Living alone in mid-life: diversity and change
Living alone in mid-life: diversity and change
This study investigates diversity within the population living on their own in mid-life in the United Kingdom by analysing partnership trajectories into solo-living in mid-life, and the kin availability and socio-economic characteristics of middle-aged men and women living alone. Despite the rise in living alone in mid-life since the 1980s, in particular among middle-aged men, there has been little scholarly attention for the diverse pathways into solo-living, how these differ by gender, and how these influence the socio-economic composition as well as the care and financial resources of those living alone in mid-life. In this paper, we first argue that the partnership and parenthood trajectories of those living on their own in mid-life are diverse and discuss how these might differ by gender and between socio-economic groups. We then use data from the General Household Survey (GHS) to describe the trend in living alone for the period 1984 to 2009. Next, we use the first wave of Understanding Society (USoc) (2009-10) to analyse the partnership histories, kin availability and socio-economic characteristics of those living alone in mid-life. The findings indicate that the dissolution of a marriage with children is the dominant pathway into mid-life solo-living, but also that there is a substantial group of never-partnered men living alone with both low and high socio-economic status. We discuss how we can make a distinction between different “types” of people living alone in mid-life and stress the policy implications of the heterogeneous composition of the population living alone in mid-life
Demey, Dieter
98bdaac3-ab8d-4985-b3e7-8b4824a4d867
Berrington, Ann
bd0fc093-310d-4236-8126-ca0c7eb9ddde
Evandrou, Maria
cd2210ea-9625-44d7-b0f4-fc0721a25d28
Falkingham, Jane
8df36615-1547-4a6d-ad55-aa9496e85519
September 2012
Demey, Dieter
98bdaac3-ab8d-4985-b3e7-8b4824a4d867
Berrington, Ann
bd0fc093-310d-4236-8126-ca0c7eb9ddde
Evandrou, Maria
cd2210ea-9625-44d7-b0f4-fc0721a25d28
Falkingham, Jane
8df36615-1547-4a6d-ad55-aa9496e85519
Demey, Dieter, Berrington, Ann, Evandrou, Maria and Falkingham, Jane
(2012)
Living alone in mid-life: diversity and change.
British Society for Population Studies (BSPS) Annual Conference, Nottingham, United Kingdom.
09 - 11 Sep 2012.
Record type:
Conference or Workshop Item
(Paper)
Abstract
This study investigates diversity within the population living on their own in mid-life in the United Kingdom by analysing partnership trajectories into solo-living in mid-life, and the kin availability and socio-economic characteristics of middle-aged men and women living alone. Despite the rise in living alone in mid-life since the 1980s, in particular among middle-aged men, there has been little scholarly attention for the diverse pathways into solo-living, how these differ by gender, and how these influence the socio-economic composition as well as the care and financial resources of those living alone in mid-life. In this paper, we first argue that the partnership and parenthood trajectories of those living on their own in mid-life are diverse and discuss how these might differ by gender and between socio-economic groups. We then use data from the General Household Survey (GHS) to describe the trend in living alone for the period 1984 to 2009. Next, we use the first wave of Understanding Society (USoc) (2009-10) to analyse the partnership histories, kin availability and socio-economic characteristics of those living alone in mid-life. The findings indicate that the dissolution of a marriage with children is the dominant pathway into mid-life solo-living, but also that there is a substantial group of never-partnered men living alone with both low and high socio-economic status. We discuss how we can make a distinction between different “types” of people living alone in mid-life and stress the policy implications of the heterogeneous composition of the population living alone in mid-life
This record has no associated files available for download.
More information
Published date: September 2012
Venue - Dates:
British Society for Population Studies (BSPS) Annual Conference, Nottingham, United Kingdom, 2012-09-09 - 2012-09-11
Organisations:
Social Sciences
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 342818
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/342818
PURE UUID: 5b2d3fbd-fa56-4ffc-8fb6-16387c57f5fb
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 14 Sep 2012 07:52
Last modified: 11 Dec 2021 04:06
Export record
Contributors
Author:
Dieter Demey
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics
