How family environment transitions affect health and wellbeing in old age

• In Event: 4266 - Section on Aging and the Life Course Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: 4. Disparities

Abstract

We know that close family ties are positively associated with physical health and mental wellbeing in later life. In order to answer how family environment transitions affect health and wellbeing in old age, we take point of departure in documented changes in family demographic structures. That is, we examine how patterns of marriage and childbearing, the experiences of divorce and re-partnering, and the growing diversity in families and children’s living arrangements contribute to physical and mental wellbeing in later life. Employing an interdisciplinary approach using tools from demography, sociology, and public health, we use survey and register data to map prevalent sequential patterns of family relations over time, and investigate these sequential patterns’ prospective impact on physical and mental wellbeing among the elderly population.
The results from this research are important because a) they enable early identification of vulnerable groups among the elderly population, and b) they pinpoint optimal strategies for preventive social policy from an integrated perspective of population level evidence and lived experiences.

Author

• Lisbeth Loft, University of Copenhagen