Transition and Stability of “Extended Living Arrangement” in Later Life: How Health Plays a Role?

Qian Song , RAND Corporation
Luoman Bao, California State University, Los Angeles

Family is the most important source of support for older adults in many contexts. However, previous research does not tap the full complexity of contemporary familial supporting structure of older adults, which does not only involve people in the household, but also offspring living nearby or in longer distance. We develop the term “extended living arrangements” to comprehend the extensive and interactive nature of older adults’ familial supporting structure. Further, there is a lack of understanding of how such supporting structure responds to the health and changes in health of older adults. In this research, using China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2011-2015) and latent class analysis, we developed three types of extended living arrangements: the multigeneration households, Offspring nearby households, and left-behind households. We also assess how health conditions determine older adult’s membership in their class, and how changes in these conditions affect their class transitions.

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 Presented in Session 4. Marriage, Family, Households, & Unions