living alone and mental health: a longitudinal study
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Living alone and mental health: a longitudinal study. Zhiqiang Feng, Peteke Feijten, Paul Boyle Longitudinal Studies Centre for Scotland School of Geography and Geosciences University of St Andrews Scotland, UK. Introduction. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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Living alone and mental health: a longitudinal
studyZhiqiang Feng, Peteke Feijten, Paul BoyleLongitudinal Studies Centre for ScotlandSchool of Geography and Geosciences
University of St AndrewsScotland, UK
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Introduction• Living alone has become a common
phase in the lifecourse with one person households now making up a third of all households in Britain
• This is a rising trend in western societies
• Proportion of 16-59 year olds living alone in Britain has trebled from 5% in 1971 to 16% in 2002
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Proportion of households and people in one person households
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
1971 1981 1991 2001 2005
Year
Prop
ortio
n working age
Over pension age
Household
Source: Social Trends No 36, 2006, ONS
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Introduction• Increase of people who live alone has
many social, economic and policy implications
• The trends are regarded as symbolic of excessive individualism (Bauman 1995).
• Also optimistically as a democratisation of personal life
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Introduction• Increase of living alone leads to more
housing demand, more poverty, social inequality, care demand, decrease of fertility
• And health problems which are not widely researched.
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Does living alone matter?• Living alone is a type of social
isolation• Social isolation may be detrimental to
individuals’ mental health• Faris, (1934)
“Any form of isolation that cuts the person off from intimate social relations for an extended period of time may lead to this form of mental disorder”.
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Does living alone matter?• People living alone are less likely to
develop close personal relationship and the same level of commitment to other people than people who living together
• Persons living alone much less likely to be engaged in mutual obligations and mutual reinforcement of a primary type, particularly on a daily basis
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Does living alone matter?• Persons living alone less likely involve
emotional gratification and personal satisfaction.
• Although individually people living alone may be better off they are worse off because of pooling effects for people living as a family
• Living alone more likely to have pathological behaviour, smoking, drinking
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Does living alone matter?• However, social integration involves not
only benefits but costs• Social relations can be a source of
emotional, physical, and financial tension (House, et al 1988)
• At an extreme, of all social ties, family relations are most likely to be negative and damaging to individual well-being.
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Does living alone matter?• Marriage has been shown to have
protective effects on people’s health• Married people enjoy better mental
health than other demographic groups (Lillard & Panis, 1996)
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Previous studies• Supportive
– Smith et al 2005; Rogers et al 2000; Denton & Walters, 1999; Hughes & Waite 2002; Joutsenniemi et al 2006
• Unsupportive– Hughes & Gove 1981; Denton & Walters
1999
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What will this study do?• This research focuses on the effect of
living alone on mental health • Longitudinal data
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Research questions• Does living alone affect mental
health?• Does living alone affect mental
health independent of marital status?• Does the transition into living alone
affect mental health?• Are there gender differences in the
effect of living alone?
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Data• British Household Panel Survey (BHPS)• A national representative sample• Prospective samples-interviewees are
followed annually from 1991• All household members over 16 are
interviewed• 1991-2003, 5000 households and
10000 people
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Measurement of mental health• General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)• 12 questions like
– Have you recently:• Lost much sleep over worry?• Felt constantly under strain?• Felt you could not overcome your difficulties?• Been feeling unhappy and depressed?• Been losing confidence in yourself?• Been thinking of yourself as a worthless person?
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Measurement of mental health• We use the caseness method, each
response is coded 0, and 1• Total 12 items end up with 0 to 12• A dichotomous variable is
constructed with a threshold of 4 Individuals aged 16 to 64 are included
in our study
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Proportion of poor mental health by gender and living
arrangements
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
male female
Gender
Prop
ortio
n of
dep
ress
ed
living together
living alone
Source: BHPS 1991-2003
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Proportion of living alone by gender and age
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
16-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64
Age
Prop
ortio
n of
livi
ng a
lone
MalesFemales
Source: BHPS 1991-2003
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Modelling issues• Longitudinal data allow us to
– Control unobserved heterogeneity• Ability to cope with stress• Childhood experience
– Study transitions between different living arrangements
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Modelling issues• Fixed effect logistic models for models
of being alone• Logistic models for effects of transition
into living alone (excluding never married or never cohabiting)
• Control for age, household income, urban rural areas of residence, education, employment status, smoking, number of friends, and region of residence
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Men Women
Married 1 1Widowed 2.052* (1.142-3.688) 2.407** (1.682-3.446)Divorced 1.193 (0.912-1.561) 1.009 (0.834-1.222)Separated 3.281** (2.470-4.358) 1.913** (1.540-2.378)Never Married 1.124 (0.934-1.353) 0.991 (0.835-1.175)
N 2460 3098Observation 22307 27181Log-likelihood -8239.5 -10798.2
*p<0.05 ** p<0.01
%95 confidence intervals in bracket
Model 1 - Odds ratios by marital status
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Model 2 Odds ratio by living arrangements
Men Women
Living together 1 1Living alone 1.229** (1.056-1.431) 1.053 (0.900-1.231)
N 2460 3098Observation 22307 27186Log-likelihood -8274.9 -10829.2
*p<0.05 ** p<0.01%95 confidence intervals in bracket
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Model 3 Odds ratios by marital status and living arrangements
Men WomenMarried 1 1Widowed 2.438** (1.297-4.582) 2.497** (1.727-3.609)Divorced 1.148 (0.839-1.569) 1.027 (0.845-1.249)Separated 3.320** (2.397-4.600) 1.941** (1.558-2.418)Never Married 1.172 (0.945-1.454) 1.006 (0.845-1.199)
Living together 1 1Living alone 0.924 (0.758-1.125) 0.930 (0.786-1.100)
N 2294 3098Observation 20240 27181Log-likelihood-7486.1 -10797.0
*p<0.05 ** p<0.01%95 confidence intervals in bracket
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Model 4 Odds ratios by marital status and living arrangements
Men Women
Married & together 1 1Married & alone 1.434 (0.608-3.384) 0.610 (0.270-1.379)Widowed & together 2.975* (1.092-8.100) 2.645** (1.686-4.148)Widowed & alone 2.068* (1.026-4.168) 2.193** (1.415-3.400)Divorced & together 1.444 (0.929-2.242) 1.063 (0.862-1.311)Divorced & alone 0.978 (0.709-1.350) 0.858 (0.623-1.181)Separated & together 4.281** (2.542-7.208) 1.917** (1.505-2.443)Separated & alone 2.843** (2.024-3.993) 1.847** (1.190-2.866)Never married & together 1.130 (0.905-1.412) 0.981 (0.821-1.173)Never married & alone 1.142 (0.894-1.459) 1.004 (0.789-1.279)
N 2295 3098Observation 20244 27185Log-likelihood -7485.7 -10797
*p<0.05 ** p<0.0195% confidence intervals in bracket
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Model 5 Odds ratios by transitions between living arrangements
Men Women
Married & together 1 1Married to wid/div/sep 5.812** (3.596-9.392) 4.525** (3.425-5.977)& togetherMarried to wid/div/sep 6.034** (4.155-8.763) 7.881**
(4.724-13.146)& alone
N 3474 3568Observations 19268 18630Log likelihood -6630.9 -8168.2
*p<0.05 ** p<0.01%95 confidence intervals in bracket
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Proportion of people with poor mental health by transition of living
arrangements
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
T-2 T-1 T T+1 T+2
Time
Prop
ortio
n of
dep
ress
ed
Married & together
Married & together toWid/Div/Sep & togetherMarried & together toWid/Div/Sep & alone
Source: BHPS 1991-2003
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Conclusions• Being living alone tends to negatively
affects mental status for men but not women
• Being living alone does not have independent effects on mental health from marital status
• Transition into living alone has strong effects on mental health and increases risks of mental disorders in short-term
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Future studies• Better methodologies in tackling
endogeneity using SEM modelling or 2SLS
• Dynamic panel models taking account of state dependency
• Increase sample size by incorporating more data from the latest waves
• More analysis of duration effects
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Acknowledgements• The BHPS data are made available
through the UK Data Archive and were collected by the ESRC Research Centre on Micro-social Change at the University of Essex, now incorporated within Institute for Social Economic Research.