Family life course and mortality – a sequence analysis Maria Josefsson 1 , Emma Lundholm 1,2 , Gunnar Malmberg, 1,2 , maria.josefsson@umu.se, emma.lundholm@umu.se and gunnar.malmberg@umu.se 1 Centre for Demographic and Ageing Research, Umeå University, Sweden 2 Department of Geography and Economic History, Umeå University, Sweden Abstract The aim of the proposed study is to explore patterns of family life courses and mortality for elderly people. We identify different states of social isolation, e.g. having and not having relatives and having them close by or far away. In addition we identify typical sequences of states in order to explore how this pattern changes over time by use of sequence analysis. Since influence from family ties may differ substantially between different socio-economic groups, we explore possible associations between socio-economic characteristics and the identified types of sequences. The empirical analyses are based on micro data-set covering the whole Swedish population, and include the information from various administrative registers provided by Statistics Sweden and the National Board of Health and Welfare. It allows us to examine different paths to relative social isolation, and go beyond cross-sectional analyses of the associations between, on one hand, being lonely and, on the other, mortality and health. The analysis will provide an overview of the social landscape surrounding elderly people in Sweden and how it has emerged over time. And moreover, inform us about the association between family life course, observed as sequences of states, socio-economic characteristics and the timing of mortality.
Introduction Increasing social isolation is often depicted as one of the most serious problem for older people today (UN 2015). In times of population ageing, fewer adult children, smaller sibships and long- distance migration, the lack of an accessible social network is a major problem for many elderly people, also in non-famialistic societies. Further, a huge body of research has demonstrated a detrimental impact of social isolation on health and survival (Holt-Lunstad et al., 2010; Steptoe et al., 2013). Social isolation may affect the subjective well-being, feeling of safety, sense of coherence and influence health outcomes and mortality. In addition, family networks may also influence life style (e.g. tobacco use) medication, health monitoring etc. and hence result in increasing mortality (e.g. Vink et al., 2003). There is however, limited knowledge of how social isolation arises and evolves over time, and how this influences the lives of elderly. Mortality risks are significantly elevated for singles in comparison to married individuals and this risk has increased in more recent years, especially for women (Roelfs et al., 2011). There is also strong evidence from many studies of an elevated mortality risk associated with widowhood (Shor et al., 2012; Moon et al., 2011) and divorce (Sbarra et al., 2011). This positive association between marriage and survival can either be seen as a causal effect or as a result of selection in and out of marriage. The casual protective effect could be attributed to a combination of the instrumental and economic benefits of sharing a household, or as an effect of social and emotional support. In addition, family networks can encourage healthy behavior and monitor the health of a spouse or other family member. The negative ‘widowhood effect’ tends to be highest in the nearest future of the event, but there is also evidence of a persisting higher mortality risk for widowed compared to married individuals (Shor et al., 2012; Moon et al., 2011). In addition to the emotional stress and grief, loss of emotional and instrumental support is often identified as mechanisms behind this effect. Also selection into widowhood is an acknowledged underlying explanation, this could be a result of shared risk factors like socio-economic position or lifestyles within couples (ibid). Mortality in relation to divorce is similar to that of widowhood (Sbarra et al., 2011). Studies have shown that men are particularly vulnerable to the effects of divorce, both in the long and short term (Metsä-Simula and Martikainen, 2012). There is evidence that the inclusion of marital history in addition to current marital status contribute to a better explanation of mortality risk, especially for men (Blomgren et al., 2010; Dondrovich et al., 2014).
The Scandinavian countries have been depicted as ‘weak family’ societies in comparison to other European countries (Reher, 2004). From surveys like SHARE it has been shown that economic and social support between generations is more frequent in Scandinavia although less intense compared to other European countries (Albertini and Kohli, 2013). It has been argued that extended families can be viewed as a latent source of support that steps in to help in times of need, for instance unemployment, divorce or bereavement (ibid). Moreover, we know from previous research that distance between parents and adult children influences intergenerational contact (Fors and Lennartsson, 2008; Hank, 2007; Michielin and Mulder, 2007). It is therefore important to also take the geographical proximity to family members into account. Intergenerational co-residence can be considered a non-normative support strategy in a Swedish context and is generally very uncommon (Albertini and Kohli, 2013). Access to family networks varies between socioeconomic groups. With higher education comes higher migration propensity and longer distances between family members. Previous studies on geographic proximity between elderly parents and adult children suggest that high educational level is associated with longer distances to kin. These differences are however smaller in an urban context (Lundholm, 2015), despite a trend of shorter geographical distances between generations in later cohorts (Malmberg and Pettersson, 2007). Moreover, cross-national comparisons show that distances between parents and adult children are larger and intergenerational contacts less frequent in Sweden (Hank, 2007). Yet, elderly Swedes report larger satisfaction with their social networks (Olofsson and Malmberg, 2016) and less feeling of loneliness (Sundström et al., 2009; Dykstra, 2009). In addition, trends regarding how patterns of marriage, childlessness, divorce and re-partnering vary across socio-economic groups are also important to consider. Here we can also observe a shift in the behaviours related to the second demographic transition where the social gradient of e.g. fertility and family stability has shifted (Esping-Andersen and Billari, 2015). While the divorce transition was set off by individuals with higher socio-economic positions, the socio economic gradient has gradually shifted, and divorce/separation is more common among persons with lower socio-economic position (Esping- Andersen, 2016). Additionally, higher educational achievement also increases the chances of re- partnering, at least for men (de Graaf and Kalmijn, 2003). It is therefore essential to investigate
changes in the socioeconomic and demographic composition of elderly in relation to social isolation. Despite evidence of differences between demographic and socio-economic groups regarding the elevated mortality risks among widows/widowers, socio-economic factors have been inadequately controlled for in many studies and there has been a call for research that pay attention to the mediating role of individual and contextual factors (Moon, 2012; Sullivan and Fenelon, 2013). One example of a study of contextual factors in Wright et al. (2015) who found rural-urban differences, where the initial effect was stronger in rural areas, while the long term ‘widowhood effect’ was most detrimental to men in urban areas. It is suggested that men in rural areas are more socially integrated than urban men and therefore more resilient to the ‘widowhood effect’. Studies of the ‘widowhood effect’ generally compare widowed to married men and women. In contrast to such approach treating change in marital status as a single event we strive in this project to investigate the impact of different patterns of family life-course trajectories on mortality by examine how marital status in combination with extended family network. The aim of the proposed study is to explore patterns of family life courses in relation to mortality for elderly people by use of sequence analysis and register data. We identify different states of having and not having relatives and having them close by or far away. Explore patterns of family life-courses in old age in relation to mortality. Methods With the main objective to explore how family life courses, including marital histories and proximity to adult children, are associated with risks of mortality, we will initially use register data to map patterns of family life courses and examine how these patterns have changed over time. In a second step, we will use of sequences analysis to examine how the family life course sequences are associated with mortality risks, socio-economic position and geographical contexts. Data In the empirical analyses we use a micro data-set, based on the information from various administrative registers provided by Statistics Sweden. The database contains anonymous
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