Professor Pablo Gracia
Professor In, Sociology

Projects

• Title
  • Multiple Equilibria in Families
• Summary
  • The main objective of this project, coordinated by Prof. Gosta Esping-Andersen, is to apply a multiple equilibrium framework to test key hypotheses regarding family behaviour and its broader effects on social inequality. We focus in particular on two dimensions: couple relationships and parental investment in children. Our point of departure is the evidence from recent demographic and sociological research that, on both dimensions, there are trends towards polarisation. Our research on couple relations will examine two key dimensions: gender specialisation in domestic tasks and labour supply, and the stability of partnerships. Our research on parenting will focus on child outcomes, in particular with regard to educational attainment and early career transitions. Of special interest here is the growing gender-gap and what might be called the 'boy-problem': the large proportion of boys with problematic social behaviour and inadequate schooling. Dr. Pablo Gracia, supervised by Prof. Esping-Andersen as a doctoral researcher at UPF, participated in this project by conducting empirical analyses on educational and gender inequalities in parenting and domestic work in the Spanish context. Results of this assistance contributed to this publication: Esping-Andersen, G., 2009. Incomplete revolution: Adapting welfare states to women's new roles. Cambridge: Polity Press (Chapter 1).
• Funding Agency
  • Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation
• Date From
  • 2010
• Date To
  • 2013

• Title
  • Family Conditions and Child Outcomes
• Summary
  • This project, coordinated by Dr. Pablo Gracia, was funded as part of the ECSR Project Workshop Grants, in order to bring together a range of junior and more senior scholars to establish networks of collaboration and discussion around the topic of child outcomes. The main project's task consisted of a workshop organised at the University of Amsterdam in which junior and senior scholars from leading European research institutions presented their studies on how families influence child outcomes. This scientific exchange provided some new insights to better understand how child outcomes (defined as skills, behaviours, and qualifications) are affected by family contexts, including socioeconomic, demographic, and ethnic origins. 
 Main Partners of the Project's Network: University of Amsterdam (host), WZB, Goethe University Frankfurt, Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, University of Mannheim, University of Oxford.
• Funding Agency
  • European Consortium for Sociological Research
• Date From
  • 2013
• Date To
  • 2014

• Title
  • Gender Inequalities in Mental Health across Parenthood Transitions: A Life-Course Approach
• Summary
  • Gender inequalities in mental health are pervasive: across the world women consistently show higher levels of depression and anxiety than men. Research has found that parents, and especially mothers, are particularly at risk of suffering mental health problems like distress, anxiety, and depression. However, the exact mechanisms that explain differences in mental health between mothers and fathers remain poorly understood. This project will contribute to close this major knowledge gap in science. The project conducts the first exhaustive study of how parenthood affects the mental health trajectories of men and women over the life course. This project will make crucial scientific innovations by merging high-quality large-scale longitudinal survey data (collected annually between 1991 and 2021) with rich qualitative longitudinal data from 30 heterosexual couples (collected before and after childbirth) to show how exactly parenthood affects men"s and women"s mental health. The project will make a ground-breaking contribution to science by: (1) identifying the long-term factors that predict women"s and men"s mental health trajectories across parenthood transitions; (2) disentangling the precise micro-level mechanisms that shape gender differences in mental health around childbirth; (3) establishing the causal effect of childcare and work-family policy reforms on mothers" and fathers" positive mental health. The project focuses on the United Kingdom, an interesting case of study for which we have the best available data. Results will have important applications elsewhere, including Ireland. This project will make a strong impact in different domains. The project will provide unique new evidence on gender, well-being, health, and parenthood to contribute to current efforts in meeting UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG): `Gender Equality Goals" (SDG 5) and `Good Health and Well-Being Goals" (SDG 3). The project findings will be widely disseminated, not only within leading scientific networks, but also among policy makers, practitioners, and the large public.
• Funding Agency
  • Irish Research Council
• Date From
  • 2022
• Date To
  • 2024

• Title
  • Child Digital Use and Social Inequalities: The Role of Digital Socialisation in Intergenerational Inequalities in Ireland
• Summary
  • Digitalisation has transformed our society, culture and economy (Castells, 2002) in a context of rising global inequalities (Piketty et al., 2018). Digitalisation has also transformed the domestic sphere, creating new forms of digital childhoods, with children's lives being increasingly affected by electronic devices (Mascheroni & Olaffson, 2016). While we know that child digital use brings risks (anxiety) and benefits (ICT skills) for their cognitive development, health status or socio-emotional well-being (Livingstone, 2018), how child digitalisation impacts the reproduction of social inequalities remains unclear. This project seeks to fill this key gap by studying how child digitalisation influences the reproduction of social inequalities in contemporary society. The main objective of the project is to provide new fresh evidence of how child digitalisation affects the transmission of social inequalities from parents to children in contemporary societies (Breen et al., 2018; Lareau, 2011). By employing a multi-methods approach, the project will investigate three research questions: (RQ1) How does digital socialisation affect social inequalities in child development?; (RQ 2): What is the role of digitalisation in the reproduction of social inequalities?; (RQ 3): Do digital parenting strategies contribute to (re)produce socioeconomic inequalities in contemporary societies?
• Funding Agency
  • Trinity College Dublin
• Date From
  • 2019
• Date To
  • 2021

• Title
  • CHILDTIMES - Inequalities in Children's Activities and Development: A Multi-Method, Longitudinal and Cross-Country Approach
• Summary
  • Contemporary society presents a strong persistence of social inequalities across generations. The reproduction of such inequalities is not only problematic to equalising children's opportunities. This reality also imposes serious barriers to the possibility of every child being able to fully contribute to our society and economy by adding his/her intrinsic human capital potential. The project establishes links between two main disciplines that often operate independently, namely the psychological literature on child development and the life-course social stratification literature. The funding from Enterprise Ireland will be used to exchange knowledge and innovative research ideas with international researchers, as well as developing a research pilot (together with a research assistant) to better understand the reproduction of social inequalities by studying children's daily activities in our digitalised societies, combining observational and experimental approaches.
• Funding Agency
  • Enterprise Ireland
• Date From
  • 2018
• Date To
  • 2019

• Title
  • Family Polarization: Stratified Family Dynamics: polarizing trends in couple behaviour and parenting
• Summary
  • The project applies a multiple equilibrium framework to understand ongoing transformations in family demography and their consequences for social inequalities. Associated with the changing economic role of women emerge novel family forms that replace the conventional male breadwinner model. The transition is very much in flux, producing multiple equilibria some of which are unstable and associated with inefficient and inequitable couple specialization. Based on long micro panel data for four countries at different stages of the transition, the study will address three parallel issues. One, identifying equilibrium shifts from the traditional towards more gender symmetric family forms, with particular focus on the endogenously driven dynamics that drive populations towards a gender egalitarian equilibrium. Two, analyzing the potentially polarizing demographic correlates of changing family behaviour in particular in terms of marital choice and couple stability. Three, testing hypotheses regarding family polarisation with respect to parental investments in children and how these, in turn, influence children's life chances. Dr. Pablo Gracia, supervised by Prof. Esping-Andersen as a doctoral researcher at UPF, participated in this project by engaging in a cross-national research on Denmark, Spain and the UK that revealed different gender relations and equilibria in the division of paid and unpaid work. Results from this work are visible in this publication: Esping-Andersen, G., Boertien, D., Bonke, J. and Gracia, P., 2013. Couple specialization in multiple equilibria. European Sociological Review, 29(6), pp.1280-1294.
• Funding Agency
  • EU Commission
• Date From
  • 2010
• Date To
  • 2013

• Title
  • Diverging Parenting? Socioeconomic Background, Gender, and Institutions
• Summary
  • This project, based on the externally-funded doctoral research project of Dr. Pablo Gracia, analysed the degree of variation in parenting behaviour by education, gender, and social class across national contexts. Time-diary data from Denmark, Belgium, Spain and the UK were analysed to study parenting practices across different demographic groups. The main findings from this project can be summarised as follows: (1) Cross-national variations in parenting-work balance are observed amongst fathers, but less so amongst mothers, for which a stronger educational gradient is instead observed; (2) In Spain, women's employment is strongly associated with paternal involvement in routine/physical activities in families with preschool children; (3) A strong education gradient in fathering is correlated with children's developmental stages, in line with child-rearing practices recommended by "parenting experts"; (4) In the UK, social class and education are strongly correlated with the parenting styles that are more directly linked to children's accumulation of cultural, human, and social capital; (5) Men in post-industrial occupations appear to be particularly identified with the more egalitarian and highly involved fathering practices. The project content and results resulted into 4 subsequent publications in international peer-reviewed journals in sociology and cognate disciplines or fields.
• Funding Agency
  • Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation
• Date From
  • 2008
• Date To
  • 2012

• Title
  • Economic Change, Quality of Life and Social Cohesion Network of Excellence (EQUALSOC).
• Summary
  • The EQUALSOC project, coordinated by Prof. Robert Erikson (University of Stockholm), was a "Network of Excellence" (NoE) that mobilise and develop research expertise across Europe on economic change, quality of life and social cohesion. Initially, a total of 14 leading institutes or universities participated working on issues of social inequalities and social cohesion. There were institutes from Sweden (SOFI), the Netherlands (AIAS), France (CNRS), Italy (DSRS, Bicocca, University of Turin), Ireland (ESRI), Germany (MZES, WZB), Great Britain (Nuffield), Spain (UPF), Estonia (UT) and Belgium (CSB). The project is funded by the European Union. The project aimed at strengthening the exchange of knowledge between scientists in Europe and promoting the development of joint projects in the fields of social cohesion and inequalities. Work was based on network conferences, workshops for the subject-oriented working groups and cross-cutting workshops with participants from different working groups have been or will be arranged. Dr. Gracia's involvement in this network was devoted to the working package FAMNET (network on family research) and in particular the working group on the gendered household division of housework and child care
• Funding Agency
  • EU Commission
• Date From
  • 2008
• Date To
  • 2013

• Title
  • Social Inequalities in Girls' and Boys' Daily Activities and Skills Accumulation in Ireland and Australia
• Summary
  • This project, coordinated by Dr. Pablo Gracia, will investigate how boys and girls from different SES achieve key developmental competences from infancy (age 0) to adolescence (age 17), analysing the role of their daily activities in explaining inequalities in skills development. Previous studies reveal that children's family background is a critical indicator of future life chances. Privileged children disproportionately obtain the highest levels of education, occupational status and health outcomes across the life course (Morgan, 2006). This raises strong policy concerns from an equality of opportunity and human capital perspective (Putnam, 2015). Yet, the exact mechanisms by which boys and girls from different SES (socioeconomic status) achieve different cognitive and socio-emotional skills remain insufficiently understood. This project will contribute to these empirical debates by using the best available data from Australia and Ireland to study this empirical question in two countries that combine an interesting mixture of liberal welfare regimes with traditional work-family policies (OECD, 2016).
• Funding Agency
  • Trinity College Dublin
• Date From
  • 2018
• Date To
  • 2020

• Title
  • Researching and Promoting Positive Adult and Child Mental Health and Wellbeing in Lone-Parent Families
• Summary
  • One-parent families account for a growing share of Irish families with children (over 1 in 4 in the 2016 census). Lone parents and their children are at increased risk for poor mental health and psychological wellbeing compared to their peers in two-parent families. This represents a fundamental health inequality. Positive mental health and wellbeing are not only essential for good overall health but are also central to a good quality of life. To date, there is limited research on the links between family structure and mental health in Ireland, though international research suggests that chronic stress may be a key factor. This project is a collaboration between Trinity College Dublin and One Family, Ireland's leading organisation for people parenting alone and their children. It examines the factors that shape wellbeing in one-parent families in Ireland, including the role of chronic stress, and investigates ways to buffer lone parents and their children against the harmful effects of chronic stress on mental health and wellbeing. The research has two parts: (1) an in-depth statistical analysis of the factors that shape mental health and wellbeing using longitudinal data from a study of 18,000 Irish children and their families; and (2) an intervention promoting self-esteem, self efficacy, and social support among 60 lone parents to determine if this can buffer against poor mental health outcomes for them and their children. This project will produce new knowledge about wellbeing in one-parent families in Ireland and will facilitate the development of effective policies and services to promote positive mental health and wellbeing among this at-risk population. This contributes to the realisation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of Good Health (SDG 3) and Reduced Inequalities (SDG 10).
• Funding Agency
  • European Commission & Irish Research Council
• Date From
  • 2019
• Date To
  • 2023

• Title
  • Consequences of Nonstandard Work Schedules for Parent and Child Wellbeing: A Cross-Country Comparison
• Summary
  • This project, coordinated by Dr Jianghong Li and Dr Matthias Pollmann-Schult, will examine the impact of the impact of NSWS on the psychological wellbeing of children and parents using European cross-country data and large-scale longitudinal data from Germany, Australia, UK, and the US. A central aim of this project is to understand the moderating and mediating factors in the association between NSWS and child and parental wellbeing, and whether these relationships vary across countries with different family policies and working time regimes. The project will advance our knowledge by: 1. Examining the consequences of NSWS for parents" mental health and psychological wellbeing. 2. Identifying the potential effects of NSWS on child wellbeing and factors that moderate and mediate these effects. 3. Analysing differences in the associations between NSWS and child wellbeing across Germany, Australia, the UK, and the US.
• Funding Agency
  • German Science Foundation
• Date From
  • 2022
• Date To
  • 2025

• Title
  • Social Inequalities, Time Use and Child Development in Ireland: A Longitudinal Approach
• Summary
  • Children's family background is a determinant predictor of individuals' key life-course outcomes, such as schooling attainment, labour market trajectories, health status and income dynamics. Recent multi-disciplinary developments in the social sciences suggest a set of reasons why children from privileged social backgrounds are advantaged throughout the life course. This project seeks to contribute to the international literature on social inequalities and child development by studying children's daily activities and experiences from a longitudinal perspective. The project will adopt a life-course approach, using rich cohort longitudinal data, focusing on Ireland and related countries, to analyse intergenerational inequalities from infancy to late adolescence.
• Funding Agency
  • Trinity College Dublin
• Date From
  • 2019
• Date To
  • 2023

• Title
  • Parental Conditions, Family Relations, and Work: Implications for Families and Children.
• Summary
  • This research project, based on a prize received by Dr. Pablo Gracia, fully funded by the EUI Max Weber Programme, aimed at providing new and more precise understandings of how time and resources are allocated from parents and children across different demographic groups in contemporary post-industrial societies. The project was related to three main empirical outputs: (1) Empirical evidence was published on how fathers and mothers allocated time to child care activities and how this can be related to gendered inequalities in parents' wellbeing, levels of enjoyment and stress; (2) Cross-national evidence on gendered and educational inequalities in parenting was provided using international time-diary data; (3) Evidence on ethnic penalties and differentials in students' aspirations and future employment outcomes were provided using survey data from the Dutch and Spanish contexts. Finally, the project resulted into different publications in international peer-reviewed journals.
• Funding Agency
  • European University Institute
• Date From
  • 2015
• Date To
  • 2017

• Title
  • Work-Family Policy and Gender Inequalities in Paid and Unpaid Work in Spain
• Summary
  • This project, coordinated by Dr. Pablo Gracia and Dr. Daniela Bellani, has two main objectives: (1) to analyse gender inequalities in unpaid household work in Spain, both in housework and time spent with children; (2) the projects aims at recommending efficient policies for reconciling work and family to reduce the existing gender inequalities at work and, indirectly, social class inequalities in the Spanish system. After exploring time use data form different countries (2002/2003 Spanish Time Use Survey; Harmonised European Time Use Survey: 2000-2005), the project shows that gender inequalities in the division of household work are significantly more pronounced in Spain than in most Western European countries. This is captured by the fact that the relative contribution of men to the total household work is lower in Spain than in other Western European countries. In addition, the project suggests that, in Spain, women's increasing economic and employment autonomy compared to their husbands or male partners, is likely to foster gender equality in the division of domestic chores and parental care responsibilities. The project further proposes several family and gender policies, such as active female employment policies, policies of work-family reconciliation and, ultimately, argues that increasing public spending and intervention in families is positive both from an equitable and efficient perspective. Dr. Gracia was the PI and the main applicant of this project, which was converted into a scientific report published by 'Fundacion Alternativas'.
• Funding Agency
  • Fundacion Alternativas
• Date From
  • 2009
• Date To
  • 2010

• Title
  • DIGYMATEX: Establishing A Comprehensive Understanding and Taxonomy of Children's Digital Maturity
• Summary
  • The overall goal of DIGYMATEX is to provide evidence-based tools that will assist in understanding and measuring children's digital maturity. These tools are intended to be used e.g. by families, schools, and policy stakeholders. The first tool is the development of an innovative and market-ready instrument - the Digital Youth Maturity Index (DYMI) - as a cloud-based open-access tool in order to establish and implement a comprehensive understanding and taxonomy of children's digital maturity leading to the prediction and explanation of benefits and risks regarding children's ICT-related behaviour. The Digital Youth Maturity Index will act as a measurement tool for classification and segmentation of user groups as well as a behavioural prediction tool based on machinelearning techniques. The second tool is the development and application of the DiGYou-program - a technology-related solution and recommendation program, which is based on as well as supports the application of the DYMI. The two innovative tools will directly target the main impact goals associated with the call. With the Digital Youth Maturity Index (DMYI), the project will be able to develop and implement a comprehensive taxonomy, which will inform relevant stakeholders and practitioners on the long-term effects of ICT on child behaviour. Furthermore, with the DMYI in combination with the DigYou3-program, we will develop concrete solutions in order to contribute to a safer and more beneficial use of digital technologies by children and we will be able to formulate recommendations in support of national and European policies in the field. DYGIMATEX - builds on an inter-disciplinary, multimethod approach by integrating expertise, methods and knowledge from different research areas like business management, psychology, sociology, neuroscience, media and information systems, as well as industry partners (i.e., from IOT, food, telecommunication) and policy stakeholders (i.e., education, EU policy).
• Funding Agency
  • European Commission
• Date From
  • 2020
• Date To
  • 2025

• Title
  • Social Inequalities in Child Time Use and Development in Ireland: A Mixed-Methods Longitudinal Approach
• Summary
  • This project will adopt a novel multi-method longitudinal design with data from the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) study to investigate how children's time-use patterns contribute to the reproduction of social inequalities in contemporary digitalised societies. The project will answer: (1) how time-use patterns evolve from early childhood to early adulthood in different socioeconomic groups; (2) how children's time use impact child development processes across socioeconomic groups; (3) how can parental resources and parenting values influence child time use in ways that shape social inequalities in child development; (4) what meaning do parents and children attribute to their daily activities in different social classes. By providing unique evidence on how children's specific activities affect social inequalities in life-course development in contemporary digitalised societies, this project will contribute to ongoing debates on public policies, child well-being and social inequalities in Ireland and internationally. The findings will be actively disseminated through (inter)national media sources and stakeholders that are accessible to professionals, civil organisations, policy makers and the public.
• Funding Agency
  • Irish Research Council
• Date From
  • 2020
• Date To
  • 2023

• Title
  • DIGINEQ: Digital Time Use, Adolescent Well-Being and Social Inequalities
• Summary
  • This ERC project develops an innovative time-use approach to understand how exactly adolescent digital use shapes social inequalities in well-being in contemporary societies. The project DIGINEQ aims at meeting three main objectives throughout its 5 years of life: (1) To understand how changes in digital engagement shape socioeconomic gaps in well-being outcomes from childhood to late adolescence; (2) To disentangle how exactly adolescents" digital use forms social inequalities in well-being in everyday life; (3) To establish if digital interventions can promote adolescent well-being and healthy digital use, while reducing social inequalities in these areas.
• Funding Agency
  • European Commission
• Date From
  • 2024
• Date To
  • 2029