Marriage is not all it’s cracked up to be: living with others, not marriage, is good for men’s health
Paul Boyle, Zhiqiang Feng, Peteke Feijten, University of St Andrews
The consensus, following around 150 years of research, is that marriage is good for health 1-5 and
life expectancy 6-8. This is particularly the case for men who profit more from marriage than women
9-13. The benefits of marriage apparently accrue from both the social networks that marriage provides and the improved health-related behaviours in married relationships. We argue that it is not the institution of marriage, per se, but living with others which influences men’s health. Using data from a large, nationally representative sample, we show that unmarried men who live with others are no more likely to report illness than married men. Living with others, rather than being married, is protective and, given the dramatic increase in solo-living that has occurred in Britain and Western societies more generally, public health practitioners need to be made aware of the potential health needs of this growing group.

‘The effect of relationship status, living arrangements and psychosocial predictors on social support and health behaviours in men with cancer’
Hannah Dale, Clinical Psychology Department, Stratheden Hospital
Background: the psychosocial impacts of a cancer diagnosis include reduced quality of life, poorer inter-personal relationships, hopelessness and mental illness. Worse outcomes, including mortality rates have been found for single men with cancer when compared to partnered men and all women. Interventions that aim to improve psychosocial and/or behavioural outcomes often have positive outcomes, however a dearth in the literature remains in terms of interventions for single men.
Aim: to examine the effect of relationship status, living arrangements and psychosocial predictors on social support and health behaviours in men with cancer. This aims to inform future interventions for men with cancer, and identify groups which may be particularly vulnerable, such as those living alone/single men.
Method: adult men with cancer are currently being asked by oncology staff in Fife if they would be willing to take part in the research questionnaire. NHS ethics approval was granted in March 2009. Questions include demographics, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), The Distress Thermometer, The Social Provisions Questionnaire, health behaviour questions, along with questions exploring their desire for support around these issues.
Discussion points: Whilst the research is currently on-going, it is likely that it will identify groups of men who are more vulnerable to poorer psychosocial and behavioural health. It would be valuable to discuss the ways of engaging vulnerable populations, and strategies of encouraging oncology staff to identify these people and refer them onto appropriate agencies.

People who live apart together (LATs) - how different are they?
Simon Duncan (University of Bradford) and Miranda Phillips (National Centre for Social Research)
‘Living apart together’ – that is being in a relationship with a partner who lives somewhere else – is increasingly recognised and accepted as a specific way of being in a couple. On the face of it, this is
a far cry from the ‘traditional’ version of couple relationships, where co-residence in marriage was placed at the centre and where living apart from one’s partner, if it were recognised at all, would be regarded as abnormal and understandable only as a reaction to severe external constraints.
So how might we interpret living apart together in the early 21st century? There are two rival interpretations. Some commentators regard living apart together as a historically new family form where LATs can pursue a ‘both/and’ solution to partnership. Their choice to live apart no longer means being single or deviantly underhand, as it might have done in earlier periods. Instead they can both experience the intimacy and satisfaction of being in a couple, and at the same time better continue with important pre-existing commitments. LATs may even de-prioritize sexual/love relationships and place more importance on friendship than conventional relationship mores dictate. Alternatively, others see LAT as akin to a ‘stage’, just a ‘stepping stone’ on the way to cohabitation and marriage. In this view, LATs are not at all radical pioneers moving beyond the family, but are cautious and conservative both in their approach to relationships and to life more generally, and simply show a lack of commitment. And behind these rival interpretations lies the increasingly tarnished spectre of individualisation theory. Is LAT some sort of index for a developing individualisation in practice?
In this paper we take this debate further by using information from the 2006 British Social Attitudes survey. First, can we distinguish ‘dating LATs’ - those who more resemble traditional ‘steady’ or ‘special’ girl and boyfriend, from ‘partner LATs’? Secondly, why do people become LATs? Third, do LATs as a category differ socially and demographically to people who are married, cohabiting, or single? Fourth, to what extent do LATs hold different attitudes about families and relationships? Finally, can LATs best be seen as a variant of cohabitant who just live apart or as more like single people who also have a partner?

Home alone? The implications of solo living for young people in their
housing transitions into adulthood
Kayleigh Garthwaite, Durham University
The rise in solo living has been one of the most significant demographic shifts of recent decades, and although living alone remains common among older age groups, the most rapid growth in solo living has been situated amongst younger age groups. Often, people aged 16-24 who may be ‘forced’ into solo living can be at greater risk of experiencing social exclusion and inequality in their housing transitions. Yet despite this, relatively little attention has been paid to this group in terms of policies and future initiatives; as France (2008) suggests, 18-24 year olds tend not to be recognised as a priority category in policy terms. Based on in-depth qualitative interviews with housing practitioners in the North East of England, this article examines how, if at all, existing policies are responding to this challenge. Findings indicate that although strategies to tackle social exclusion are inevitably on the agenda, a consideration of young people and solo living transitions appears to be absent. This article argues that further investigation is required in order to tackle the exclusion and inequality faced by many younger one person households in housing transitions into adulthood. To conclude, this paper argues that by situating young people’s housing transitions in a wider social policy context, young solo livers can face multiple barriers that are not being addressed by current policy framework.

Rural and Urban Solo Living: Social Integration, Quality of Life and Future Orientations.
Lynn Jamieson, Roona Simpson and Fran Wasoff, University of Edinburgh
Living alone, or solo, is increasingly common across adulthood and has grown particularly rapidly in this age span. Although more concentrated in cities, solo-living is not exclusively an urban phenomenon. This research project deepens understanding of the social worlds, quality of life and future orientations of people living alone in the age span conventionally associated with being partnered and parenting. It focuses on solo-living men and women aged 25-44 from large urban areas, remote towns and rural areas in Scotland. Scotland has a large rural land mass and higher rate of solo-living and lower fertility than other parts of the UK. Using the Scottish Household Survey as a sampling frame, 140 respondents took part in semi-structured telephone interviews, 35 of whom also participated in in-depth face to face interviews. This research provides evidence relevant to theoretical debates about social change and to policy discussion concerning the implications of this trend.

Making relationship legally visible – The need for constructing a new legal architecture
Kirsten Ketscher, Faculty of Law, Copenhagen University
For several decades it has, at least in Europe, been clear that marriage long ago has lost its legal monopoly as the basis for forming families. It is not any more the only and not the most usual way of creating near personal ties with other individuals. The fastest growing family type is now the so called ”single” family in different forms (e.g. LAT) which only consists of one (1) person. None the less “marriage” continues to be the scale after which the individual’s personal situation is evaluated: Married, not married, divorced, widow, widower etc. It is the starting point for my project that this worn legal framework is not able to recognise the kind of relationship people have with each other which deserves legal attention. The terms ”marriage” and even ”family” is a way of legal stereotyping which tends to exclude a growing number of people. I am working on constructing new elements in a new legal architecture, based on legislation and case law from the Nordic countries, the Luxembourg
Court and the Strasbourg Court.

Why are they still single? Rethinking Free Will and Self Control
Kinneret Lahad, Bar Ilan University, Israel
The institution of the family in Israel is undergoing profound and dramatic changes. Nonetheless, recent studies demonstrate that familial shifts cannot be said to be moving in a linear fashion, as is sometimes assumed. The centrality of family ideology and relatively high birthrates in Israel are perceived to be related to various factors such as the “demographic war” against Israel’s enemies (within and without), the effects of the Holocaust, the role of the religious establishment in the political and cultural system, and the infiltration of Zionist and traditional religious Jewish practices.
Within this context, I address a particular question: “why is she single?” is prevalent in discursive patterns in contemporary Israeli society. My research is based upon a textual analysis of columns by single women in two of Israel's major internet portals: Ynet and Nrg. In the presentation, my intent is not to analyze the reasons for the growing rate of single women in Israel today; but to comprehend the discursive formations of this question and how knowledge about Jewish, secular single women, who live alone is produced and circulated. The question “why is she single” stands at the heart of the discursive formation of singlehood, most commonly expressed with a tone of surprise. First, it sets out to understand “what went wrong?”, and second, it seeks to uncover the hidden reasons for one's extended singlehood. Indeed, the New Single Woman (Trimberger, 2006), comes into being as an enigmatic subject of investigation occupying a confusing social position. I consider living alone to be an important aspect of the construction of singlehood as it plays a cardinal role in the images and stereotypical attitudes towards single women in Israel’s current social and familial order.

Managing Nomadic Lifestyles and Social Relationships in East Asia:
Soloists’ Differential Experiences of Mobility in the Information Age
On-Kwok Lai, Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan.
In 21st century digital capitalism, mobile communicative gadgets are necessity for our intensive ubiquitous social networking in a globalizing world. Creative use of mobile communication is phenomenal. This is particularly instrumental for the Soloists, who have to manage a nomadic lifestyle with frequent commuting and travelling (away from home-family) for business, plus the multi-tasking for survival in work milieu, within the limited temporal-spatial (when and where) constraints, yet to maintain socio-familial relationships. More importantly, how people use information and communication technologies (ICT) is the best testimony of the new socio-communicative paradigm for solo living in the information age.
Examining the socio-techno innovations in hyper-modernizing East Asia where nation states champion the project for ICT-driven ubiquitous communication networking, our research question is: how Soloists’ creative use of new media copes with the hyper-modern functional demand for mobility-for-work and the cultural specific necessity to maintain socio-familial relationship at large, whereby new representations of social dynamics and the contradictions of human wellbeing emerge? With fieldwork case studies in Japan and China, this paper examines the Soloists’ multi-facet, diversity, of mobile communication, to enhance socio-familial relationship. We illustrate how new media regime shapes the communication dynamics and relationships between the home-bound family member and their high-mobility one (soloist, with a nomadic working life). Discussions also run through the paper on the socio-familial and spatial (location) relevance of mobile communication, emphasizing the use of ICT by/with/for the soloists, for realizing their quality of life with the co-presence (through new media) of their family members.

What does it mean to live ‘solo’ or to live ‘alone’?
Rona Macdonald, University of Toronto
When older people encounter health care services, living alone is understood simply, as a living arrangement where there is an absence of another human being to share domestic living space
on a continual basis. However, the experience and the meaning of living alone is likely to be far more complex.
In this presentation, I would like to begin to think critically about the meaning of living alone by broadly mapping out how it has been constructed in the health care literature. The intention is to identify thematically the assumptions embedded in the research, and to track how these change over time. The focus will be on research related to living alone for older women.
Additionally, I would like to begin to analyse the literature on living alone as it intersects with social status, specifically with older women who are ever-single, widowed and divorced. The guiding exploratory question here will be: Are there similarities and differences between how living
alone has been constructed for women who have never-married, who are widowed
and who are divorced?
The intersection between solo living and singleness in the lives of older women is the focus of my current doctoral work at the University of Toronto, Canada. Informed by my clinical work as an occupational therapist with older adults, I believe that research that explores the complexity of solo living is long overdue, and the knowledge generated will be helpful both theoretical and clinically.

Intimacy in the 21st Century: The Negotiation of Divergent Rationalities
Jan Macvarish, University of Kent
Drawing on qualitative research with single, childless, midlife women in the UK and cultural analysis of media representations of the ‘new single woman’, the paper explores the contradictions between the publicly available representations of solo-living and the lived experience of singleness in contemporary Britain. The paper explores how these contradictions emerge in the complex negotiations between self and society required to navigate recent changes in the circumstances of women and in the wider beliefs and practices of family life.
In the context of weakened shared meanings of love, commitment, partnership and children, the affirmation of the identity of the ‘successful single’ and the endorsement of the individual who protects the self before risking the vagaries of intimate interactions with others, are relatively strengthened. In rationalising their singleness, the interviewees were able to draw upon many culturally affirmed claims, such as the inadequacy of men, the unpredictability of relationships and the burden of children. Such claims seemed to be both culturally prevalent and powerful relative to more nebulous, individualised and partial desires for relationships. The interviews revealed that singleness may rarely be experienced as a choice and that there are limits to the capacity of the ‘single lifestyle’ to provide a valued and fulfilling sense of self and social identity.

’New’ forms of living – family, intimacy and everyday life
Charlott Nyman and Lars Evertsson, Umeå University, Sweden
In the research project ”’New’ forms of living – family, intimacy and everyday life”, in-depth qualitative interviews have been done with hetero- and homosexual people living as single and in LAT relationships as well as with those living in same-sex cohabiting relationships. Our aim is to increase our understanding of how these groups conceptualize and practice family, friendship, intimacy, as well as how they organize everyday life. The broad topics that are investigated are 1) respondents’ thoughts on and experiences of life as single/LAT/same-sex couple, 2) respondents’ thoughts on and experiences of family, 3) the organization of everyday life: money, home, leisure, work. Our “solo-livers” include heterosexual and homosexual, single and LAT women and men. However, an unexpected outcome of a recent newspaper advertisement to recruit participants is that a large number of elderly (55+) single women responded. Though we have not begun analyses of these interviews yet, some initial observations about our sub-group of elderly women (interviewed during the spring of 2009), are possible. One such observation is that our single women do not seem to have difficulty identifying themselves as single. Another is that they do not see being single as a state of primarily ”lacking” something. Several of the women frame their singleness in terms of being ”modern” women, where autonomy, (economic) independence and freedom are central. Also, sexuality and intimacy are seen as possible outside of coupledom. Friendship (usually with other single women) is an important source of intimacy while sexuality is a tougher nut to crack.

The myth of independence for older Americans living alone: a critical reflection
Elena Portacolone, University of California
Remaining at home in older age is generally considered a sign of independence and therefore as an important achievement. More than ten millions Americans over 65 live alone accounting for 27 per cent of Americans around that age. But this can be an experience full of hardship hardly visible to outsiders, especially when one lives in an individualistic society such as the United States strenuously awarding self-sufficiency. The paper reflects on the meanings and values placed on independence among older adults living alone in the Bay Area of San Francisco. Special attention is devoted to the relation of independence to hardships, including isolation, depression, feeling helpless or suicidal. To what extent hardships are created from living in individualistic societies employing charged notions such as "independence" to marginalize those not contributing to the economy because unemployed, retired or too frail? The participant observation and 28 in-depth interviews of 13 informants (three adult children of elderly living alone and ten adults 65 and over living alone in the Bay Area) from 2006 to 2009 illustrate how the behaviour of adults 65 and older living alone is influenced by an individualistic ideology.

Older people without children
Jill Reynolds, Open University
In a recent discussion about government proposals on care for older people (July 2009), the Radio 4 news presenter referred to a possible need to return to the attitude that it’s the family’s responsibility to look after its older members. Yet there is often already an expectation that the family – by which is usually meant children or grandchildren – can be relied upon to take an active part in the social life and any care arrangements for their older members. Indeed, social policy in much of the UK has tended to rely on the role of families when reducing the provision of social care through tax-supported services.
My interest is therefore in this sizeable group that is often excluded from discussions about ageing. What happens to people who do not have children to ‘care’ and how do they experience ageing?
Several research studies have challenged from different perspectives the widespread belief that relationships between adult children and their parents are crucial to the social support of older people (Davidson, 2004, Hoeffer, 1987, Koropeckyj-Cox, 2002, Koropeckyj-Cox, 2003, Thompson and Whearty, 2004, Wenger et al., 2000). There is a limited amount of qualitative research on the subjective experiences of childless people aged 60 years and over. I would like to undertake research exploring this area and interviewing people about their lives, relationships and identities, examining identity and self-representation through the discursive work and conversational moves undertaken.

Davidson, K. (2004) ‘“Why can't a man be more like a woman?”’, The Journal of Men’s Studies, 13(1, Fall), pp. 25–43.
Hoeffer, B. (1987) ‘Predictors of life outlook of older single women’, Research in Nursing and Health, 10, pp. 111–17.
Koropeckyj-Cox, T. (2002) ‘Beyond parental status: psychological well-being in middle and old age’, Journal of Marriage and Family, 64, pp. 957–71.
Koropeckyj-Cox, T. (2003) ‘Three childless men’s pathways into old age’, in Gubrium, J. F. and Holstein, J. A. (eds), Ways of Aging, Oxford, Blackwell Publishing. Thompson, E. H., Jr and Whearty, P. M. (2004) ‘Older men's social participation: the importance of masculinity ideology’, The Journal of Men’s Studies, 13(1, Fall), pp. 5–24.
Wenger, C., Scott, A. and Patterson, N. (2000) ‘How important is parenthood? Childlessness and support in old age in England’, Ageing & Society, 20, pp. 161–82.

Japan’s Urban Singles
Richard Ronald, Delft University of Technology
In recent decades the number of single households in Japan has expanded rapidly, especially in urban centers where single dwellers account for as much as 43 percent of households. Since the 1980s there has been a sharp break in life-course trajectories, which had become embedded in post-war Japan around standard family formation and male breadwinner households. This paper examines the nature of socio-economic shifts in recent years and how they have driven both the proliferation of single living as well as the numbers of younger adults remaining in the natal family home into their 30s and 40s as ‘parasite singles’. Specific attention is paid to the housing system and urban conditions which have shaped a particular pattern of single living orientated around compact apartment units of typically less than 29m2. Attitudes and expectations of younger generations in particular are being re-orientated around a new urban landscape characterized by atomized households and fragmented life-courses. Urban development and housing markets too are responding significantly to the proliferation of single lifestyles. A major feature of contemporary Japanese society has been the trend towards low marriage and fertility rates, associated with prolonged singledom and rise of single living, constituted in public debates as a fundamental social problem.

Living alone in young adulthood: findings for the UK 1988-2008
Juliet Stone and Ann Berrington, ESRC Centre for Population Change, University of Southampton
As part of an ESRC funded wider project investigating living arrangements over the life course, we examine trends in non-family living among young adults (20-34 years) using the UK Labour Force Survey household datasets. We situate our analyses in theoretical debates regarding the presence
of an intermediate stage between adolescence and young adulthood, sometimes referred to as ‘emerging adulthood’. Between 1988 and 2008 there was a notable increase in the proportion of young adults living outside a family, particularly among those in their thirties. Of young adults living outside a family, the vast majority were either living alone or sharing with non-relatives. In both 1998 and 2008, those in their thirties were most likely to be living alone, while those in their twenties were more likely
to be sharing with non-relatives. Between 1998 and 2008 there was a decline in the percentage living alone and a trend towards living with non-relatives.
This was especially pronounced for those in their early thirties, where the proportion of those not in a family who were living alone declined from 73% to 62%. Patterns by gender were similar. Changes in the prevalence of living alone differed by education and economic activity. In general the move away from living alone was greater for those who were more socio-economically advantaged. The decline in solo living was smaller among unemployed men. We anticipate that our current work on the type and quality of housing in which these young adults are living will provide more insight as to the extent to which these changes are a result of constraint rather than choice. We argue that further work is needed to understand the relationship between living alone and ‘living apart together’ and to consider how living alone in young adulthood may have specific meanings in comparison with living alone at later phases of the life course.

The Hungarian Yuppie Single`s Lifestyle
Ágnes Utasi and Ágnes Sántha, Hungary
Our presentation deals with the lifestyle of young urban Hungarian singles. The population we studied is that of solo-living singles in their thirties, in the family age.
We aim to present some aspects of the lifestyle using both statistical methods as well as in-depth interviews with upper-middle class singles, living in one-person-households. Data from a survey with urban singles (N=668, 2002, Utasi) will be analysed. 43% of our solo-living population used to have a living-apart-together relationship. Our presentation will be complemented with experience from in-depth interviews carreid out with singles.
The basic topics to be discussed are: work orientations and labor market experience, the role of profession in the lifestyle of singles; the experience of past partnership(s); gender role expectations and attitudes; the prestige of marriage and family life, as well as the microsocial networks of young singles.
How do singles interpret their way of life and what identity do they construct around it in a family-friendly society?
Rather than presenting case studies, we are constructing typologies and studying the common aspects of some important life occurrences and lifestyle elements. Our results can be briefly summed up as follows: Hungarian singles experience singleness as a transitory stage in life, whether they have purposively chosen it or whether they live alone independently of their will. The examples of the long-term singleness reveal that there is an established place for partnership and family in their life plan. Long-term purposive singleness does not belong to the typical motivations of singles, and it is by no means the dominant belief or practice. The "convinced single”, the front-line fighter of alternative ways of life is only a sporadic phenomenon here. Singles` arguments about their way of life reveal that the identity of Hungarian singles is not built around singleness.



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