Intergenerational Relations and Social Mobility
What enables or hinders older adults’ social participation and connectedness? How do gender, care responsibilities, and welfare systems influence patterns of integration, volunteering, and loneliness in later life? My work explores these questions through both national and cross-national lenses.
Selected Publications:
Schmitz, A.; Luy, M. & Lazarevič, P. (2024): No socioeconomic inequalities in mortality among Catholic monks: A quasi-experiment providing evidence for the Fundamental Cause Theory. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 66(3), 379–392.
Brandt, M.; Quashie, N. & Schmitz, A. (2023): Health inequalities in older age: The role of socioeconomic resources and social networks in context. In Handbook of Health Inequalities Across the Life Course. Edward Elgar.
Schmitz, Alina; Garten, Claudius; Kühne, Simon & Brandt, Martina (2022): Worries about inadequate medical treatment in case of a COVID-19 infection: The role of social inequalities, COVID-19 prevalence and healthcare infrastructure. BMC Public Health, 22(19), 1761. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14024-9
Schmitz, Alina (2021): Gendered experiences of widowhood and depression across Europe. The role of loneliness and financial resources from a longitudinal perspective. Journal of Affective Disorders, 380, 114-120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.11.091
Schmitz, Alina & Lazarevič, Patrick (2020): The gender health gap in Europe’s ageing societies – Universal findings across countries and age groups? European Journal of Ageing, 17, 509-520 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-020-00559-6
Schmitz, Alina & Brandt, Martina (2019): Gendered patterns of depression and its de-terminants in older Europeans. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 82, 207-216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.archger.2019.02.015
Schmitz, A. (2019): Gesundheitliche Ungleichheiten im Alter: Theoretische Perspektiven und methodische Herausforderungen. Zeitschrift für Gerontologie und Geriatrie, 52(2), 116–121.
Schmitz, A. & Pförtner, T.-K. (2018): Health inequalities in old age: The relative contribution of material, behavioral and psychosocial factors in a German sample. Journal of Public Health, 40(3), e235–e243.