Full Citation
Title: Long-term trends in living alone in later life in the United States, 1850-2015
Citation Type: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2019
ISBN:
ISSN: 1081-602X
DOI: 10.1080/1081602X.2019.1696217
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Abstract: Recent research has looked at living alone among the elderly both within the context of the developed world and globally from a comparative perspective. To date this research has contributed relatively little to our understanding of patterns of change over time, an issue of major importance for the prediction of future trends. We propose now to look at change over time using a long-term historical perspective on living alone based on rich data from the United States, the country with by far the longest series of micro-census data in the world. Our analysis will be based on available public use manuscript samples of US censuses beginning in the mid-nineteenth century and stretching until the present. It will yield an invaluable long-term perspective, spanning the entire period of economic development and social change that characterized the history of the USA over the past century and one half. Descriptive indicators of the incidence of living alone are interpreted in terms of important societal, cultural, economic and legislative changes over the period under study. Multivariable analytical techniques are applied to these data in order to assess both the micro determinants of living alone and how independent variables such as age, sex, education and marital status change over time. The results of this study enable us to estimate the degree to which change in the United States can be used as a benchmark for patterns of historical change elsewhere, especially when controlling for levels of development.
Url: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1081602X.2019.1696217
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Authors: Reher, David; Requena, Miguel
Periodical (Full): The History of the Family
Issue: 3
Volume: 25
Pages: 455-483
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Other
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