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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Loneliness and depression in middle and old age
— are the childless more vulnerable? | | Author(s) | Tanya Koropeckyj-Cox |
| Journal title | The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological sciences and social sciences, vol 53B, no 6, November 1998 |
| Pages | pp S303-S312 |
| Keywords | Age groups [elderly] ; Middle aged ; Childless ; Marital status ; Mental health [elderly] ; Depression ; Social surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | This study tests whether childlessness is significantly related to greater loneliness or depression among older adults, both alone and in conjunction with marital status. Using data from the 1988 US National Survey of Families and Households, the relative circumstances of community-dwelling, permanently childless adults and biological parents (with at least one surviving child), aged 50 to 84, are compared. Multivariate models are used to test the effects of parental status and combined marital-parental statuses on loneliness and depression, controlling for sociodemographic characteristics. Results of multivariate analyses show no significant, direct effect of childlessness, though a marginally significant effect appears for women. However, small but significant differences are observed within a typology combining marital and parental statuses. Widowed men and women report higher levels of loneliness and depression than married parents regardless of parental status. Divorced parents are also significantly more vulnerable. The subjective well-being of never-married, childless men and women is indistinguishable from that of their married peers. These results confirm earlier studies. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-990304008 A |
| Classmark | BB: SE: SU: SLM: D: ENR: 3F: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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