Soc Indic Res DOI 10.

1007/s11205-012-0166-x

Parenthood, Marital Status, and Well-Being in Later Life: Evidence from SHARE
Karsten Hank Michael Wagner

Accepted: 25 September 2012 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012

Abstract Using pooled cross-sectional data from the rst two waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, we address the question of whether and how parenthood and marital status are associated with various dimensions of elders well-being, which we dene by elements of the individuals economic situation, psychological wellbeing, and social connectedness. The results of our multivariate analysis suggest that childless individuals do not generally fare worse than parents in terms of their economic, psychological, or social well-being. Although there is some indication for a protective effect of marriage, having a partner does not per se contribute to greater psychological well-being: only those reporting satisfaction with the extent of reciprocity in their relationship report lower numbers of depression symptoms than their unmarried counterparts. We observe no systematic associations between parenthood (marriage, respectively) and individuals propensity to participate in social activities. These ndings are fairly stable, that is, they hold for both men and women as well as across various cohorts, and they do not vary systematically between countries. Keywords Parenthood Partnership Well-being SHARE

1 Introduction Population ageing results from steadily increasing life-expectancy and sustained belowreplacement fertility. Two factors that have been suggested to contribute, among many others, to the latter are increasing levels of childlessness (e.g. Dykstra 2009; Rowland 2007) and decreasing union stability (e.g. Coppola and Di Cesare 2008; Klein 2003). This is of particular concern against the background of a growing population of frail elders who depend on support by others, and particularly on help provided by their families. That is,
K. Hank (&) M. Wagner Institute of Sociology, University of Cologne, Greinstr. 2, 50939 Cologne, Germany e-mail: hank@wiso.uni-koeln.de M. Wagner e-mail: mwagner@wiso.uni-koeln.de

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the absence of children and/or partners might constitute a serious threat to well-being in later life, especially in countries where welfare state services are poorly developed (e.g. Brandt et al. 2009; Kohli et al. 2009). Using pooled cross-sectional data from the rst two waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we address the question of whether (or to what extent) this is actually the case from three complementary angles, thereby providing a more comprehensive account than most previous research. First, many studies on the role of parenthood and partnership in later-life well-being focus on psychological well-being (or other health outcomes; see, for example, Hughes and Waite 2009; Umberson et al. 2010). Our study, though, takes a broader perspective on well-being, which also considers elements of elders economic situation and social connectedness (e.g. Dykstra and Wagner 2007; Keizer et al. 2010).1 Second, we explicitly account for the interplay between parenthood and marital status (e.g. Keizer et al. 2010; Wagner 1997), as well as for the role of relationship quality (e.g. Koropeckyj-Cox 2002; Ryan and Willits 2007) in determining older peoples well-being. Third, and nally, we investigate whether and how the societal context in which individuals age impacts the micro-level association between parenthood (marital status, respectively) and various dimensions of well-being (e.g. Huijts et al. 2011; Moor and Komter 2012). The remainder of this article is structured as follows: to begin with we provide a brief overview of previous research on the parenthood/partnership and well-being nexus. Following a short description of data and methods, we present our empirical ndings. The nal section concludes, discussing implications of our ndings and perspectives for future research.

2 Previous Research Proposed mechanisms Various mechanisms have been proposed to explain potential associations between elders parental and partnership status on the one hand and their wellbeing on the other hand. First, there is a general consensus that children and partners carry both potential benets (e.g. support), but may also bring about costs (e.g. stress); cf. Ross et al. (1990). It has been argued that relations between family members are special in the sense that they are characterized by a particular form of solidarity between spouses and especially between generations (e.g. Bengtson and Roberts 1991). One important dimension of family solidarity is the exchange of instrumental and emotional support (functional solidarity). Children, especially if they live in close proximity to their parents, might be confronted with strong social expectations to support their parents in order to full norms tze and Wagner 1991; also see Hank 2007). Such of intergenerational reciprocity (e.g. Schu expectations, however, also bear in them the potential for intergenerational conict (e.g. Bengtson et al. 2002). Moreover, the quality of parentchild relations might be challenged by spousal conict (e.g. Erel and Burman 1995), which also has a direct negative impact on individuals well-being (e.g. Choi and Marks 2008; Hawkins and Booth 2005), thereby counteracting the frequently suggested protective effect of marriage. Whether the net effect of parental and partnership status on individuals well-being is positive or negative is difcult to establish, because this will depend on the specic combination of benets, costs, and well1

n (2012), for example. In a sample of d and Selde This approach is consistent with recent work by Hallero older Swedes, they identied ve different well-being arenas: health, psychosocial well-being, functionality, social relations, and economic hardship. All were part of a multidimensional wellbeing condition, i.e. older people tend to simultaneously suffer from several types of specic wellbeing problems.

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being dimensions under consideration. Moreover, it is dependent on the extent to which kin and non-kin social relationships are complements or substitutes (e.g. Kohli et al. 2009) and likely to vary over the individuals life-course (e.g. Umberson et al. 2010). Second, childbearing behaviours off the normative life course track (i.e. childlessness, but also teenage or non-marital parenthood) tend to be associated with unstable partnership careers and might have long-term negative consequences for individuals wellbeing, resulting from economic disadvantage, social exclusion, or stress induced health insults (e.g. Hank 2010; Koropeckyj-Cox et al. 2007). Although it has been suggested that the ramications of not entering the parental role are greater for women than for men (Dykstra and Wagner 2007: 1491), young fatherhood has also been shown to be associated with subsequent disadvantage across the life course (e.g. Sigle-Rushton 2005). It thus seems important to consider gender issues in investigations of the relationship between parenthood and later life well-being. Moreover, societal contextin terms of welfare, family, or social capital regimesis likely to mediate the contribution of family related (dis-)advantages on individuals well-being (see below for a more detailed discussion of potential pathways and empirical ndings).Third, and nally, observed associations might result from selection effects, that is, individuals equipped with different initial levels of (economic, social, psychological) well-being may exhibit different propensities to enter parenthood or marriage (e.g. Kiernan 1989; Waldron et al. 1996). Empirical ndings The following review of previous empirical studies investigating the role of parenthood and marital status in older peoples well-being is organized along the lines of three major dimensions of well-being: economic, psychological, and social well n 2012). We consid d and Selde being (e.g. Dykstra and Hagestad 2007; also see Hallero ered it important to complement the psychological component of well-being with economic and social outcomes, because they inuence older adults life chances today and reect acquisitions, investments, and socially structured opportunities over the individuals life course (Dykstra and Wagner 2007). While we acknowledge that different conceptualizations exist for each of the three dimensions, we focus on those indicators that will be addressed later on in our empirical analysis, namely (a) income and wealth, (b) depression, and (c) social participation. (a) Income and wealth: Old-age security has been suggested as a motive for fertility even in societies with a functioning social security system (e.g. Rendall and Bahchieva 1998). However, empirical investigations of the effect of children on younger families material well-being clearly show that children have a negative impact on a variety of economic indicators, albeit with considerable cross-national differences (e.g. Aassve et al. 2005; Sigle-Rushton and Waldfogel 2007). The nancial disadvantage of parenthood seems to persist into later life (e.g. Hofferth 1984; Plotnick 2009), particularly if women who raised children outside of marriage are considered (Johnson and Favreault 2004). Independent of parenthood, marital status is also associated with individuals economic circumstances. For example, the joint taxation of married couples, which is common in many countries (e.g. Dingeldey 2001), tends to discourage womens participation in the labour market, which reduces their life-time income and often results in nancial distress, especially after a divorce or following the death of their partner (e.g. Burkauser et al. 2005; Dewilde et al. 2011; Holden and Kuo 1996). Thus, it does not come as a surprise that, contrary to men, many studies show a strong socioeconomic position for never-married womenwho were childless because they remained single (Dykstra and Hagestad 2007: 1520).

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(b)

(c)

Depression: Different from other major social roles, previous research could not identify a clear relationship between parenthood and psychological well-being (depression, respectively; e.g. Evenson and Simon 2005; Hansen et al. 2009; Zhang and Hayward 2001). If there is statistically signicant evidence at all, it tends to suggest that older childless men and women exhibit lower levels of depressive symptoms than parents, particularly if they are compared to those who had their rst child early (e.g. Henretta et al. 2008) or whose relationship with their offspring is of poor quality (e.g. Koropeckyj-Cox 2002). A recent exception is the European study by Huijts et al. (2011), who nd that being childless is associated with worse psychological well-being for men (but not for women). Ones marital status, though, appears to be a more salient factor inuencing depression than parenthood as such (e.g. Buber and Engelhardt 2008; Bures et al. 2009). Those who are currently (and continuously) married are least likely to suffer from depressive symptoms, whereas those who experienced marital disruptions even do worse than the never-married (see Hughes and Waite 2009, who report similar ndings for other health outcomes as well). Widowhood in particular has been shown to be associated with elevated risks of depression for men and women alike (e.g. Lee and DeMaris 2007; Schaan 2009). Social participation: Children have often been suggested to serve parents as bridges both to the wider society as well as to local networks, independent of their age (e.g. Choi 1994; Furstenberg 2005). However, ndings from a variety of institutional and cultural contexts show that childless older adults, regardless of marital status and gender, are equally likely as parents to be active in the community and in voluntary organizations (Wenger et al. 2007). Never-married childless women even appear to be particularly active socially (Wenger et al. 2007), which one might attribute partially to the fact that close intergenerational family relations tend to be associated with a lower propensity to engage in informal non-kin social interaction (i.e. outside of formal organizations; see Kohli et al. 2009). Having a partner, however, is positively linked to formal social participation, such as volunteering (e.g. Erlinghagen and Hank 2006; Rotolo and Wilson 2006). Investigations of the effects of widowhood on older adults social participation provide evidence for an increase in informal social relations following the loss of a partner (due to greater support from friends and relatives), but nd no signicant relationship between widowhood and volunteerism (e.g. Donelly and Hinterlong 2010; Utz et al. 2002).

Although the studies reported above not always indicated strong gender differences in associations between parenthood (marital status, respectively) and later-life outcomes, recent evidence showed that men should not be neglected in research on childlessness (e.g. Keizer et al. 2010) and we will thus take a gendered perspective in our analysis. Moreover, societal context is likely to play a role in determining the well-being of older parents and childless individuals with or without partners (e.g. Huijts et al. 2011; Moor and Komter 2012). One might, rst, expect to nd different associations along the lines of particular welfare state regimes, depending on how their institutions impact the potential benet and burden of parenthood and marriage (or lack thereof). Second, differences in family cultures (or, more broadly, social capital regimes; cf. Pichler and Wallace 2007) might matter because of differences in the role of families as a source of support (relative to non-kin social networks or welfare state institutions) and because of differences in the degree to which the childless are perceived as others or deviants in a society (e.g. Letherby 2002). For example, it is well-known that family ties are stronger in Southern Europe, whereas m et al. community ties are stronger in the Nordic countries (e.g. Kohli et al. 2009; Sundstro

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2009). It is therefore important to account for potential cross-national variations in the (long-term) implications of parenthood and marriage for elders well-being.

3 Data and Method We use baseline interviews from the rst two rounds of the Survey of Health, Ageing and rsch-Supan et al. 2005, 2010), which is represenRetirement in Europe (SHARE; cf. Bo tative of the non-institutionalized population aged 50 or older in all 15 participating countries: eleven countriesAustria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerlandcontributed data to SHAREs rst wave in 20042005. Further data were collected in Israel during the years 20052006. Three more countries the Czech Republic, Ireland, and Polandjoined SHARE for its second wave in 20062007, which also included refresher samples in those countries that already participated in Wave 1 (see http://www.share-project.org for a detailed breakdown of sample sizes by country, sex, and age). Our main analytic sample pools baseline interviews of more than 9,000 men and roughly 11,000 women aged 65 or over from both waves (including refresher samples). Supplementary analyses using additional information on respondents relationship quality (see below) are based on a subsample of more than 9,000 respondents who lled-out the standard self-completion questionnaire distributed as part of SHAREs Wave 1 (i.e. the Czech Republic, Ireland, and Poland are not represented here). Outcome variables We dene four outcome variables. The rst two are binary ones capturing different dimensions of individuals economic well-being, namely income adequacy and homeownership. Using these indicators has the advantage that we avoid potential problems related to missing or imputed nancial information. Perceived income adequacy, which equals 1 if the respondent reported to make ends meet (fairly) easily, has been shown to be a robust indicator of nancial capacity in older age (see Litwin and Sapir 2009). Our second economic indicator, which equals 1 if the respondent reported to own his or her dwelling, is important because in many countries owner-occupied housing constitutes an important component of older households total wealth (see Christelis et al. 2009). The third dependent variable refers to depression as an important indicator of individuals psychological well-being. It is based on the EURO-D scale, ranging from 0 to 12 self-reported depressive symptoms. The psychometric properties of the EUROD have been extensively investigated and criterion validity demonstrated in the cross-cultural context of SHARE (see Castro-Costa et al. 2008). Our fourth, and nal, outcome variable is a binary indicator of general social participation. The variable equals 1 if the respondent participated in at least one2 of the following activities in the month preceding the interview: attended an educational or training course, went to a sport, social, or other kind of club, took part in a religious, political, or community related organisation. Explanatory variables The main variables of interest here are those informing us about respondents parental status and marital status. To begin with, we distinguish childless individuals from those who reported having 1, 2, 3, or 4? (biological or social) children nez-Granado and Mira 2005). While we might slightly that are still alive (see Mart overestimate the proportion of childless individuals, particularly in the oldest cohorts (if
2

Note that only 5 % of the respondents in our sample reported having been engaged in more than one activity. We therefore refrained from estimating a model using a count variable as indicator of individuals social participation.

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parents outlived their children), a comparison of levels of childlessness in the SHARE sample with external sources does not suggest any signicant bias (see below). Marital status is operationalized by a set of four dummy variables: married (reference category, including a small number of registered partnerships), never-married, divorced, and widowed. Obviously, legal marital status does not necessarily reect individuals partnership status. Although unmarried cohabitation is likely to be of increasing importance in future cohorts of elders, it is not yet a quantitatively relevant phenomenon in our sample of individuals born 1942 or earlier (for related studies see Brown et al. 2006; de Jong Gierveld 2004). Less than 3 % of our sample could be identied as cohabitors using information from SHAREs household grid. The vast majority (74 %) of these cohabitors reported to be widowed, 13 % were divorced, and the remaining 13 % were never-married. For a subsample of respondents (see above) we also have rough indicators of parent child and spousal relationship quality, which we include in a supplementary analysis. We use the frequency of contact between parents and children as a proxy for relationship quality, where we distinguish childless respondents (reference category), those who reported having had any kind of contact with a child at least several times a week, and those with less contact to children (e.g. Hank 2007). Marital quality is proxied by respondents satisfaction with the level of reciprocity in their partnership, where we distinguish those who are unmarried (i.e. widowed, divorced, or never-married; reference category) from married individuals reporting to be satised and from those who reported low levels of satisfaction, respectively. Control variables are the individuals age as well as indicators of respondents general physical health (which equals 1, if respondents perceive their health as very good or excellent), level of education (three binary variables derived from ISCED, indicating low, medium, and high educational degrees), and previous employment (a binary variable that equals 1, if the respondent reported that he or she ever did any paid work). Finally, we control for the year in which the interview took place (with survey years ranging from 2004 to 2007) and account for the individuals country of residence by including country dummies in all regressions. See Table 1 for descriptive sample statistics.

4 Results Descriptive ndings In the pooled SHARE sample, 10 % of men and 12 % of women have no living children (see Table 2a), which is very similar to levels of childlessness in older Europeans reported elsewhere (e.g. Dykstra 2009: Table 30.1; Rowland 2007). However, the proportions of childless individuals vary a lot between the 15 countries examined here. Looking at current childlessness among men, Israel stands out with an extremely low share of only 3 % of older men reporting to have no children. The lowest proportion of mens childlessness in Europe is found in the Czech Republic (6 %), whereas the prevalence of childlessness is highest in Austria (13 %) and Ireland (15 %). Turning to the prevalence of childlessness among older women, we, again, nd the highest proportions in Austria (16 %) and Ireland (20 %), and the lowest ones in the Czech Republic (7 %), closely followed by Poland (7 %) and Greece (8 %). Elders childlessness also varies by cohort, at least if women are considered. Consistent with previous research suggesting higher levels of childlessness in older cohorts (e.g. Rowland 2007), we nd that 15 % of women born between 1900 and 1928 are childless, 10 % of the cohorts 19291935, and only 8 % of the cohorts born 19361942. Some

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Parenthood, Marital Status Table 1 Pooled descriptive sample statistics (unweighted)

Variable

Percentage (except depression & age)

Dependent variables (Fairly) Easy to make ends meet Homeowner Depression (range: 012) Social participation Explanatory and control variables Gender (female) Parental status Childless 1 Child 2 Children 3 Children 4? Children Marital status Married Never married Divorced Widowed Age (in years) Self-perceived health: very good or excellent Level of education Low Medium High Ever did any paid work Survey year 2004 2005 2006 2007 Country Austria Germany Sweden Netherlands Spain Italy France Denmark Greece Switzerland Belgium 4.6 8.9 8.7 7.0 8.1 8.6 8.7 6.0 7.6 3.7 9.0 54.4 14.0 9.6 26.0 60.7 25.7 13.4 88.1 65.4 4.4 3.9 26.3 73.8 (6.7) 20.1 8.8 17.8 34.5 20.3 18.4 54.2 58.4 68.8 2.6 (2.4) 28.7

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K. Hank, M. Wagner Table 1 continued

Variable

Percentage (except depression & age) 5.7 5.8 5.3 2.4 20,377

Israel Czech Republic Poland Ireland N

cautions seems necessary, though, because there might be some bias in the results for the oldest cohort, because our measure of current childlessness does not account for children who died before the time of the SHARE interview. In any case, we nd indication for a remarkable change of gender differences in childlessness: in the oldest cohort women are more often childless than men (15 vs. 10 %), whereas in the youngest cohort the reverse picture (8 vs. 10 %) appears to be true. Eventually, we also contrasted mens and womens marital status (see Table 2b). Due to womens signicantly higher life-expectancy, the proportion of older men being (still)
Table 2 Childlessness and marital status by gender, cohort, and country (95 % condence intervals in parentheses) (a) Childless Men Pooled sample Cohort 19001928 19291935 19361942 Country Austria Germany Sweden Netherlands Spain Italy France Denmark Greece Switzerland Belgium Israel Czech Republic Poland Irelanda
a

(b) Married Women .112 (.107.118) .151 (.139.163) .101 (.091.111) .082 (.073.092) .164 (.133.194) . 110 (.090.130) .110 (.090.131) .130 (.106.155) .132 (.109.153) .136 (.114.159) .118 (.098.138) .101 (.078.124) .081 (.063.100) .123 (.091.155) .105 (.086.124) .104 (.079.129) .066 (.047.085) .069 (.048.090) .198 (.149.247) Men .769 (.760.778) .682 (.663.699) .797 (.783.810) .819 (.806.833) .734 (.689.779) .750 (.721.779) .713 (.683.743) .751 (.719.784) .796 (.767.825) .753 (.724.782) .796 (.767.825) .727 (.688.763) .836 (.808.863) .771 (.727.816) .800 (.773.828) .809 (.777.841) .761 (.724.798) .772 (.735.810) .698 (.637.759) Women .418 (.409.428) .224 (.211.238) .493 (.477.509) .624 (.608.641) .324 (.285.362) .402 (.371.434) .411 (.379.443) .445 (.409.481) .436 (.404.469) .419 (.386.452) .441 (.411.472) .418 (.381.455) .420 (.387.453) .460 (.411.508) .517 (.486.548) .500 (.459.541) .364 (.378.400) .360 (.321.399) .465 (.404.526)

.098 (.092.104) .094 (.083.105) .099 (.089.110) .105 (.094.116) .132 (.097.166) .106 (-085.126) .094 (.074.113) .078 (.058.098) .095 (.074.116) .111 (.090.132) .103 (.081.125) .082 (.059.105) .080 (.060.100) .112 (.079.146) .107 (.086.128) .031 (.016.045) .060 (.039.081) .075 (.052.098) .153 (.105.201)

Source: Baseline interviews from SHARE, 20042007; cross-sectional weights applied No weights available

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married is much higher than among their female counterparts (77 vs. 42 %). Unsurprisingly, this pattern is consistent across cohorts and countries. We do observe, however, some marital status differences between countries. While in Belgium and Israel, for example, roughly 80 % of men and 50 % of women reported being married, only 72 % of Scandinavian men and 36 % of Czech and Polish women have been married at the time of the SHARE interview. Multivariate analysis Our main set of models suggests only relatively minor differences in the well-being of parents and their childless counterparts (see Table 3). With regard to economic-well-being, for example, only parents with four or more children are signicantly less likely to make ends meet easily than men and women without any children. Turning to psychological well-being, we observe a non-linear association between the number of children and the number of depressive symptoms: parents of two children report the lowest level of psychological distress, whereas those with fewer or more children do not differ signicantly from the childless. Finally, mothers of three childrenand only thoseare more likely than childless women to report having participated in any social

Table 3 Multivariate regression results for various well-being outcomes in later life, accounting for parental and marital status Income adequacy Male Parental status Childless 1 Child 2 Children 3 Children 4? Children Marital status Married Never married Divorced Widowed N Ref. 0.90 (0.135) 0.79 (0.113) 1.16 (0.093) 9,193 Ref. 0.52** (0.062) 0.32** (0.032) 0.64** (0.032) 10,838 Ref. 0.34** (0.049) 0.30** (0.040) 0.51** (0.039) 9,193 Ref. 0.32** (0.038) 0.22** (0.023) 0.47** (0.024) 10,840 Ref. -0.10 (0.132) 0.27* (0.125) 0.50** (0.070) 8,989 Ref. 0.09 (0.125) 0.42** (0.108) 0.40** (0.052) 10,563 Ref. 1.06 (0.160) 0.86 (0.119) 1.12 (0.089) 9,236 Ref. 1.31* (0.160) 1.10 (0.114) 1.21** (0.063) 10,897 Ref. 0.89 (0.100) 0.99 (0.103) 0.92 (0.101) 0.70** (0.079) Ref. 0.96 (0.086) 0.97 (0.081) 0.95 (0.085) 0.74** (0.067) Ref. 0.89 (0.099) 1.08 (0.113) 1.05 (0.116) 0.90 (0.102) Ref. 0.87 (0.078) 0.95 (0.081) 0.99 (0.090) 0.86 (0.079) Ref. -0.17 (0.097) -0.25** (0.089) -0.12 (0.095) -0.09 (0.097) Ref. -0.06 (0.093) -0.20* (0.087) -0.14 (0.093) -0.09 (0.095) Ref. 0.91 (0.101) 1.10 (0.112) 1.13 (0.122) 1.22 (0.134) Ref. 0.85 (0.080) 1.01 (0.088) 1.22* (0.112) 1.04 (0.099) Female Homeowner Male Female Depression Male Female Participation Male Female

Source: Baseline interviews from SHARE, 20042007 OLS estimates for the dependent variable depression, odds ratios for all others. Standard errors are in parentheses. All models control for age, health, education, employment, country, and interview year **p \ 0.01, *p \ 0.05

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activity; there are no statistically signicant differences at all between fathers and childless men. Marital status appears to be related somewhat more systematically to elders well-being (Table 3). The level of economic well-being of the unmarried (i.e. widowed, divorced, or never married) generally tends to be signicantly lower than among the married. The only exception here is mens perception of income adequacy, where we do not observe any differences by marital status. Marital disruption (i.e. widowhood and divorce) is paralleled by higher scores on the EURO-D scale in women and men. The never-married, however, do not exhibit higher risks of depression than the currently married. Moreover, never married and divorced women exhibit higher odds of participation in social activities. Based on a subsample of SHARE, we eventually turned to the issue of whether parenthood and marital status as such bear associations with older peoples well-being, or whether (to what extent, respectively) relationship quality matters here (cf. Ryan and Willits 2007); see Table 4. There is no indication for a role of parentchild relationship quality in elders well-being. Turning to spouses relationship quality, the most important nding is that it does not seem to be the mere presence of a spouse that protects against depression in later life, but that only men and women living in a marital union characterized by reciprocity enjoy greater psychological well-being than the unmarried (see Choi and Marks 2008, for a related discussion). We did not detect any further systematic wellbeing differences along the lines of different levels of partnership quality.

Table 4 Multivariate regression results for various well-being outcomes in later life, accounting for parental and marital status as well as relationship quality Income adequacy Male Female Homeowner Male Female Depression Male Female Participation Male Female

Parental status and relationship quality Childless Parents w/out Frequent contacts Parents w/ Frequent contacts Unmarrieda Married and unsatised w/reciprocity Married and satised w/reciprocity N Ref. 0.65** (0.096) 0.66** (0.089) Ref. 1.08 (0.153) 1.16 (0.112) 4,178 Ref. 0.89 (0.107) 0.88 (0.091) Ref. 1.16 (0.135) 1.69** (0.126) 4,901 Ref. 1.12 (0.154) 1.23 (0.155) Ref. 2.15** (0.304) 2.17** (0.202) 4,178 Ref. 0.86 (0.102) 0.91 (0.094) Ref. 2.25** (0.280) 2.64** (0.204) 4,902 Ref. 0.14 (0.115) -0.07 (0.105) Ref. -0.05 (0.114) -0.56** (0.078) 4,152 Ref. 0.12 (0.120) -0.02 (0.103) Ref. 0.29* (0.118) -0.58** (0.074) 4,851 Ref. 0.97 (0.130) 1.11 (0.136) Ref. 0.92 (0.122) 1.01 (0.091) 4,207 Ref. 0.95 (0.113) 0.94 (0.097) Ref. 0.90 (0.105) 0.86* (0.063) 4,924

Marital status and relationship quality

Source: Baseline interviews from SHARE, 20042007 OLS estimates for the dependent variable depression, odds ratios for all others. Standard errors are in parentheses. All models control for age, health, education, employment, country (excl. Czech Republic, Ireland, and Poland), and interview year **p \ 0.01, *p \ 0.05
a

The reference group unmarried comprises never married, divorced, and widowed respondents

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5 Discussion While the majority of elders in contemporary Europe have at least one child, a nonnegligible minority of nearly 11 % is childless at age 65, with a somewhat higher prevalence of childlessness in women than in men. Around this mean value, our analysis of SHARE data revealed considerable cross-country variation: while childlessness is an almost unknown phenomenon among Israeli men, for example, almost 20 % of Irish women do not report any living offspring. We also observe lower levels of childlessness in younger cohorts (born around 1940) compared to the oldest cohorts in our study (born in the rst quarter of the twentieth century). However, the proportions of childless men and women in more recent cohorts have increased again and are expected to rise even further in future generations (e.g. Dykstra and Hagestad 2007; Rowland 2007). It has been the main aim of this study to investigate whether this development, paralleled by decreasing union stability, should give reason for concern regarding individuals well-being in later life. The main value added by our study to the literature comes from the simultaneous consideration of (a) various dimensions of well-being, (b) the interplay between parenthood and marital status, and (c) the role of societal context in the empirical analysis. Despite the undoubtedly central role of partners and children in providing instrumental, emotional, and economic support in old age (e.g. Brandt et al. 2009), our main ndings are, by and large, reassuring: First, childless individuals do not generally fare worse than parents in terms of their economic, psychological, or social well-being. Second, the observed correlation of marital status with elders economic and psychological well-being suggests a protective effect of marriage. For example, divorce and widowhood in particular are paralleled by a higher number of depression symptoms. However, different from ndings reported by Hughes and Waite (2009), for example, never-married men and women do not seem to be under a greater risk of psychological distress than their currently married counterparts, which might reect adaptation processes across the life-course. That is, especially if individuals remained unmarried voluntarily throughout their life, they are likely to have developed coping strategies independent of support from a spouse. Such an interpretation is consistent with recent evidence suggesting that individuals embedded in network types characterized by greater social capital tend to express a superior sense of subjective well-being (Litwin and Shiovitz-Ezra 2011), that is, although family relations are characterized by a particular form of solidarity they are by no means an exclusive source of support for elders and canto varying degreesbe substituted by non-kin social relationships (also see Kohli et al. 2009). Moreover, once we take into consideration individuals relationship quality, it becomes quite clear that marriage per se does not contribute to psychological well-being: only those reporting satisfaction with the extent of reciprocity in their relationship exhibit lower odds of depression than their unmarried counterparts. That is, union disruption as such might not be a challenge to well-being, whereas marital conict has been shown to be a signicant risk factor for health among older adults (Choi and Marks 2008). A third important nding is that the results reported above appear to hold for a variety of (sub-)populations (but see Huijts et al. 2011). Estimating all our models separately for men and women, for example, did not reveal any noteworthy gender differences. Further analyses (whose details we do not report here) neither provided any indication for effects of a changing cultural meaning of childlessness across cohorts, i.e. over time (e.g. Umberson et al. 2010: 614), nor did they suggest any systematic geographic patterns along the lines of familiar welfare or family regime typologies. Our ndings thus support the notion

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of a context-independent association between parental status (marital status, respectively) and the well-being measures considered here. It might still be worth investigating further the potential role of societal context in shaping the role of family ties in individuals well-being (e.g. Moor and Komter 2012). Data limitations, however, prohibited us from pursuing this line of more in-depth countryspecic analysis. Unfortunately, the number of observations in SHAREs national samples is relatively small. Researchers might thus want to explore opportunities to exploit larger national ageing surveys (such as the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing or the German Ageing Survey), although the extent to which they are suitable for crossnationally comparative analyses might be limited. Also due to SHAREs restricted sample size (even if all countries are pooled!), we were unable to account for the potential role of interactions between legal marital status and unmarried cohabitation in elders well-being. Non-marital unions (including living apart together) are likely to spread more quickly in Northern Europes older population than in the South. Moreover, previous research suggests regional differences in the association of kin and non-kin social networks with elders m et al. 2009, for a related discussion). Therefore it well-being (Litwin 2010; see Sundstro seems worthwhile to investigate further issues of complementarity and substitution between different partnership modes (social network types, respectively) from a crossnationally comparative perspective (cf. Kohli et al. 2009). Finally, future studies should also aim at considering more details of individuals increasingly complex life-histories, which would allow investigating the relationship between the sequencing and timing of family events (such as early or late entries into parenthood; e.g. Hofferth 1984) on the one hand, and later life outcomes on the other hand.
Acknowledgments This paper uses data from SHARE release 2.3.0, as of November 13th 2009. SHARE data collection in 2004-2007 was primarily funded by the European Commission through its 5th and 6th framework programs (project numbers QLK6-CT-2001- 00360; RII-CT- 2006-062193; CIT5-CT-2005028857). Additional funding by the US National Institute on Aging (grant numbers U01 AG09740-13S2; P01 AG005842; P01 AG08291; P30 AG12815; Y1-AG-4553-01; OGHA 04-064; R21 AG025169) as well as by various national sources is gratefully acknowledged (see http://www.share-project.org for a full list of funding institutions).

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