Off the Beaten Track: Childlessness and Social Integration in Late Life

Aiming to uncover the socially integrating functions of parenthood, this study focused on differences in network size between older adults with and without children, using survey data from Amsterdam (n = 661) and Berlin (n = 516). Explicit attention was paid to diversity among the childless and to their biographical pasts. The pattern of results was similar for both countries. Those who never had children had smaller networks in old age than parents, a finding partially attributable to a more limited supply of kin. There was no evidence for a competing hypothesis, namely, that childlessness is a means for greater sociability. Contrary to expectations, those who had outlived their children were not more socially isolated than those who had never had children. Neither was there support for the expectation that parenthoodhistory differences would be greater among women than men. Last, the findings showed that parenthood contributes to social integration independently of marriage and employment