Household Patterns of the Elderly in Low- to Middle-Income Countries from a Multilevel Perspective.

Jeroen Spijker, Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics (CED)
Joan García-Román, Centre d’Estudis Demogràfics (CED), UAB

This study uses a temporal and broad geographic comparative framework to examine household structure of elderly in 67 low- and middle-income countries across Africa, Asia, Central and South America. We focus on the elderly to highlight the growing importance of this sub-population in some (though not yet all) non-western countries. The main objective is to determine whether the elderly are moving away from patri-local or other extended household forms and which factors may play a part in this process. Rather than focusing on specific countries, we aim to identify common determinants. The first part of the paper will focus on factors known to play a role in the decline in extended households, including economic, demographic and cultural factors. Subsequently, we will quantify the importance of these factors on elderly living arrangements in the low- to middle-income countries. In doing so, we concentrate on three main themes: 1) The effect of changing fertility and mortality levels on the living arrangements of the elderly; 2) The effect of economic growth on the living arrangements of the elderly; and 3) The identification and quantification of possible social and cultural changes that may have had an effect on the household composition of the elderly.

Keywords: Families, Unions and Households, Older Adults and Intergenerational Relations, Census data, Multi-level modeling

See extended abstract.