Living Arrangements and Health of the Elderly in India

Do multigenerational (co-residential) families have protective effects on elderly health? Demographic literature on aging in developing countries has started to examine this question as the contours of global population have been undergoing dramatic changes. Nevertheless, the theoretical and empirical literature on the relative benefits for the elderly of residing in multigenerational households versus living alone, have remained remarkably elusive. In part, the empirical inconsistency is a result of a significant methodological gap in the extant literature: most empirical studies are based on cross-sectional data where the authors have been largely unsuccessful in eliminating explanations based on the possible selection effects. India offers an interesting context to study this relationship as the country experiences a growing elderly population coupled with a severe lack of institutional systems of care for the aged. This dissertation draws data from the India Human Development Survey (2004-05) - a nationally representative, multi-topic data set of 41,554 households. It focuses on the relationship between household composition-whether the elderly are living independently, with children, or with other relatives-and short-term morbidity in the last month. The analysis uses standard multivariate regression models and a relatively unconventional technique-propensity score analysis to account for the endogeneity/selectivity problem. Three particularly salient conclusions are drawn from this research. First, household level analyses using propensity score methods highlight the importance of multigenerational families to the health of the elderly. These results also suggest health effects of household wealth, urban location, the number of adults in the household, and (male) gender. A second set of analyses show that multigenerational families also spend more on medical care when the elderly do get sick. Moreover the same set of household variables that predict better elderly health (wealth, urbanization, adults, gender) also predict higher medical expenditures. Finally, multilevel analyses, using district-level data from the Census of India (2001), corroborate the "urban advantage" finding and demonstrate that health of the elderly is affected not only by household compositional factors (e.g. living arrangements) but also by the larger context created by urbanization

Leisure as social engagement: does it moderate the association between subjective wellbeing and depression in later life?

ObjectivesTo investigate the role of leisure (as social engagement) in moderating the association between subjective wellbeing and depressive symptoms among older Indians.MethodsThe sample included data from 39,538 older adults (aged 55–80) from the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI, Wave-1), 2017–2018. Individual level questionnaire was used to examine the relationship among social engagement, subjective wellbeing, and depressive symptoms. Moderating effects of leisure activities were estimated through interaction analysis and linear multivariable modeling.ResultsLow participation in social engagement activities (or leisure) was associated with greater likelihood of depressive symptoms. Leisure activities positively and significantly moderated the subjective wellbeing among older adults with depressive symptoms. Results suggest a significant wealth gradient where affluent older Indians having a clear advantage in heightened levels of social engagement and subsequently lower likelihood of depressive symptoms. Additionally, being in an urban area, co-residence in a “joint” household and belonging to the dominant social groups in terms of caste and religious categories are associated with gains in wellbeing.DiscussionThe direct and indirect effects of social engagement suggest that depressive symptoms can be mitigated while enhancing overall wellbeing of older adults. This holds promise for social policy in redirecting efforts to develop age-friendly initiatives and social infrastructure that enhance the link between engagement and wellbeing

The good life: third age, brand Modi and the cultural demise of old age in urban India

In this piece, I outline the possibility of understanding old age through the lens of cultural gerontology highlighting the intersecting logics of age with consumption, leisure and identity. I argue that with rising affluence and demographic aging, India is poised to experience an emergent cultural movement, the Third Age (Laslett, 1989), wherein access to cultural capital and an active participation in a leisure culture will offer social membership among upper middle class older adults. Using examples from luxury senior housing projects and travel/holiday packages, I reflect how this process of agentic consumerism with a focus on the ideals of youthfulness, choice, self-expression and pleasure is turning the decline narrative (typically associated with “natural” aging) on its head. The success of this market-driven cultural model, I argue, lies in the celebration of a project on the self where the responsibility to “age well” rests with the individual-a key political economy of the neoliberal regime-absolving the state of public provisions and social security. In conclusion, I show how age and political masculinity intersect to create, what I call, Brand Modi- a potent vision of active and age-ambiguous consumer citizenry. Through this construction, I argue, life-stage has been suitably marketed to match the aspirations of a greying cohort marking a new stage in the cultural constitution of age in urban India.by Tannistha Samant

Conceptualizing women's empowerment as self-compassion: evidence from India

by Tannistha Samant

The family context, social capital and older adult well-being: how are they related?

by Tannistha, Samant

Recasting 'Active Aging' in India: implications for theory and policy

by Tannistha Samant

Love in the time of aging: sociological reflections on relationship, gender and intimacy

by Tannistha Samant

The joint family and its discontents: interrogating ambivalence in intergenerational relationships

Drawing from an interview based household survey of 453 older parent(s) and adult children (sons and daughters-in-law) in the Ahmedabad district, this study utilised the solidarity-conflict-ambivalence models to understand both the perceptions and experience of joint living. Overall, findings reinforce popular imagination of the socially-sanctioned joint family as a site of reassuring continuity with high levels of congruence in reporting relational sentiments. Evidence of intergenerational stake phenomenon was observed in responses of older adults when compared with the mature child. In addition to examining normative ambivalence, I contend that joint family relations embody a concept of ‘ambiguity’ – an uncertain, somewhat conflictual emotive space that offers members a temporary escape without confronting the contradictions in the objective demands of expected roles. In conclusion, I assert the need to go beyond the western tools of measurement to capture a deeply complex emotive space with its regularities, irrationalities and incoherences in the experience of everyday life.by Tannistha Samant

Living arrangements and health spending of the elderly in India

Objectives: To examine if co-residence has protective health effects on older adults in India. We also address selection bias by examining the living arrangement-health relationship in a non-experimental study design. Methods: Using data from the India Human Development Survey (2004-05) - a nationally representative, multi-topic data set of 41,554 households, this paper examines the association between living arrangements-older persons living alone versus living in co-resident family types-and short-term illness. Propensity score methods (stratification and weighting) have been used to account for the selectivity problem. Results: Our analyses indicate that older adults living with family members have a substantially lower likelihood (approximately 50% lower, as estimated by propensity score stratified analysis) of short-term illness compared to older adults who live alone. Results also suggest that household wealth, gender, marital status and urban location affect short-term illness. Discussion: Overall, results highlight the importance of multigenerational families in older adult wellbeing in India. By systematically examining the living arrangement-health link, the study integrates propensity score methods into the demographic literature on aging in developing countries. Additionally, considering the limited availability of longitudinal data on older adults in India, methods such as this one can help address the effect of confounding variables in health researchby Tannistha Samant

Bridging the gap: theory and research in social gerontology

Social gerontology’s growth as a distinctive discipline has remained contested with continuing debates on gerontology’s limited research focus, disciplinary boundaries and inadequate theoretical development subsequently constraining the cumulative knowledge building of the discipline. Given this intellectual background, in this introduction, I assert the goal of this volume: This volume, based on original research drawing from different disciplines and theoretical orientations, acknowledges the pursuit of a common gerontological imagination by foregrounding social gerontology as an integrative discipline. A related effort has been to emphasize the importance of cultural diversity and plasticity in understanding the social process of age and aging. This introduction maps how scholars in the volume have examined the sociological question of inequality and its intersection with age, gender, health, family and social relations. In the process, the studies in this volume have highlighted the unique historical, institutional and social systems that govern the subjective experience of aging in diverse contexts globally. Specifically, societies in transition including India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Japan, China, Israel and the Europe are studied while connecting the micro social experience of aging (loneliness, wellbeing, discrimination, relationships and resilience) with the larger temporal and political contexts. In this introductory chapter, I show ways how this exercise has generated an intellectual capital that reformulates linkages between aging research and policy in innovative ways.by Tannistha Samant