christine Schnor received the Otto Hahn Medal for her PhD dissertation. The medal was awarded at the Annual Meeting of the Max Planck Society and came with a cash prize of 7,500 euros. Christine Schnor examined the separation behavior of young couples. The comparative study provides new insights into the factors that stabilize a relationship or that increase the risk of separation.
In her PhD dissertation, Christine Schnor focused on the separation behavior of couples living in Germany, and especially of couples with children. The study was based on data from the German Family Panel (pairfam, Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics). It contains a comprehensive set of event-history data on partnership trajectories.
She looked in particular at the differences in the separation behavior patterns of eastern and western Germans. Compared to western Germans—and, indeed, to most other Europeans—eastern Germans have low levels of religious affiliation and are more likely to have children outside of marriage. This striking pattern of regional heterogeneity makes Germany an interesting subject for studies on family demography. Because of the differences mentioned above, partnerships in eastern Germany may be less stable than those in western Germany: i.e., a large number of studies have shown that the low levels of religious attachment and the low rates of marriage in eastern Germany are associated with an increased risk of separation at the individual level.
In her dissertation, Christine Schnor challenged the widespread assumption among scientists and the general public that unmarried couples are more likely than married couples to separate. She found that despite the differences in context, eastern and western German parents do not differ in their degree of union stability. She also showed that unmarried eastern German couples with children have a higher degree of union stability than their western German counterparts. Christine Schnor attributes this mainly to the fact that non-marital unions are more widespread in eastern Germany than in western Germany. She also points out that this form of partnership is broadly accepted in eastern Germany, and is less selective. Her findings challenge the results of US studies on this topic that have shown that non-marital unions are less stable than marriages, but that did not address differences in contexts. She also found that union duration and the religious background of the partners are important factors in both the choice of partnership form at birth and the risk of separation.
"With her research, Christine Schnor has painted a more nuanced picture of the determinants of the separation and divorce behavior of couples with children,” says MPIDR scientist Michaela Kreyenfeld, who supervised Christine Schnor's PhD work at the MPIDR. “She has closed a gap in existing research on Germany, as previously there were only marginal findings on the partnership trajectories of individuals with children."
"I'm very happy about this award,” says Christine Schnor.“It has been a great pleasure to work at the Max Planck Institute. Even though I now live and work in Belgium, I still feel very connected to the MPIDR—it remains my professional home. The international spirit of the Institute has left a lasting impression on me. I therefore want to use the prize money for another research stay elsewhere in Europe."
Christine Schnor completed her doctoral work, "The contexts of partnership and childbearing as determinants of union stability," at the University of Rostock. The work was supervised by Michaela Kreyenfeld (MPIDR) and Heike Trappe (University of Rostock). Christine Schnor spent three years conducting her research in the MPIDR’s Laboratory of Social and Economic Demography. In October 2013, she moved to the Free University of Brussels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel). Since August 2014, she has been working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Sociological Research of the Faculty of Social Science of the Catholic University of Leuven.
Each year, the Max Planck Society awards the Otto Hahn Medal to young scientist for outstanding scientific achievements, usually as part of a doctoral thesis. The medal is accompanied by a cash award of 7,500 euros. The prize is intended to motivate highly talented junior scientists and researchers to pursue an academic or research career. Since 1978, more than 850 scientists and researchers have been awarded the Otto Hahn Medal. The award is presented during the general meeting in the following year.