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Is Living Alone “Aging Alone”? Solitary Living, Network Types, and Well-Being

OBJECTIVES: When identifying older adults who may be at risk of being without necessary supports, policy makers and scholars tend to focus on those living alone, neglecting differences within that group. We examine how their social networks contribute to subjective well-being, why some of them fare...

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Autores principales: Djundeva, Maja, Dykstra, Pearl A, Fokkema, Tineke
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6777768/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30312447
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gby119
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author Djundeva, Maja
Dykstra, Pearl A
Fokkema, Tineke
author_facet Djundeva, Maja
Dykstra, Pearl A
Fokkema, Tineke
author_sort Djundeva, Maja
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: When identifying older adults who may be at risk of being without necessary supports, policy makers and scholars tend to focus on those living alone, neglecting differences within that group. We examine how their social networks contribute to subjective well-being, why some of them fare better and compare their well-being to older adults coresiding with others. METHOD: Data are from the fourth wave of the Survey of Health and Retirement in Europe (N = 53,383). A network typology for older people living alone (N = 10,047) is constructed using a latent class analysis. Using ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions, we examined differences in subjective well-being (life satisfaction, satisfaction with social network, depression) by network type, adding adults coresiding with others (N = 43,336) as comparison group. RESULTS: We find four social network types among older adults living alone. The likelihood of having “restricted” and “child-based” networks is greater in Eastern and Southern European countries, whereas the likelihood of having “friend-oriented” networks is greater in Western and Northern European countries. Across countries, only those with “restricted” networks tend to have the poorest well-being. Those with “diverse” networks have even better well-being than coresiding older adults. DISCUSSION: Our study shows the importance of drawing distinctions within the group of older adults living alone. Most (two thirds) are not vulnerable and at risk, but fare just as well or even better than peers who coreside with others. Country-level factors shape the opportunities to build satisfactory networks, but subjective well-being depends more strongly on individual resources, including social networks, than country-level factors.
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spelling pubmed-67777682019-10-09 Is Living Alone “Aging Alone”? Solitary Living, Network Types, and Well-Being Djundeva, Maja Dykstra, Pearl A Fokkema, Tineke J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci The Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences OBJECTIVES: When identifying older adults who may be at risk of being without necessary supports, policy makers and scholars tend to focus on those living alone, neglecting differences within that group. We examine how their social networks contribute to subjective well-being, why some of them fare better and compare their well-being to older adults coresiding with others. METHOD: Data are from the fourth wave of the Survey of Health and Retirement in Europe (N = 53,383). A network typology for older people living alone (N = 10,047) is constructed using a latent class analysis. Using ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions, we examined differences in subjective well-being (life satisfaction, satisfaction with social network, depression) by network type, adding adults coresiding with others (N = 43,336) as comparison group. RESULTS: We find four social network types among older adults living alone. The likelihood of having “restricted” and “child-based” networks is greater in Eastern and Southern European countries, whereas the likelihood of having “friend-oriented” networks is greater in Western and Northern European countries. Across countries, only those with “restricted” networks tend to have the poorest well-being. Those with “diverse” networks have even better well-being than coresiding older adults. DISCUSSION: Our study shows the importance of drawing distinctions within the group of older adults living alone. Most (two thirds) are not vulnerable and at risk, but fare just as well or even better than peers who coreside with others. Country-level factors shape the opportunities to build satisfactory networks, but subjective well-being depends more strongly on individual resources, including social networks, than country-level factors. Oxford University Press 2019-10 2018-10-11 /pmc/articles/PMC6777768/ /pubmed/30312447 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gby119 Text en © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
spellingShingle The Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences
Djundeva, Maja
Dykstra, Pearl A
Fokkema, Tineke
Is Living Alone “Aging Alone”? Solitary Living, Network Types, and Well-Being
title Is Living Alone “Aging Alone”? Solitary Living, Network Types, and Well-Being
title_full Is Living Alone “Aging Alone”? Solitary Living, Network Types, and Well-Being
title_fullStr Is Living Alone “Aging Alone”? Solitary Living, Network Types, and Well-Being
title_full_unstemmed Is Living Alone “Aging Alone”? Solitary Living, Network Types, and Well-Being
title_short Is Living Alone “Aging Alone”? Solitary Living, Network Types, and Well-Being
title_sort is living alone “aging alone”? solitary living, network types, and well-being
topic The Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6777768/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30312447
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gby119
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