Singlehood during later life: Theoretical considerations for health and social relationships

Abstract

Older adults are a growing segment of the population. The number of single older adults is increasing, making older adulthood a salient developmental period to examine singlehood. In this article, we focus on older adults' singlehood experiences based on marital status and delve into theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches. Specifically, we focus on theories related to the life course and social constructionist perspectives. We include the cumulative advantage/disadvantage model, convalescence model, marital biographies, and social convoy model under life course perspectives and the gender as relational approach, ambiguous loss, and marriage as a greedy institution under social constructionist perspectives. To conclude, we examine how to integrate these theories and methodological considerations to better understand singlehood during later life. The integration of theory and methodologies can help guide research, which, in turn, allows for a more complete understanding of singlehood, which can bolster the quality of life for single older adults.

Kaleidoscopic perspectives on theorizing singlehood

“…Lumping them all together into one group is not meaningful because it blurs the considerable variation among group members. Moving toward theoretical framing that contextualizes singlehood in the life course resonates with approaches taken by Beckmeyer and Jamison (2023), Luke and Poulin (2023), Ermer and Keenoy (2023), and Jordan and Martin (2023) who address the meaning of singlehood in young, middle, and older adulthood, respectively.…”

“…Together, Luke and Poulin's review of the limited work on sex among single women in midlife suggests that it is, like singlehood among young adults, best characterized by diversity and variation that merits more attention to nuance and complexity. Ermer and Keenoy's (2023) article that focuses on later life defined as those 65 and older. They note that not only is the size of the older population growing (due to the aging of the Baby Boomers), but more of them are single than in prior generations, primarily due to the emergence of gray divorce, with considerable variation in the pathways and prevalence of singlehood along gender and race-ethnicity.…”

“…Furthermore, a key task for future research is for more data collection efforts to include both retrospective and prospective measurement approaches to redefine singlehood (Mortelmans et al, 2023). A few authors (e.g., DePaulo, 2023;Ermer & Keenoy, 2023) address the importance of qualitative research in understanding the lived experiences and narratives of singlehood, and many authors cite work based on in-depth narrative interviews. Authors also acknowledge that even when attempting to define and conceptualize singlehood, it is often an elusive concept-one that varies within an individual over their lives, across individuals who would otherwise appear similar in terms of being single, and across contexts and time periods.…”