Social resources and disordered living conditions: evidence from a national sample of community-residing older adults

Abstract

For older adults aging in the community, living conditions can promote health, enhance coping, and reduce disablement--but they can also create stress and increase risks of illness, accidents, and decline. Although socioeconomic disparities in housing likely contribute to inequalities in interior conditions, I argue that living conditions are also shaped by social resources such as coresidential relationships, social network ties, and social support. In this article, I examine the distribution of a set of risky or stressful physical and ambient living conditions including structural disrepair, clutter, lack of cleanliness, noise, and odor. Using data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), I find that low-income and African American older adults have more disordered living conditions as do those with poorer physical and mental health. In addition, older adults who have a coresident partner, more nonresidential network ties, and more sources of instrumental support are exposed to fewer risky or harmful living conditions. This suggests that living conditions are an important, though overlooked, mechanism through which household composition, social networks, and social support affect health and well-being in later life.

Keywords: aging in place; household composition; housing; marriage/partnership; social inequality; social networks; social support.

Figure 1

Distribution of Interviewer Ratings of Respondents’ Living Conditions (n = 2,334)

Figure 2. Disordered Living Conditions, by Household Composition and Social Support

Note: This figure plots adjusted mean household risk scores calculated using the coefficients from Model 3 in Table 4, with the inclusion of interaction terms crossing living alone with social support. Values of other predictors included in that model are held constant at their mean (for scale variables) or mode (for categorical variables).