Coresidence Increases Risk of Testing Positive for COVID-19 Among Older Brazilians

Brazil is among the countries hit hardest by COVID-19, and older adults are among the vulnerable groups. Intergenerational coresidence and interdependence among family members, both prevalent in Brazil, likely increase social and physical contact. Using nationally representative data from the COVID-19 module of the Brazilian National Household Sample Survey, collected from July to November of 2020, we examined the association between living arrangements and exposure to and testing for COVID-19 among 63,816 Brazilians 60+. Our multivariate analyses utilize multilevel mixed-effects Poisson regression to examine the association between living arrangements and the COVID-19 outcome measures. Results show that those living alone were more likely to report having symptoms and having had a test for COVID-19. However, older adults in multigenerational (PR=1.532, 95% CI 1.15, 2.04, p<0.001) and skipped generation households (PR=1.607, 95% CI 1.04, 2.48, p<0.001) were more likely than solo-dwellers to test positive for COVID-19. Those with symptoms were more likely to test, regardless of their living arrangement. Among older adults without symptoms, those living alone had a higher probability of testing than those living in multigenerational or skipped-generation households. Overall, our findings suggest that coresidence with younger family members is a risk factor for older adults’ health due to the higher COVID-19 positivity. As younger Brazilians are increasingly vulnerable to COVID-19 and experiencing severe outcomes, policy makers need to be more attentive to the health needs of households that comprise older and younger cohorts, which are also more prevalent in poor and marginalized segments of the population.

Coresidence between Unmarried Children in Established Adulthood and Older Parents in Korea: Relationship Characteristics and Associations with Life Satisfaction

The purpose of this study was to examine which aspects of coresident intergenerational relationships were associated with the life satisfaction of unmarried children in established adulthood and of their parents. In this study, the coresident relationship characteristics included support exchange, emotion, interferenceconflict, and perceptions of coresidence. Data were collected from (a) 250 never-married adults who were 35+ years old and lived in Seoul with at least one parent aged 75 years or younger and (b) 250 older adults who were 75 years old or younger and had at least one unmarried child aged 35+ years living in the same household. Our multiple regression analysis of unmarried children showed that the adult child’s financial support, the adult child’s psychological reliance on parents, the parent’s psychological reliance on the child, and relationship quality were significantly related to higher levels of life satisfaction. In contrast, the parent’s daily interference, daily conflicts, and anticipation of future care of parents were related to lower levels of life satisfaction. Second, the characteristics that were positively associated with the parent’s life satisfaction were the parent’s instrumental support, relationship quality, the coresident child’s daily interference, positive perceptions of intergenerational coresidence, and expectation of future care of parents. In contrast, the parent’s financial support, daily conflicts with the child, and taking intergenerational coresidence for granted were negatively related to the parent’s life satisfaction. This study advances our understanding of coresidence between unmarried children in established adulthood and their older parents by focusing on the multiple aspects of intergenerational coresidence.

Married Adults Coresiding with Older Parents: Implications for Paid Work and Domestic Workloads

The rise of life expectancy throughout the developed world has meant that older adults play an increasingly important role in their grown-up children’s lives. We evaluate whether the intergenerational solidarity theory is useful for understanding the intergenerational transfers of time in Japan given the relatively generous welfare provision for the older adults and the fall in intergenerational coresidence. We apply seemingly unrelated regression models to data of the 2006 Japanese Survey on Time Use and Leisure Activities (Statistics Bureau Japan, 2006) to investigate how coresidence patterns are associated with paid and unpaid work time of adult married children. The sample contains 23,226 married couples where both husband and wife are aged 20 to 59. We find evidence of intergenerational solidarity in coresident households. We also find that “doing gender” is layered through intergenerational exchanges of support between married working-age children and their older parents. Working-age women’s time use patterns are associated with coresidence arrangements and care needs of their older relatives to a much greater extent than working-age men’s. The observed patterns are consistent with healthy older women supporting their daughters’ careers in exchange for care when they need help themselves. For working-age men, the patterns are not very pronounced. Notably, working-age husbands without children appear to be more responsive to their older the parents’ care needs, suggesting that fatherhood may be associated with solidifying gendered role performance within Japanese couples.

Expansion of Thailand’s Social Pension Policy and Its Implications for Family Support for Older Persons

Thailand is among few developing countries that have provided universal social pension for its older adults since 2009. Analyzing nationally-representative data from the Surveys of Older Persons in Thailand, we address the extent to which older Thais have benefited from the policy and describe the socio-demographic correlates of older persons who primarily rely on OAA as their main income source. Importantly, we examine how reliance on OAA may have implications for intergenerational exchanges between older parents and adult children as well as the well-being of older Thais. Results show significant changes over the last decade in the patterns of old-age income sources and filial economic support for older parents, particularly after the universalization of the OAA policy. We find the declining importance of children and rising significance of OAA as the primary income source. Older persons whose main income source was OAA were considered socially and economically vulnerable, although it was men rather than women who were more likely to depend on OAA as the main income source. Results further indicate that reliance of OAA as the main income source is not associated with a reduction in non-monetary familial support (intergenerational coresidence and social support) for aged parents. Nevertheless, we find that older parents whose main income was OAA were consistently less likely to report income adequacy and psychological well-being compared to others. This evidence suggests that while the OAA scheme may have tackled old-age poverty issues, it has little impact in dampening economic and social inequality among older Thais.

No clear association emerges between intergenerational relationships and COVID-19 fatality rates from macro-level analyses

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 originated in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019 and rapidly spread in more than 100 countries. Researchers in different fields have been working on finding explanations for the unequal impact of the virus and deaths from the associated coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) across geographical areas. Demographers and other social scientists have hinted at the importance of demographic factors, such as age structure and intergenerational relationships. Our aim is to reflect on the possible link between intergenerational relationships and spread and lethality of COVID-19 in a critical way. We show that with available aggregate data it is not possible to draw robust evidence to support these links. In fact, despite a higher prevalence of intergenerational coresidence and contacts that is broadly positively associated with COVID-19 case fatality rates at the country level, the opposite is generally true at the subnational level. While this inconsistent evidence demonstrates neither the existence nor the absence of a causal link between intergenerational relationships and the severity of COVID-19, we warn against simplistic interpretations of the available data, which suffer from many shortcomings. We conclude by arguing that intergenerational relationships are not only about physical contacts between family members. Theoretically, different forms of intergenerational relationships may have causal effects of opposite sign on the diffusion of COVID-19. Policies should also take into account that intergenerational ties are a source of instrumental and emotional support, which may favor compliance to the lockdown and “phase-2” restrictions and may buffer their negative consequences on mental health.

National age and coresidence patterns shape COVID-19 vulnerability

Based on harmonized census data from 81 countries, we estimate how age and coresidence patterns shape the vulnerability of countries’ populations to outbreaks of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We estimate variation in deaths arising due to a simulated random infection of 10% of the population living in private households and subsequent within-household transmission of the virus. The age structures of European and North American countries increase their vulnerability to COVID-related deaths in general. The coresidence patterns of elderly persons in Africa and parts of Asia increase these countries’ vulnerability to deaths induced by within-household transmission of COVID-19. Southern European countries, which have aged populations and relatively high levels of intergenerational coresidence, are, all else equal, the most vulnerable to outbreaks of COVID-19. In a second step, we estimate to what extent avoiding primary infections for specific age groups would prevent subsequent deaths due to within-household transmission of the virus. Preventing primary infections among the elderly is the most effective in countries with small households and little intergenerational coresidence, such as France, whereas confining younger age groups can have a greater impact in countries with large and intergenerational households, such as Bangladesh.