Beyond Material Explanations: Family Solidarity and Mortality, a Small Area‐level Analysis

Abstract

Social solidarity, being embedded in a network of binding social relationships, tends to extend human longevity. Yet while average incomes in the Western world, and with them, life expectancies, have risen dramatically, the second demographic transition has occasioned a breakdown in traditional family forms. This article considers whether these trends in family life may have slowed the rise in life expectancy. I present a cross-sectional analysis of Israeli statistical areas (SAs), for which I construct indexes of Standard of Living (SOL), Traditional Family Structure (TFS), and Religiosity (R). I show that (1) increases in all three of these indexes are associated with lower levels of mortality, (2) male mortality is more sensitive to differences in SOL and TFS than is female mortality, and (3) net of differences in SOL and TFS, there is no difference in the mortality levels of Arab and Jewish populations. Copyright (c) 2010 The Population Council, Inc..

Religiosity, nationalism and fertility among Jews in Israel revisited

“…The breadwinner role of the ‘main provider’ is argued to be the prerogative of the man (Fogiel-Bijaoui, 2002), although the increasing number of postmodern families might eventually break the traditional gender stratification patterns. Since the restructuring of traditional family and gender roles occurs at a different pace among the various social groups (Anson, 2010), the consequential fertility preferences of those groups may be affected.…”

“…This approach stands in contrast to that of Friedlander and Feldmann (1993), where religiosity was calculated solely upon the aggregated percentage of votes for religious parties in the 1984 elections (p. 297). Such measurements of religiosity can be problematic because sometimes even non-Jewish citizens (predominantly Druze) vote for Jewish religious parties (Anson, 2010). In Anson and Meir’s (1996) study, both concepts of religiosity and nationalism were derived from votes in the same 1984 elections.…”

Care for Money? Mortality Improvements, Increasing Intergenerational Transfers, and Time Devoted to the Elderly

“…Carey and Judge (2001) pointed out that human longevity is favored by social relationships and intergenerational transfers of resources. Thus, close family ties or social networks have been identified as crucial factors for later life well-being, health, and survival (Olsen et al, 1991;Kobrin and Hendershot, 1977;Anson, 2010;Steptoe et al, 2013). An increasing number of ties or contacts within a network has been shown to be associated with a lower mortality risk among the elderly (Eng et al, 2002;Berkman, 1995).…”

Care for money? Mortality improvements, increasing intergenerational transfers, and time devoted to the elderly

“…Carey and Judge (2001) pointed out that human longevity is favored by social relationships and intergenerational transfers of resources. Thus, close family ties or social networks have been identified as crucial factors for later life well-being, health, and survival (Olsen et al, 1991;Kobrin and Hendershot, 1977;Anson, 2010;Steptoe et al, 2013). An increasing number of ties or contacts within a network has been shown to be associated with a lower mortality risk among the elderly (Eng et al, 2002;Berkman, 1995).…”