<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>This paper analyses trajectories of life satisfaction among elderly people in various family situations and tests whether the disadvantage related to being single or childless increases (as predicted by cumulative (dis)advantage hypothesis) or reduces (consistently with age-as-leveler hypothesis) when people get older. The results show that the disadvantage of never married mothers grows with age, whereas the disadvantage of divorced people reduces with age. The study suggests that, in general, the increasing probability of ageing without close kin does not put at risk life satisfaction of elderly people.</p></abstract>

This paper analyses trajectories of life satisfaction among elderly people in various family situations and tests whether the disadvantage related to being single or childless increases (as predicted by cumulative (dis)advantage hypothesis) or reduces (consistently with age-as-leveler hypothesis) when people get older. The results show that the disadvantage of never married mothers grows with age, whereas the disadvantage of divorced people reduces with age. The study suggests that, in general, the increasing probability of ageing without close kin does not put at risk life satisfaction of elderly people.

Old-Age Trajectories of Life Satisfaction. Do Singlehood and Childlessness Hurt More When People Get Older?

Swiss Journal of Sociology

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

This paper analyses trajectories of life satisfaction among elderly people in various family situations and tests whether the disadvantage related to being...

Old-Age Trajectories of Life Satisfaction. Do Singlehood and Childlessness Hurt More When People Get Older?

Published Online: Nov 26, 2020

Page range: 397 - 424

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/sjs-2020-0020

Keywords
life satisfaction, cumulative (dis)advantage, age-as-leveler

© 2020 Małgorzata Mikucka, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Old-Age Trajectories of Life Satisfaction. Do Singlehood and Childlessness Hurt More When People Get Older?

Published Online: Nov 26, 2020

Page range: 397 - 424

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/sjs-2020-0020

Keywordslife satisfaction, cumulative (dis)advantage, age-as-leveler

© 2020 Małgorzata Mikucka, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
life satisfaction, cumulative (dis)advantage, age-as-leveler