Richard Lampard | University of Warwick (original) (raw)

Books by Richard Lampard

Identity and Repartnering after Separation examines the lives and repartnering behaviour of forme... more Identity and Repartnering after Separation examines the lives and repartnering behaviour of formerly married people, a group pivotal to recent marital and family change. In addition to the formerly married, it focuses upon former cohabitees, an increasingly important group within the population. The analyses draw upon material from in-depth interviews with women and men of a variety of ages, and make use of theories about couple relationships in contemporary western societies and theoretical ideas relating to themes such as intimacy, identity and 'risk'. Detailed statistical analyses of repartnering orientations and behaviour, carried out specifically for this book, complement this qualitative and theoretical material. Focusing on contemporary Britain, the book contains examinations of formerly partnered people's diverse experiences of being 'single', the significance of their earlier relationships, their orientations towards new relationships, and their self-identities in the context of a couple-orientated society.

Practical Social Investigation provides, within a single text, an introduction to a wide range of... more Practical Social Investigation provides, within a single text, an introduction to a wide range of both long-standing and newer social research methods. Its balanced and integrated coverage of qualitative and quantitative approaches demonstrates that they can be complementary. While research practice is emphasised, readers are encouraged to reflect on methodological issues as well as being provided with tools for their own research.This coherent, accessibly written book draws upon the authors' extensive experience of conducting research and teaching research methods. Numerous examples, based on real research studies, illustrate key issues in a way that acknowledges both the messiness and the creativity of social research.

Papers by Richard Lampard

Families, Relationships and Societies, 2016

Recent demographic trends constitute movement away from forms of relationship behaviour central t... more Recent demographic trends constitute movement away from forms of relationship behaviour central to hegemonic heterosexuality. The perceived legitimacy of cohabitation, relationship dissolution and same-sex partnerships has also increased. Has a further shift occurred, among people not living with partners, away from conventional coupledom as an ideal? Using data from the second National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (NATSAL II), this article examines trends and patterns in the incidence of sexually exclusive co-residence as an ideal future lifestyle. While subscription to this ‘traditional’ ideal varies substantially with age and other salient factors, it nevertheless remains prevalent virtually throughout the ‘single’ population. Furthermore, there was no marked change across the 1990s in this ideal’s popular appeal, highlighting its continuing influence as a ‘meaning-constitutive tradition’ (Gross, 2005). Relationship practices and ideals thus appear to have diverged, ...

Sociology, 2012

This article uses multivariate logistic regression analyses of the 2005 General Household Survey ... more This article uses multivariate logistic regression analyses of the 2005 General Household Survey to assess the impact of parents’ occupational and educational characteristics on occupational attainment in Britain, focusing specifically on the salariat. Differences in outcomes according to family structure are then examined, controlling for such parental characteristics. The results indicate that both parents’ characteristics are relevant, and that their effects interact. A smaller chance of a salariat occupation is evident for those who lived in a lone-mother family, lone-father family, or biological-mother stepfamily as a young teenager, reflecting different features of these family types, but consistently reflecting lower educational attainment. Both number of co-resident siblings and parental worklessness affect the odds of having a salariat occupation, this being relevant to family-type comparisons.

European Sociological Review, 1997

is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Warwick. Much of his research has been in the are... more is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Warwick. Much of his research has been in the area of marriage and divorce, but he also has research interests in social stratification and social statistics (especially the analysis of contingency tables and of event history data). He is currently working on an ESRC-funded project looking at the remarriage process.

Sociological Research Online, 2020

Data from the 2010–2012 National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (NATSAL-3) are used to... more Data from the 2010–2012 National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (NATSAL-3) are used to document trends and patterns in where co-resident couples in Britain first met, focusing specifically on the rapid rise of meeting online, which both echoes and differs from a corresponding US increase; in Britain, meeting online largely appears to have substituted for meetings in settings to which access is relatively unrestricted, for example, pubs and public places. While meeting online appears widespread across British society, variations are identified and linked to ideas from the online dating and place of meeting literatures. Offline partner availability and how well the processes within offline and online settings suit particular types of people are interpreted as underpinning many of these variations. Perhaps surprisingly, meeting online does not appear class-related, and involves levels of socio-demographic homogamy that do not differ systematically from those for compositiona...

European Sociological Review, 2007

His current research interests include the formerly partnered and repartnering, various aspects o... more His current research interests include the formerly partnered and repartnering, various aspects of union formation and dissolution, social and educational mobility, and the impact of family structure on educational outcomes.

The British Journal of Sociology, 1999

Abstract This book examines the lives and repartnering behaviour of formerly married people and f... more Abstract This book examines the lives and repartnering behaviour of formerly married people and former co-habitees, groups pivotal to recent marital change. It draws upon in-depth interviews, theories about couple relationships in contemporary western societies, ...

The dual objectives of this thesis are to assess the merits of certain statistical methods as a... more The dual objectives of this thesis are to assess the merits of certain statistical methods as applied to sociological data and to use statistical methods to produce interesting and worthwhile substantive results. The main statistical focus of the thesis is the analysis of two-way tables, for which purpose association models and correspondence analysis are used. Some of the tables analysed require the application of quasi-association models and association models with more than one dimension. Elsewhere in the thesis a proportional hazards model and various log-linear models are fitted. The substantive focus of the thesis is the relationship between marital formation/dissolution and social stratification in modern Britain. Particular attention is paid to assortative marriage for social status, with the relationships between spouses' occupations, educational levels and social origins being considered in detail. Assortative marriage for religion and for party political identification/voting intention are also examined. The data analysed come from a variety of social surveys, including both government surveys (e.g. various General Household Surveys, and the Family Formation Survey) and academic surveys (e.g. the Oxford Mobility Survey and the Social Change and Economic Life Initiative survey). The thesis conclusively demonstrates the utility of association models, log-linear models and proportional hazards models as applied to data relating to marital formation/dissolution. Among the numerous substantive findings are that there was a significant post-war decline in the strength of the relationship between spouses' social origins, and that unemployment appears to cause an increase in the risk of marital dissolution.

Sociological Research Online, 2020

Data from the 2010-12 National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (NATSAL-3) are used to d... more Data from the 2010-12 National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (NATSAL-3) are used to document trends and patterns in where co-resident couples in Britain first met, focusing specifically on the rapid rise of meeting online, which both echoes and differs from a corresponding US increase; in Britain, meeting online largely appears to have substituted for meetings in settings to which access is relatively unrestricted, e.g. pubs and public places. While meeting online appears widespread across British society, variations are identified and linked to ideas from the online dating and place of meeting literatures. Offline partner availability, and how well the processes within offline and online settings suit particular types of people, are interpreted as underpinning many of these variations. Perhaps surprisingly, meeting online does not appear class-related, and involves levels of socio-demographic homogamy that do not differ systematically from those for compositionally-heterogeneous offline settings.

Data from the second National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles are used to examine state... more Data from the second National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles are used to examine stated reasons for the dissolution of co-residential relationships in Britain at the end of the 20th century. The findings exhibit a degree of continuity with earlier British studies, and resonate with themes identified within a broader international literature. While the ‘serious’ issues of violence and infidelity still feature prominently, a substantial minority of stated reasons appear indicative of relationships based on relatively ‘weak bonds’. Differences between marital and cohabiting relationships persist within multivariate analyses, suggesting that neither attitudes to relationships nor socio-economic or demographic factors provide satisfactory explanations for their existence. It is speculated that an adequate explanation of these differences would need to take account of an individual’s personal commitment to a specific partner and their level of investment in that specific relationship.

Background: A well-documented association exists between age at marriage and the risk of divorce.... more Background: A well-documented association exists between age at marriage and the risk of divorce. However, substantial gaps in our knowledge and understanding of ist origins, nature, and implications still exist.

Objective: This article documents the relationship between women’s ages at first marriage and marriage cohort divorce rates, assessing the importance of relative ages at marriage (based on rankings within marriage cohorts) and of absolute, chronological ages at marriage, and evaluating the contribution of changes in the age at marriage distribution to observed divorce rates.

Methods: Direct standardisation and logistic regression analyses are applied to published marriage and divorce data for the 1974-1994 marriage cohorts in England and Wales.

Results: Changing ages at marriage appear to have constrained the rise in divorce across the cohorts examined. However, the results suggest that much of the impact of age at marriage is linked to relative ages, reducing the extent of this ‘braking’ effect. It also appears that a positive effect of relative age at marriage on the risk of divorce for later marriages is outweighed by the negative effect of absolute age at marriage at higher ages.

Conclusions: Both explanations relating to ‘maturity’ and explanations focusing on ‘selection’ or ‘marriage markets’ appear of relevance to the association between age at marriage and divorce.

Comments: The data source provides over five million cases; however, it does not provide any scope to control for cohabitation, education, etc., and the analyses are restricted to divorces within about ten years of marriage. Further, related studies would be useful.

As British sociology seeks to overcome a historical distaste for quantitative research methods, o... more As British sociology seeks to overcome a historical distaste for quantitative research methods, one of the discipline’s most dynamic sub-fields may prove troublesome. Feminist research thrives both within and outside sociology. As such it provides new insights and enriches the discipline, something recognized by the 2010 Benchmarking Review of Sociology. Yet feminist research has long been associated with an antipathy towards quantitative methods. This article explores the extent to which this persists. Methodological patterns in articles from 19 journals in the interdisciplinary field of ‘women’s studies’ are analysed. Perhaps surprisingly, a large proportion of articles employed quantitative methods. Those engaged with feminist literature or epistemologies were, however, unlikely to be quantitative. This article also highlights the importance of national contexts, suggesting perhaps we should not ask why UK research is so qualitative, but why US research is so quantitative.

This article examines couples’ places or contexts of meeting in the second half of the 20th centu... more This article examines couples’ places or contexts of meeting in the second half of the 20th century in Great Britain, utilizing a typology developed by Bozon and Héran. The continuities are as striking as the changes, with social networks maintaining a consistent level of importance, but with trends towards meeting at places of education and work, and away from meeting in public places for drinking, eating or socializing. Rather than reflecting the impact of the rise of individualism and self-identity, these trends arguably reflect the changing importance of settings within people's daily lives, as may the recent growth in internet dating. Social class appears to have become more strongly related to the likelihood of meeting in ‘public’ settings, apparently more common in Britain than elsewhere. Achieved characteristics, especially occupational class, have a greater impact than parental class. Variations between place of meeting categories in the extent of occupational class homogamy appear to reflect levels of class homogeneity within settings more than the impact of either individualism or a homogamy norm. Regional variations in places of meeting highlight the ongoing importance of structural factors such as patterns of sociability or cultural norms.

Quantitative studies of occupational attainment and intergenerational social mobility have often ... more Quantitative studies of occupational attainment and intergenerational social mobility have often devoted little attention to the roles of parental education and educational inheritance. Informed by the ideas of authors who see class reproduction as reflecting more than occupations and economic resources (including Devine, Savage and Crompton), this paper assesses the importance of parents' educations, and considers the relevance of education to class analysis and class reproduction processes.

Logistic regressions using British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) data establish the relative importance of parents' educations and parents' occupational classes as determinants of children's attainment of service class occupations. These multivariate analyses reiterate the salience of mother's class, but also show that mother's education has an independent impact. However, this is more limited if both parents can be assigned to classes. The only difference between daughters and sons that is found in the impact of parental characteristics is a weaker impact of father's class on daughter's occupational attainment than on son's occupational attainment. For both daughters and sons, mother's education and mother's class have an impact.

The relationship between parents' and children's educations accounts for relatively little of the relationship between parents' and children's occupational classes. Hence intergenerational class mobility patterns do not simply echo intergenerational educational mobility patterns. However, an examination of the direct and indirect effects of parents' educations and classes on children's occupational attainment shows parental education to play a substantial role in the intergenerational transmission of advantage, and indicates that part (but not all) of the relationship between class origin and occupational attainment can be explained in terms of the intergenerational transmission of cultural capital. In contrast, a substantial part of the indirect effect of parental class via children's qualifications does not reflect parental education. Hence the conversion of parental economic resources into children's educational credentials also appears important.

This paper introduces the Tog coefficient, which can be used to measure the level of inequality i... more This paper introduces the Tog coefficient, which can be used to measure the level of inequality in a cross-tabulation of two ordinal-level variables. The Gini coefficient is a standard measure of income inequality which has been adapted by other authors for use in different contexts such as the measurement of health inequalities and the quantification of occupational segregation; the Tog coefficient represents a further stage in this process of development. The paper outlines the construction of the Tog coefficient and illustrates this using a social mobility table based on data from the 1972 Oxford Mobility Study. The trend in social mobility-related inequality as measured by the Tog coefficient is compared with the findings of Goldthorpe et al. based on odds ratios. A more elaborate application of the Tog coefficient uses a variety of data relating to the similarity of spouses' class backgrounds to demonstrate the existence of a long-term decline in the level of inequality in British society.

Families, Relationships and Societies, 2016

Sociology, 2012

European Sociological Review, 1997

Sociological Research Online, 2020

European Sociological Review, 2007

The British Journal of Sociology, 1999

Sociological Research Online, 2020

Methods: Direct standardisation and logistic regression analyses are applied to published marriage and divorce data for the 1974-1994 marriage cohorts in England and Wales.

This paper is an exploratory analysis of the impact of current and anticipated parenthood on coha... more This paper is an exploratory analysis of the impact of current and anticipated parenthood on cohabitation and remarriage among those formerly living in marriage-type relationships. The focus on children is embedded within a broader analysis of repartnering which takes account of other factors, including gender. Quantitative and qualitative analyses are used, with a multivariate analysis of repartnering patterns, using data from the General Household Survey, being complemen ted by in-depth interview data examining the attitudes of the formerly married to future relationships. The paper demonstrates that parenthood has a statistically significant effect on the likelihood of formerly married women repartnering, with a higher number of children being associated with a lower probability of repartnering. The presence of children can work against repartnering in a variety of ways. Children place demands on their parents and can deter or object to potential partners. Parents may see their parental role as more important than, and a barrier to, new relationships. However, mothers are typically looking for partners for themselves rather than fathers for their children. Among formerly married people without children, the desire to become a parent encourages repartnering. The paper concludes that parenthood should be a key consideration in analyses of repartnering.

This paper focuses on husbands' and wives' party political identifications in combination. There ... more This paper focuses on husbands' and wives' party political identifications in combination. There is a high level of party political homogamy in Great Britain (i.e. spouses tend to share the same party political identification). Statistical analyses show that levels of homogamy vary according to strength of party political identification, parental homogamy, age, and marital status. Levels of party political similarity are also shown to differ between marriage and other social relationships, and between first marriages and remarriages. Attitudes towards homogamy are shown to vary with age. The implications of these findings for theories relating to the origins of homogamy and to the consequences of heterogamy are considered. Broadly speaking, the findings indicate that party political homogamy is a consequence of demographic constraints, utility-maximizing choices, and responses to cultural norms.