Arbeitsbereich

Bevölkerung und Gesundheit

Auf einen Blick Projekte Publikationen Team

Projekt

The Spatial Dynamics of Parental Health and Intergenerational Ties in Later Life (Dissertation)

Sanny Boy Domingo Afable, Megan Evans, Mikko Myrskylä, Yana Catherine Vierboom, Julia Mikolai (University of St Andrews, Vereinigtes Königreich von Großbritannien und Nordirland), Hill Kulu (University of St Andrews, Vereinigtes Königreich von Großbritannien und Nordirland)

Ausführliche Beschreibung

In response to population aging, more attention is being given to the role of ties to adult children in older parents' health, well-being, and survival. These ties are structured across space: Changes in the parents’ life course, including a decline in their health, may influence where and how far apart they and their children live. At the same time, the parents’ geographic proximity to their adult children can have important consequences for the availability of informal care, and, ultimately, for the parents' overall health.

Drawing on the theories of linked lives and intergenerational solidarity, this project investigates how parents’ health and their geographic proximity to their adult children shape one another in later life. To achieve this aim, we apply event-history and decomposition analysis to longitudinal survey data from Europe and administrative data from Finland, settings where rapid population aging challenges the sustainability of care systems.

To set up the context of this project, we first examine the residential transitions of older adults in Europe, comparing parents’ and non-parents’ utilization of formal care. Zeroing in on Finland’s aging society, we then describe and decompose the factors underlying the trends in older parents’ geographic proximity to their adult children. We then examine how declining health leads parents to change their proximity to their adult children. Finally, we analyze how living in close proximity to their adult children contributes, if at all, to parental survival.

Together, these studies shed light on the ties that bind adult children and their parents across space and time, and what these ties mean for aging societies.

Publikationen

Afable, S. B. D.; Evans, M.; Korhonen, K.; Vierboom, Y. C.; Martikainen, P.; Myrskylä, M.; Kulu, H.:

Are aging parents and adult children living farther apart? Decomposing trends in intergenerational proximity and coresidence among Finnish parents aged 60–69 (2003–2023)

Social Forces, 1–26. (2026)    

Afable, S. B. D.; Mikolai, J.; Evans, M.; Korhonen, K.; Vierboom, Y. C.; Martikainen, P.; Kulu, H.; Myrskylä, M.:

Nearby children, longer lives? Evidence from the Finnish population register

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2026-013. (2026)    

Afable, S. B. D.; Evans, M.; Korhonen, K.; Vierboom, Y. C.; Martikainen, P.; Myrskylä, M.; Kulu, H.:

Are ageing parents and adult children living farther apart? Decomposing trends in intergenerational distance and co-residence in Finland (2003-2017)

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2025-011. (2025)    

Afable, S. B. D.; Evans, M.; Vierboom, Y. C.; Korhonen, K.; Martikainen, P.; Mikolai, J.; Myrskylä, M.; Kulu, H.:

Who moves where? A family ties perspective on later-life health decline and residential mobility in Finland

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2025-037. (2025)    

Afable, S. B. D.; Vierboom, Y. C.; Evans, M.; Mikolai, J.; Kulu, H.; Myrskylä, M.:

Health decline and residential transitions among older adults in Europe

Population, Space and Place 31:7, e70116–e70116. (2025)    

Afable, S. B. D.; Vierboom, Y. C.; Evans, M.; Mikolai, J.; Kulu, H.; Myrskylä, M.:

Health decline and residential transitions among older adults in Europe

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2024-018. (2024)