Union Transitions and Cohabitation among Older Adults

描述(申请人提供)：在过去的三十年里，美国未婚异性伴侣的数量急剧增加，从1970年的50万上升到今天的500多万。超过120万50岁及以上的人参与了同居关系。然而，关于同居的研究基本上忽略了老年人。这种遗漏至少有两个原因是有问题的。首先，从人口统计学的角度来看，今天的老年人的婚姻状况和历史比以前的老年人更加多样化；因此，随着他们步入晚年，结婚的老年人将逐渐减少，同居的老年人将越来越多。其次，从理论上讲，同居可能具有独特的意义，在年长(相对于年轻人)的生活过程中扮演着不同的角色。也就是说，加入同居联盟的动机可能与年轻人不同，因此老年人的联盟模式和动态可能是不同的。我们建议通过使用1998-2002年健康和退休研究(HRS)的纵向数据来检查50岁以上成年人进入和退出同居关系的转变，从而为有限的老年人同居研究做出贡献。目前的调查是在一个理论框架的指导下进行的，该框架结合了关于老龄化的生命历程和人口统计学观点。我们建议回答以下三个问题。谁是年长的同居者，他们与年长的已婚人士和未结婚的人相比如何？什么因素预示着同居联盟的形成？什么因素预示着老年同居者会因同居(无论是通过婚姻还是分居)而结合？通过记录老年人之间同居的趋势和模式以及婚姻形成和解散的预测因素，该项目将为推动对这些新出现的趋势及其对新一代老年人的影响进行大规模调查奠定必要的基础。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The number of unmarried opposite-sex couples in the U.S. has increased dramatically over the past three decades, climbing from 500,000 in 1970 to over 5 million today. More than t .2 million persons ages 50 and over are involved in cohabiting relationships. However, research on cohabitation has essentially ignored older adults. This omission is problematic for at least two reasons. First, from a demographic perspective, the union statuses and histories of today's older adults are more diverse than those of previous cohorts; consequently, as they age into the later years progressively fewer older persons will be married and more will be cohabiting. Second, from a theoretical standpoint, cohabitation likely has a unique meaning and plays a different role in the life course of older (versus younger) adults. That is, the motivations for entering a cohabiting union may differ from those of young adults and thus the union patterns and dynamics of older adults may be distinct. We propose to contribute to the limited research on cohabitation among older adults by using longitudinal data from the 1998-2002 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to examine transitions into and out of cohabiting unions among adults over age 50. The current investigation is guided by a theoretical framework that incorporates life course and demographic perspectives on aging. We propose to answer the following three questions. Who are older cohabitors and how do they compare to older marrieds and unpartnereds? What factors predict forming a cohabiting union? What factors predict older cohabitors union transitions out of cohabitation (either through marriage or separation)? By documenting the trends and patterns of cohabitation as well as the predictors of union formation and dissolution among older adults, this project will establish the groundwork necessary to motivate a large-scale investigation of these emerging trends and their consequences for a new generation of aging adults.