Living alone and mental health: a longitudinal study

1. Living alone and mental health: a longitudinal study Zhiqiang Feng, Peteke Feijten, Paul Boyle Longitudinal Studies Centre for Scotland School of Geography and Geosciences University of St Andrews Scotland, UK

2. Introduction • Living alone has become a common phase in the lifecourse with one person households now making up a third of all households in Britain • This is a rising trend in western societies • Proportion of 16-59 year olds living alone in Britain has trebled from 5% in 1971 to 16% in 2002

3. Proportion of households and people in one person households Source: Social Trends No 36, 2006, ONS

4. Introduction • Increase of people who live alone has many social, economic and policy implications • The trends are regarded as symbolic of excessive individualism (Bauman 1995). • Also optimistically as a democratisation of personal life

5. Introduction • Increase of living alone leads to more housing demand, more poverty, social inequality, care demand, decrease of fertility • And health problems which are not widely researched.

6. Does living alone matter? • Living alone is a type of social isolation • Social isolation may be detrimental to individuals’ mental health • Faris, (1934) “Any form of isolation that cuts the person off from intimate social relations for an extended period of time may lead to this form of mental disorder”.

7. Does living alone matter? • People living alone are less likely to develop close personal relationship and the same level of commitment to other people than people who living together • Persons living alone much less likely to be engaged in mutual obligations and mutual reinforcement of a primary type, particularly on a daily basis

8. Does living alone matter? • Persons living alone less likely involve emotional gratification and personal satisfaction. • Although individually people living alone may be better off they are worse off because of pooling effects for people living as a family • Living alone more likely to have pathological behaviour, smoking, drinking

9. Does living alone matter? • However, social integration involves not only benefits but costs • Social relations can be a source of emotional, physical, and financial tension (House, et al 1988) • At an extreme, of all social ties, family relations are most likely to be negative and damaging to individual well-being.

10. Does living alone matter? • Marriage has been shown to have protective effects on people’s health • Married people enjoy better mental health than other demographic groups (Lillard & Panis, 1996)

11. Previous studies • Supportive • Smith et al 2005; Rogers et al 2000; Denton & Walters, 1999; Hughes & Waite 2002; Joutsenniemi et al 2006 • Unsupportive • Hughes & Gove 1981; Denton & Walters 1999

12. What will this study do? • This research focuses on the effect of living alone on mental health • Longitudinal data

13. Research questions • Does living alone affect mental health? • Does living alone affect mental health independent of marital status? • Does the transition into living alone affect mental health? • Are there gender differences in the effect of living alone?

14. Data • British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) • A national representative sample • Prospective samples-interviewees are followed annually from 1991 • All household members over 16 are interviewed • 1991-2003, 5000 households and 10000 people

15. Measurement of mental health • General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) • 12 questionslike • Have you recently: • Lost much sleep over worry? • Felt constantly under strain? • Felt you could not overcome your difficulties? • Been feeling unhappy and depressed? • Been losing confidence in yourself? • Been thinking of yourself as a worthless person?

16. Measurement of mental health • We use the caseness method, each response is coded 0, and 1 • Total 12 items end up with 0 to 12 • A dichotomous variable is constructed with a threshold of 4 Individuals aged 16 to 64 are included in our study

17. Proportion of poor mental health by gender and living arrangements Source: BHPS 1991-2003

18. Proportion of living alone by gender and age Source: BHPS 1991-2003

19. Modelling issues • Longitudinal data allow us to • Control unobserved heterogeneity • Ability to cope with stress • Childhood experience • Study transitions between different living arrangements

20. Modelling issues • Fixed effect logistic models for models of being alone • Logistic models for effects of transition into living alone (excluding never married or never cohabiting) • Control for age, household income, urban rural areas of residence, education, employment status, smoking, number of friends, and region of residence

21. Model 1 - Odds ratios by marital status Men Women Married 1 1 Widowed 2.052* (1.142-3.688) 2.407** (1.682-3.446) Divorced 1.193 (0.912-1.561) 1.009 (0.834-1.222) Separated 3.281** (2.470-4.358) 1.913** (1.540-2.378) Never Married 1.124 (0.934-1.353) 0.991 (0.835-1.175) N 2460 3098 Observation 22307 27181 Log-likelihood -8239.5 -10798.2 *p<0.05 ** p<0.01 %95 confidence intervals in bracket

22. Model 2 Odds ratio by living arrangements Men Women Living together 1 1 Living alone 1.229** (1.056-1.431) 1.053 (0.900-1.231) N 2460 3098 Observation 22307 27186 Log-likelihood -8274.9 -10829.2 *p<0.05 ** p<0.01 %95 confidence intervals in bracket

23. Model 3 Odds ratios by marital status and living arrangements Men Women Married 1 1 Widowed 2.438** (1.297-4.582) 2.497** (1.727-3.609) Divorced 1.148 (0.839-1.569) 1.027 (0.845-1.249) Separated 3.320** (2.397-4.600) 1.941** (1.558-2.418) Never Married 1.172 (0.945-1.454) 1.006 (0.845-1.199) Living together 1 1 Living alone 0.924 (0.758-1.125) 0.930 (0.786-1.100) N 2294 3098 Observation 20240 27181 Log-likelihood -7486.1 -10797.0 *p<0.05 ** p<0.01 %95 confidence intervals in bracket

24. Model 4 Odds ratios by marital status and living arrangements Men Women Married & together 1 1 Married & alone 1.434 (0.608-3.384) 0.610 (0.270-1.379) Widowed & together 2.975* (1.092-8.100) 2.645** (1.686-4.148) Widowed & alone 2.068* (1.026-4.168) 2.193** (1.415-3.400) Divorced & together 1.444 (0.929-2.242) 1.063 (0.862-1.311) Divorced & alone 0.978 (0.709-1.350) 0.858 (0.623-1.181) Separated & together 4.281** (2.542-7.208) 1.917** (1.505-2.443) Separated & alone 2.843** (2.024-3.993) 1.847** (1.190-2.866) Never married & together 1.130 (0.905-1.412) 0.981 (0.821-1.173) Never married & alone 1.142 (0.894-1.459) 1.004 (0.789-1.279) N 2295 3098 Observation 20244 27185 Log-likelihood -7485.7 -10797 *p<0.05 ** p<0.01 95% confidence intervals in bracket

25. Model 5 Odds ratios by transitions between living arrangements Men Women Married & together 1 1 Married to wid/div/sep 5.812** (3.596-9.392) 4.525** (3.425-5.977) & together Married to wid/div/sep 6.034** (4.155-8.763) 7.881** (4.724-13.146) & alone N 3474 3568 Observations 19268 18630 Log likelihood -6630.9 -8168.2 *p<0.05 ** p<0.01 %95 confidence intervals in bracket

26. Proportion of people with poor mental health by transition of living arrangements Source: BHPS 1991-2003

27. Conclusions • Being living alone tends to negatively affects mental status for men but not women • Being living alone does not have independent effects on mental health from marital status • Transition into living alone has strong effects on mental health and increases risks of mental disorders in short-term

28. Future studies • Better methodologies in tackling endogeneity using SEM modelling or 2SLS • Dynamic panel models taking account of state dependency • Increase sample size by incorporating more data from the latest waves • More analysis of duration effects

29. Acknowledgements • The BHPS data are made available through the UK Data Archive and were collected by the ESRC Research Centre on Micro-social Change at the University of Essex, now incorporated within Institute for Social Economic Research.