1391 © The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com. Special Issue: Aging Alone? International Perspectives on Social Integration and Isolation Aging Alone? International Perspectives on Social Integration and Isolation Deborah Carr, PhD* , Department of Sociology, Boston University, Massachusetts. *Address correspondence to: Deborah Carr, PhD, Department of Sociology, Boston University, 100 Cummington Mall, Boston, MA 02215. E-mail: carrds@bu.edu Received: July 19, 2019; Editorial Decision Date: July 22, 2019 Demographic shifts throughout the 20th and 21st centuries have created a context in which rising numbers of older adults are “aging alone” worldwide. Declining fertility rates mean that older adults today have fewer children than in the past, a scenario that is most acute in societies that have maintained restrictive population policies, and where childlessness rates are high. Due to processes of urbanization and globalization, adult children may migrate far distances from their aging parents to pursue rewarding economic opportunities. Rising rates of gray divorce mean that older adults may no longer live with a spouse. Recent research by Margolis and Verdery (2017) found that 6.6% of U.S. adults ages 55 and older have neither a living spouse nor biological children and 1% lack a partner/spouse, any children, biological siblings, and biological parents—with these rates rising across successive cohorts. The proportion of U.S. older adults who are “elder orphans”—growing old without a spouse, child, or proximate kin—is projected to reach as high as 20% in future cohorts (Carney, Fujiwara, Emmert, Liberman, & Paris, 2016). Less is known about the levels and consequences of aging alone worldwide. This special issue of JGSS seeks to fll that gap. The issue features nine papers on late-life social isolation, focusing on older adults in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America, and representing both quanti- tative and qualitative methods. The term “aging alone” can mean many things; the research featured in this issue en- compass those aging without any close kin, who live alone, whose social networks are constrained, who lack a partic- ular kin tie such as spouse or child, whose kin live far away, or those who feel their social ties are defcient. The frst step toward understanding isolated elders is to document who they are, how common the experience is, and how these patterns vary both between and within countries. The lead article, “Kinlessness around the World” docu- ments how common it is for contemporary older adults to lack living kin, and whether such individuals are uniformly disadvantaged around the world. Verdery and colleagues (2019) examine survey data from 34 nations, accounting for 70% of the world’s population age 50 and older. Levels of kinlessness, defned as having neither a spouse nor biolog- ical child, range from just 2% in China and Korea, to more than 10% in wealthy western nations including Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. The impacts of kinlessness also vary widely. Although kinless older adults typically have self-rated health and levels of education comparable to or worse than their counterparts, the mag- nitude of these gaps varies dramatically, with some nations showing kinless persons’ advantage regarding health (e.g., Mexico) and educational attainment (e.g., Greece, Italy). Whereas Verdery and colleagues measure “aging alone” in terms of the availability of frst-degree kin and spouses, Djundeva and colleagues (2019) delve into cross-national differences in particular subtypes of “aging alone,” with their measures encompassing a diverse set of family and non-kin ties, as well as the nature of contact with these net- work members. They fnd that the likelihood of having “re- stricted” and “child-based” networks is greater in Eastern and Southern European countries, whereas the likelihood of having “friend-oriented” networks is greater in Western and Northern European countries. Across countries, only those with “restricted” networks have poorer well-being, whereas those with “diverse” networks have even better well-being than older adults who live with others. The cross-national differences documented by Verdery, Djundeva, and colleagues are linked to demographic, social, and cultural factors. Mair (2019) focuses on one important Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences cite as: J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci, 2019, Vol. 74, No. 8, 1391–1393 doi:10.1093/geronb/gbz095 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology/article/74/8/1391/5581552 by guest on 05 June 2022