Dr Niels Blom
Research Fellow
Niels Blom is a Research Fellow in Social Statistics and Demography at the University of Southampton.
My research interests focus on socioeconomic inequalities in partnership formation, couple’s relationship quality, and wellbeing
Currently, I work on the project “Relationship quality and family transitions: The UK in international comparison” with Dr. Brienna Perelli-Harris. In this project we study the couple relationship quality and how it is related to partnership formation, dissolution, and childbearing in the UK and across Europe. We pay particular attention to financial problems and changes in employment to see whether disadvantaged individuals have a poorer relationship quality, and if these disadvantaged individuals with poor relationship quality are more or less likely to make certain family transitions than those in a better economic situation.
I have completed my PhD in Sociology at Radboud University in the Netherlands with the thesis “Partner relationship quality under pressing work conditions. Longitudinal and cross-national investigations.” Before that, I completed a BSc in Sociology and an MSc in Social and Cultural Science, both at Radboud University in the Netherlands.