IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/dem/demres/v27y2012i7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Living arrangements, intergenerational support types and older adult loneliness in Eastern and Western Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Jenny Gierveld

    (Nederlands Interdisciplinair Demografisch Instituut (NIDI))

  • Pearl A. Dykstra

    (Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam)

  • Niels Schenk

    (Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam)

Abstract

Background: Previous research has shown that living arrangements (independent households of those living alone or as a couple, versus coresident households encompassing adult children) are important determinants of older adults’ loneliness. However, little is known about intergenerational support exchanges in these living arrangements and their associations with loneliness. Objective: Our aim is to contribute to the knowledge on associations between living arrangements and loneliness, by taking into account and differentiating intergenerational support types. Methods: Using data from the Generations and Gender Surveys of three countries in Eastern Europe and two countries in Western Europe, Latent Class Analyses was applied to develop intergenerational support types for (a) co-residing respondents in Eastern Europe, (b) respondents in independent households in Eastern Europe, and (c) respondents in independent households in Western Europe, respectively. Six types resulted, distinguishing patterns of upward support, downward support and get-togethers. Subsequently, we used linear regression analyses to examine differences in loneliness by region, living arrangements and intergenerational support type. Results: Findings show higher levels of loneliness in Eastern than in Western Europe. Older adults living alone are most lonely, older adults living with a partner are least lonely. Coresidence provides protection, but not to the same degree as a partner. In both co-resident and independent households there is a greater likelihood of being involved in support given to adult children than in support received from adult children. In both East and West European countries, older adults who are primarily on the receiving side are most lonely. Conclusions: A better explanation of older adult loneliness is obtained if the direction of supportive exchanges with adult children is considered than if only living arrangements are considered.

Suggested Citation

  • Jenny Gierveld & Pearl A. Dykstra & Niels Schenk, 2012. "Living arrangements, intergenerational support types and older adult loneliness in Eastern and Western Europe," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 27(7), pages 167-200.
    • Handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:27:y:2012:i:7
    DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2012.27.7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol27/7/27-7.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.4054/DemRes.2012.27.7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Erin York Cornwell & Linda J. Waite, 2009. "Measuring Social Isolation Among Older Adults Using Multiple Indicators From the NSHAP Study," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 64(suppl_1), pages 38-46.
    2. Berkman, Lisa F. & Glass, Thomas & Brissette, Ian & Seeman, Teresa E., 2000. "From social integration to health: Durkheim in the new millennium," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 51(6), pages 843-857, September.
    3. Ami Rokach & Tricia Orzeck & Janice Cripps & Katica Lackovic-Grgin & Zvjezdan Penezic, 2001. "The Effects of Culture on the Meaning of Loneliness," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 17-31, January.
    4. Louise C. Hawkley & Mary Elizabeth Hughes & Linda J. Waite & Christopher M. Masi & Ronald A. Thisted & John T. Cacioppo, 2008. "From Social Structural Factors to Perceptions of Relationship Quality and Loneliness: The Chicago Health, Aging, and Social Relations Study," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 63(6), pages 375-384.
    5. Jenny de Jong Gierveld & Marjolein Broese van Groenou & Adriaan W. Hoogendoorn & Johannes H. Smit, 2009. "Quality of Marriages in Later Life and Emotional and Social Loneliness," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 64(4), pages 497-506.
    6. Friedel Bolle & Simon Kemp, 2009. "Can We Compare Life Satisfaction Between Nationalities? Evaluating Actual and Imagined Situations," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 90(3), pages 397-408, February.
    7. Michaela R. Kreyenfeld & Anne Hornung & Karolin Kubisch & Ina Jaschinski, 2010. "Fertility and union histories from German GGS data: some critical reflections," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2010-023, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    8. Andres Vikat & Zsolt Spéder & Gijs Beets & Francesco Billari & Christoph Bühler & Aline Désesquelles & Tineke Fokkema & Jan M. Hoem & Alphonse MacDonald & Gerda Neyer & Ariane Pailhé & Antonella Pinne, 2007. "Generations and Gender Survey (GGS)," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 17(14), pages 389-440.
    9. Carlson, Per, 1998. "Self-perceived health in East and West Europe: another European health divide," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 46(10), pages 1355-1366, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stefania Ilinca & Ricardo Rodrigues & Stefan Fors & Eszter Zólyomi & Janet Jull & Johan Rehnberg & Afshin Vafaei & Susan Phillips, 2022. "Gender differences in access to community-based care: a longitudinal analysis of widowhood and living arrangements," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1339-1350, December.
    2. Marina G. Kolosnitsyna & Natalia A. Khorkina & Khongor N. Dorzhiev, 2014. "What Happens To Happiness When People Get Older? Socio-Economic Determinants Of Life Satisfaction In Later Life," HSE Working papers WP BRP 68/EC/2014, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    3. Lin Yu & Zhimin Yan & Xun Yang & Lei Wang & Yuhan Zhao & Glenn Hitchman, 2016. "Impact of Social Changes and Birth Cohort on Subjective Well-Being in Chinese Older Adults: A Cross-Temporal Meta-analysis, 1990–2010," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 126(2), pages 795-812, March.
    4. Jeofrey Bautista Abalos & Wei-Jun Jean Yeung, 2023. "Demographic, socioeconomic, and cultural factors for the rise in one-person households in developing countries: the case of the Philippines," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 40(4), pages 1-32, December.
    5. Thomas Hansen & Britt Slagsvold, 2016. "Late-Life Loneliness in 11 European Countries: Results from the Generations and Gender Survey," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 129(1), pages 445-464, October.
    6. Glenn Sandström & Lena Karlsson, 2019. "The educational gradient of living alone: A comparison among the working-age population in Europe," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 40(55), pages 1645-1670.
    7. Annahita Ehsan & Danilo Bolano & Sylvie Guillaume-Boeckle & Dario Spini, 2021. "Reducing loneliness in older adults: looking at locals and migrants in a Swiss case study," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 333-344, September.
    8. Torrejón, María-José & Martin-Matthews, Anne, 2022. "A qualitative approach to bridging and bonding social capital: Experiences of a cohort of Chilean older people," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 296(C).
    9. Katrin Schwanitz & Francesco Rampazzo & Agnese Vitali, 2021. "Unpacking intentions to leave the parental home in Europe using the Generations and Gender Survey," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 45(2), pages 17-54.
    10. Bram Hogendoorn & Juho Härkönen, 2023. "Single Motherhood and Multigenerational Coresidence in Europe," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 49(1), pages 105-133, March.
    11. Liu, Sizhe & Zhang, Wei & Wu, Li-hsueh & Wu, Bei, 2019. "Contributory behaviors and life satisfaction among Chinese older adults: Exploring variations by gender and living arrangements," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 229(C), pages 70-78.
    12. Barjaková, Martina & Garnero, Andrea & d’Hombres, Béatrice, 2023. "Risk factors for loneliness: A literature review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).
    13. Elvira Pelle & Susanna Zaccarin & Emanuela Furfaro & Giulia Rivellini, 2022. "Support provided by elderly in Italy: a hierarchical analysis of ego networks controlling for alter–overlapping," Statistical Methods & Applications, Springer;Società Italiana di Statistica, vol. 31(1), pages 133-158, March.
    14. Meng Lin & Weidong Li & Yukun Cao & Liyan Shan, 2023. "Consumer Attitudes toward Community Elderly Services during Negative Population Growth and Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-21, October.
    15. Pearl A. Dykstra & Aafke Komter, 2012. "Generational interdependencies in families," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 27(18), pages 487-506.
    16. Zachary Zimmer & Codrina Rada & Catalin Stoica, 2013. "Migration, Location and Provision of Support to Old-Age Parents: The Case of Romania," Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah 2013_09, University of Utah, Department of Economics.
    17. Lauren Newmyer & Ashton M. Verdery & Haowei Wang & Rachel Margolis, 2022. "Population Aging, Demographic Metabolism, and the Rising Tide of Late Middle Age to Older Adult Loneliness Around the World," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 48(3), pages 829-862, September.
    18. Courtin, Emilie & Avendano, Mauricio, 2016. "Under one roof: The effect of co-residing with adult children on depression in later life," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 140-149.
    19. Ricardo Rodrigues & Stefania Ilinca & Andrea E. Schmidt, 2018. "Income‐rich and wealth‐poor? The impact of measures of socio‐economic status in the analysis of the distribution of long‐term care use among older people," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(3), pages 637-646, March.
    20. Thijs van den Broek & Emily Grundy, 2017. "Loneliness among Polish migrants in the Netherlands: The impact of presence and location of partners and offspring," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 37(23), pages 727-742.
    21. Pearl A. Dykstra & Christoph Bühler & Tineke Fokkema & Gregor Petrič & Rok Platinovšek & Tina Kogovšek & Valentina Hlebec, 2016. "Social network indices in the Generations and Gender Survey," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 34(35), pages 995-1036.
    22. Ricardo Rodrigues & Stefania Ilinca & Maša Filipovič Hrast & Andrej Srakar & Valentina Hlebec, 2022. "Care Task Division in Familialistic Care Regimes: A Comparative Analysis of Gender and Socio-Economic Inequalities in Austria and Slovenia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-18, August.
    23. Thijs van den Broek & Marco Tosi, 2020. "The More the Merrier? The Causal Effect of High Fertility on Later-Life Loneliness in Eastern Europe," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 149(2), pages 733-748, June.
    24. Fredrica Nyqvist & Mikael Nygård & Thomas Scharf, 2019. "Loneliness amongst older people in Europe: a comparative study of welfare regimes," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 133-143, June.
    25. Emiko Takagi & Yasuhiko Saito & Angelique Chan, 2020. "Gender differences in the association between social relationships and loneliness among older adults in Singapore," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 243-263, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Emiko Takagi & Yasuhiko Saito & Angelique Chan, 2020. "Gender differences in the association between social relationships and loneliness among older adults in Singapore," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 243-263, September.
    2. Sarah Gibney & Mark E. McGovern & Erika Sabbath, 2013. "Social Relationships in Later Life: The Role of Childhood Circumstances," Working Papers 201319, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    3. Thomas Hansen & Britt Slagsvold & Marijke Veenstra, 2017. "Educational inequalities in late-life depression across Europe: results from the generations and gender survey," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 407-418, December.
    4. Thomas Hansen & Britt Slagsvold, 2016. "Late-Life Loneliness in 11 European Countries: Results from the Generations and Gender Survey," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 129(1), pages 445-464, October.
    5. Damiano, Fiorillo & Fabio, Sabatini, 2011. "Quality and quantity: the role of social interactions in individual health," MPRA Paper 29777, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Ferlander, Sara & Mäkinen, Ilkka Henrik, 2009. "Social capital, gender and self-rated health. Evidence from the Moscow Health Survey 2004," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 1323-1332, November.
    7. Bello, Piera & Di Novi, Cinzia & Martini, Gianmaria & Sturaro, Caterina, 2024. "Alleviating loneliness during COVID-19: The impact of neighbor cohesion and social connections in England," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    8. Fiorillo, Damiano & Sabatini, Fabio, 2011. "Quality and quantity: The role of social interactions in self-reported individual health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(11), pages 1644-1652.
    9. Emily Grundy & Thijs van den Broek & Katherine Keenan, 2019. "Number of Children, Partnership Status, and Later-life Depression in Eastern and Western Europe," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 74(2), pages 353-363.
    10. Casabianca, Elizabeth & Kovacic, Matija, 2024. "Historical roots of loneliness and its impact on second-generation immigrants’ health," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 224(C), pages 407-437.
    11. Barjaková, Martina & Garnero, Andrea & d’Hombres, Béatrice, 2023. "Risk factors for loneliness: A literature review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).
    12. Ina Berninger & Bernd Weiß & Michael Wagner, 2011. "On the links between employment, partnership quality, and the desire to have a first child," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 24(24), pages 579-610.
    13. Rosaria Lumino & Giancarlo Ragozini & Marijtje Duijn & Maria Prosperina Vitale, 2017. "A mixed-methods approach for analysing social support and social anchorage of single mothers’ personal networks," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 51(2), pages 779-797, March.
    14. Davis Tharayil, 2012. "Developing the University of the Philippines Loneliness Assessment Scale: A Cross-Cultural Measurement," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 106(2), pages 307-321, April.
    15. Damiano Fiorillo & Giuseppe Lubrano Lavadera & Nunzia Nappo, 2020. "Individual Heterogeneity in the Association Between Social Participation and Self-rated Health: A Panel Study on BHPS," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 151(2), pages 645-667, September.
    16. Brienna Perelli-Harris & Michaela Kreyenfeld & Wendy Sigle-Rushton & Renske Keizer & Trude Lappegård & Aiva Jasilioniene & Caroline Berghammer & Paola Di Giulio, 2012. "Changes in union status during the transition to parenthood in eleven European countries, 1970s to early 2000s," Population Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 66(2), pages 167-182, July.
    17. Vanessa Ibáñez-del Valle & Silvia Corchón & Georgiana Zaharia & Omar Cauli, 2022. "Social and Emotional Loneliness in Older Community Dwelling-Individuals: The Role of Socio-Demographics," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-13, December.
    18. Marjaana Seppänen & Mia Niemi & Sofia Sarivaara, 2023. "Social relations and exclusion among people facing death," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 1-9, December.
    19. Daniel Graeber, 2017. "Does More Education Protect against Mental Health Problems?," DIW Roundup: Politik im Fokus 113, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    20. Zihan Cai & Ming Lu, 2018. "Social Integration Measurement of Inhabitants in Historic Blocks: The Case of Harbin, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-19, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    living arrangements; couples; living alone; coresidence; support types; older adults; loneliness;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:27:y:2012:i:7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Editorial Office (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.