Spousal death as an equalizer?: Racial heterogeneity in the widowhood effect on loneliness

• In Event: Aging and the Life Course Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): 5: Marital Formation and Dissolution

Abstract

While racial heterogeneity in the widowhood effect on mortality has been well explored, heterogenous effects on social outcomes like loneliness across race have yet to be systematically investigated. Using a sample of widow(er)s from the Health and Retirement Study aged 50 and above (n = 4,447), this study addresses this gap by testing for Black-White variation in the widowhood effect on loneliness. I employ an event study approach with two-way fixed-effects models to examine how the likelihood of feeling lonely changes after widowhood separately for Black and White widow(er)s. Results suggest that White respondents experienced a stronger widowhood effect on loneliness than Black respondents with differences in the effect persisting for at least 6 years after widowhood, and that group-level differences across race are driven predominantly by differences among widow(er)s living alone. Further, I find that the asymmetric widowhood effect results in a temporary reversal and eventual convergence of pre-widowhood differences in loneliness observed among married Black and White older adults. These findings contribute to broader discussions on why racial disparities in health and well-being converge in later life. Current explanations rely on age-as-leveler perspectives to explain convergence but have been found to be lacking. I argue that the unequal effects of disruptive events experienced in later life can contribute to patterns of convergence, with widowhood being one example. Further, when considered alongside existing evidence that the timing of widowhood varies across race, I argue that the case of widowhood and loneliness provides evidence for the broader role of the unequal timing and effect of disruptive events in contributing to observed trajectories of racial disparities in health and well-being in mid- to later-life. In so doing, I advance the perspective that inequalities in health and well-being in later life are malleable rather than solely determined by disparities in early life.

Author

• Micah Tan, Princeton University