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5. Patterns and Determinants of Living Arrangements
- University of Michigan Press
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Chapter 5 PATTERNS AND DETERMINANTS OF L,V,NG ARRANGEMENTS John Knodel andMary Beth Ofstedal Living arrangements, and in particular coresidence with an adult child, lie at the heart of the traditional system of familial support for elders in all four ofthe countries encompassed by this study. For many elders, support and care from adult children living within the same household or residential compound is crucial for their psychological, physical, and economic wellbeing . Thus it is not surprising that much of the recent sociodemographic research on Asian elderly, including that featured in theme issues of several journals, has focused on this topic (DaVanzo and Chan, 1994; Knodel, 1992, 1995, 1997; Logan, Bian and Bian, 1998; Martin, 1989). Previous studies, however, were often hampered by the lack of data with sufficient detail to analyze important aspects of living arrangements and their place within the broader network ofintergenerational exchanges. The recent rounds ofsurveys undertaken in conjunction with our collaborative project in the Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand, and to a lesser extent in Singapore, go well beyond most previous data collection efforts in providing detailed information, permitting a fuller description of living arrangements ofthe older population and a more comprehensive examination oftheir determinants and consequences. In all of these countries there is a long tradition of extended family households, and expectations concerning coresidence in old age remain high 143 144 The Well-Being ofthe Elderly in Asia among current cohorts ofelderly and their adult children. Views ofboth elders and their adult children, as expressed in focus groups in all four countries, confirm living arrangements as a crucial part of family support (Asis et aI., 1995). Nevertheless, their significance for the well-being ofelders should not be exaggerated. As Figure 4.1 in the previous chapter reminds us, although living arrangements may be a means to achieve various dimensions of wellbeing for both generations, they are not an end in themselves. Focus group data from all four countries underline the costs and benefits of coresidence, from both the elderly parents' and the adult children's perspectives (Asis et aI., 1995). For instance, while both generations report that lack ofprivacy is a disadvantage of coresidence, older family members who require personal assistance and younger members who need help with child-care or finances benefit greatly from coresidence. These costs and benefits are complex in that they involve many dimensions, are embedded in normative expectations, and tend to shift over the life course ofboth generations and perhaps over historical time. Moreover, intergenerational exchanges ofmaterial support and services between households, as well as social visits, are all aspects of the broader interconnected familial support system that influence well-being. These latter types of exchanges will be taken up in Chapter 6. Government planners in all the countries under study are concerned about the potential erosion offamily support systems, including coresidence, in response to the socioeconomic changes engulfing Asia and most of the developing world. However, the extent to which living arrangements have changed and will continue to change, the nature ofthat change, and its implications for the well-being of the elderly and their families are all issues that need to be addressed with empirical data. The present chapter casts a broad net on the topic of living arrangements, covering such aspects as trends in living arrangements over time, generational composition of households, and differentials related to the marital status and gender of children. The chapter concludes with a multivariate examination of the determinants of living arrangements . Measurement Issues Research on living arrangements looks at both household composition and the relative location ofkin not residing in the household. One particularly key aspect concerns coresidence with children. For most purposes, the interest in coresidence with children stems from its greater potential for meaningful and frequent exchanges of services between elderly parents and their children. Generally coresidence is defined as living in the same dwelling or household [3.133.79.70] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 21:14 GMT) Patterns and Determinants ofLiving Arrangements 145 with the focal elderly person. For some purposes, however, this definition can be considered as either too narrow or too broad. For example, ifour goal is to capture all cases where the daily lives ofelderly parents and their children are intimately intertwined as a result of living arrangements, the typical concept of coresidence captures only part of this and thus can be considered too narrow . For this reason, we introduce the concept of quasi-coresidence in some analyses to allow for cases in which...