Offspring and later-life loneliness in Eastern and Western Europe

Abstract: Later-life loneliness is increasingly recognized as an important public health issue. In this study, we examine whether having more children and grandchildren is protective against later life loneliness in a group of Eastern and Western European countries. Drawing on data from the Generation and Gender Surveys, we estimated logistic regression models of the likelihood of being lonely among men and women aged 65 and older. The results showed a negative association between number of children and loneliness among men and women in both Eastern-European and Western-European countries. A mediation analysis performed using the KHB decomposition method showed that grandparenthood status partly explained differences in the loneliness risks of childless women, mothers with one child and those with two or more children. Among men, the mediating role of grandparenthood was significant in Eastern Europe and marginally significant in Western countries. Given the relatively strong reliance of old

Alternative title
Nachkommenschaft und Einsamkeit im Alter in Ost- und Westeuropa
Location
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
Extent
Online-Ressource
Language
Englisch
Notes
Veröffentlichungsversion
begutachtet (peer reviewed)
In: Zeitschrift für Familienforschung ; 31 (2019) 2 ; 199-215

Event
Veröffentlichung
(where)
Mannheim
(who)
SSOAR - Social Science Open Access Repository
(when)
2019
Creator
Broek, Thijs van den
Tosi, Marco
Grundy, Emily

DOI
10.3224/zff.v31i2.05
URN
urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-64666-2
Rights
Open Access; Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
Last update
25.03.2025, 1:44 PM CET

Data provider

This object is provided by:
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Associated

  • Broek, Thijs van den
  • Tosi, Marco
  • Grundy, Emily
  • SSOAR - Social Science Open Access Repository

Time of origin

  • 2019

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