Living arrangements, family bonds and the regional context affecting social integration of older adults in Europe

This chapter investigates the extent to which older adults in Western and Eastern European countries are socially integrated, or lonely, and the factors that enable or place barriers to social integration of older adults. In doing so, the data of the Generations and Gender Surveys (wave 1) are analysed for some Western, Central and Eastern European countries: Bulgaria, France, Germany, Georgia and the Russian Federation. Two avenues towards social integration of older adults will be central: the integrating features of the broader family, i.e. the composition and functioning of family bonds and the living arrangements, which concern the size and composition of the household in which older women and men are involved.