Dependent or Productive? A New Approach to Understanding the Social Positioning of Older South Africans Through Living Arrangements

Enid Schatz; Sangeetha Madhavan; Mark Collinson; F Xavier Gómez-Olivé; Margaret Ralston

doi:10.1177/0164027514545976

Dependent or Productive? A New Approach to Understanding the Social Positioning of Older South Africans Through Living Arrangements

Res Aging. 2015 Aug;37(6):581-605. doi: 10.1177/0164027514545976. Epub 2014 Aug 13.

Authors

Enid Schatz¹, Sangeetha Madhavan², Mark Collinson³, F Xavier Gómez-Olivé⁴, Margaret Ralston⁵

Affiliations

¹ University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa schatzej@health.missouri.edu.
² University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
³ MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa Umeå Centre for Global Health Research, Umeå University, Sweden Migration, Urbanisation and Health Working Group, INDEPTH Network, Ghana.
⁴ MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
⁵ Mississippi State University, Mississipi State, MS, USA.

Abstract

South Africa's population is aging. Most of the older Black South Africans continue to live in extended household structures with children, grandchildren, and other kin. They also constitute a source of income through a means-tested noncontributory state-funded pension available at age 60. Using census data from the Agincourt Health and Demographic Surveillance System in 2000, 2005, and 2010, we develop a typology of living arrangements that is reflective of the social positioning of elderly persons as dependent or productive household members and analyze changes in the distribution over time. Older persons, in general, live in large, complex, and multigenerational households. Multigenerational households with "productive" older persons are increasing in proportion over the period, although there are few differences by gender or pension eligibility at any time point.

Keywords: Africa; South Africa; aging; gender; living arrangements; social grants.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aging*
Caregivers
Family Characteristics*
Family*
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Pensions
Rural Population
Socioeconomic Factors
South Africa / epidemiology

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding