Living alone and mental health: a longitudinal study

linking lives through time www.lscs.ac.uk

Living alone and mental health: a longitudinal

studyZhiqiang Feng, Peteke Feijten, Paul BoyleLongitudinal Studies Centre for ScotlandSchool of Geography and Geosciences

University of St AndrewsScotland, UK


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


Proportion of households and people in one person households

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

1971 1981 1991 2001 2005

Year

Prop

ortio

n working age

Over pension age

Household

Source: Social Trends No 36, 2006, ONS


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


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.


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”.


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


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


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.


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)


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


What will this study do?• This research focuses on the effect of

living alone on mental health • Longitudinal data


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?


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


Measurement of mental health• General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)• 12 questions like

– 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?


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


Proportion of poor mental health by gender and living

arrangements

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

male female

Gender

Prop

ortio

n of

dep

ress

ed

living together

living alone

Source: BHPS 1991-2003


Proportion of living alone by gender and age

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

16-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64

Age

Prop

ortio

n of

livi

ng a

lone

MalesFemales



Modelling issues• Longitudinal data allow us to

– Control unobserved heterogeneity• Ability to cope with stress• Childhood experience

– Study transitions between different living arrangements


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


Men Women

Married 1 1Widowed 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 3098Observation 22307 27181Log-likelihood -8239.5 -10798.2

*p<0.05 ** p<0.01

%95 confidence intervals in bracket

Model 1 - Odds ratios by marital status


Model 2 Odds ratio by living arrangements

Men Women

Living together 1 1Living alone 1.229** (1.056-1.431) 1.053 (0.900-1.231)

N 2460 3098Observation 22307 27186Log-likelihood -8274.9 -10829.2

*p<0.05 ** p<0.01%95 confidence intervals in bracket


Model 3 Odds ratios by marital status and living arrangements

Men WomenMarried 1 1Widowed 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 1Living alone 0.924 (0.758-1.125) 0.930 (0.786-1.100)

N 2294 3098Observation 20240 27181Log-likelihood-7486.1 -10797.0



Model 4 Odds ratios by marital status and living arrangements

Men Women

Married & together 1 1Married & 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 3098Observation 20244 27185Log-likelihood -7485.7 -10797

*p<0.05 ** p<0.0195% confidence intervals in bracket


Model 5 Odds ratios by transitions between living arrangements

Men Women

Married & together 1 1Married to wid/div/sep 5.812** (3.596-9.392) 4.525** (3.425-5.977)& togetherMarried to wid/div/sep 6.034** (4.155-8.763) 7.881**

(4.724-13.146)& alone

N 3474 3568Observations 19268 18630Log likelihood -6630.9 -8168.2



Proportion of people with poor mental health by transition of living

arrangements

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

T-2 T-1 T T+1 T+2

Time

Prop

ortio

n of

dep

ress

ed

Married & together

Married & together toWid/Div/Sep & togetherMarried & together toWid/Div/Sep & alone



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


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


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.

Documents

Living alone and mental health: a longitudinal study