Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:14:44.086Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Widowed and Married: Comparative Change in Living Arrangements, 1900 and 1980

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Tim B. Heaton  and
Caroline Hoppe
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

It has become clear that the onset of widowhood, perhaps more than any other event of the aging process, involves a dramatic change in the family status of older persons. Because many elderly are neither emotionally nor economically prepared for widowhood, the death of a spouse often requires a realignment of social and familial relationships, economic conditions, and living arrangements. The ability to cope with hardships associated with loss of spouse certainly may be enhanced or limited by living arrangements. Not only does the type of household indicate the individual’s sociodemographic status, it also gives us insight into the individual’s family life in old age. Widowhood may initiate the final stage of the family cycle when the widowed person, as the only household survivor, must either change residence or live alone. In either case, a reordering of kinship links or provision for formal assistance may be necessary.

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Science History , Volume 11 , Issue 3 , Fall 1987 , pp. 261 - 280
Copyright
copyright © Social Science History Association 1987 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achenbaum, A. (1979) Old Age in the New Land: The American Experience Since 1790. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins World Press.Google Scholar
Chudacoff, H. and Hareven, T. K. (1978) “Family transitions to old age,” in Hareven, T. [ed.,] Transitions: The Family and the Life Course in Historical Perspective.New York: Academic Press: 217–244.Google Scholar
Chudacoff, H. (1979) “From the empty nest to family dissolutions: life course transitions into old age.” Journal of Family History (Spring): 69–83.Google Scholar
Cutler, N. and Harootyan, R. A. (1975) “Demography of The Aged,” in Woodruff, D. S. and Biner, J. E.. Aging: Scientific Perspectives and Social Issues. New York: D. Van Nostrand Co.: 31–69.Google Scholar
Goldman, N. and Lord, G. (1983) “Sex Differences in Life Cycle Measures of Widowhood.” Demography 20(2) (May): 177–195.Google Scholar
Goode, W. J. (1963) World Revolution and Family Patterns. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Graham, S. N. (1980) 1900 Public Use Sample. The Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.Google Scholar
Hareven, T. K. (1977) “Family Time and Historical Time.” Daedalus 106(2) (Spring): 57–70.Google Scholar
Hareven, T. K. (1982) “The Life Course and Aging in Historical Perspective,” in Hareven, T. and Adams, K. (eds.) Aging and Life Course Transitions: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. New York: Guilford Press: 1–26.Google Scholar
Kobrin, F. (1976a) “The fall in household size and the rise of the primary individual in the United States.” Demography 13: 127–138.Google Scholar
Kobrin, F. (1976b) “The Primary Individual and the Family: Changes in living arrangements in the U.S. since 1940.” Journal of Marriage and the Family 38 (May): 223–239.Google Scholar
Laslett, P. (1976) “Characteristics of the western family considered over time.” Family History 2(2): 89–115.Google Scholar
Laslett, P. (1977) “The history of aging and the aged,” in Laslett, P. (ed.) Family Life and the Illicit Love in Earlier Generations: Essays in Historical Sociology. Cambridge, Massachussetts: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Laslett, P. and Wall, R. [eds.] (1972) Household and Family in Past time. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Michael, R. T., Fuchs, V. R., and Scott, S. R. (1980) “Changes in the Propensity to Live Alone: 1950-1976.” Demography 17: 39–56.Google Scholar
Modell, J. and Hareven, T. K. (1973) “Urbanization and the Malleable Household: an examination of boarding and lodging in American Families.” Journal of Marriage and the Family 35: 467–479.Google Scholar
Modell, J. (1978) “Transitions: Patterns of Timing,” in Hareven, T. (ed.) Transitions: The Family and the Life Course in Historical Perspective. New York: Academic Press: 245–270.Google Scholar
Morgan, J. N., Kinson, K. D., Bemis, J. and Duncan, G. (1974) 5,000 American Families: Patterns of Economic Progress. Vol. 1 Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Institute for Social Research.Google Scholar
Riley, M. W. and Foner, A. (1968) “Aging and Society, An Inventory of Research Findings, Relations of Old People.” The Gerontologist 19(1): 3–9.Google Scholar
Shorter, E. (1975) The Making of the Modern family. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Smith, D. S. (1981) “Historical change in the household structure of the elderly in economically developed societies” in Fogel, et al (eds.) Aging: Stability and Change in the Family. New York: Academic Press: 91–114.Google Scholar
Soldo, B. (1981) “The Living Arrangements of the Elderly in the Near Future,” in Kiesler, S. et al (eds.) Aging: Social Change. New York: Academic Press: 491–512.Google Scholar
Treas, J. (1977) “Family Support Systems for the Aged: Some Social and Demographic Considerations.” The Gerontologist 17(6): 486–491.Google Scholar
Treas, J. (1981) “Women’s Employment and Its implications for the Status of the Elderly of the Future.” in Kiesler, S. et al [eds.] Aging: Social Change. New York: Academic Press: 561–587.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census (1950) “Marital Status” 1950 Population Special Report PE No. 20, Table 1. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census (1981) “Household and Family Characteristics: March 1980.” Current Population Reports; Series P-20, No. 366. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare (1978) Report of the HEW Task Force on the Treatment of Women under Social Security. Office of Legislative and Regulatory Policy, Social Security Administration. Washington, D.C: U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.Google Scholar