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Living Arrangements and the Well-Being of Single Mothers in Japan

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Abstract

The goal of this study is to evaluate the extent to which the well-being of single mothers in Japan is related to coresidence with other adults. Using data from a representative survey of households headed by single mothers, we examine two measures of subjective well-being: perceived economic circumstances and self-rated health. One-fourth of the single mothers surveyed were coresiding with another adult(s) and it is clear that these women fare significantly better than their non-coresiding counterparts on both measures of well-being. Net of several theoretically relevant sociodemographic, family, and employment characteristics, single mothers living with others were significantly less likely to report somewhat difficult/difficult economic circumstances or fair/poor health. Efforts to account for potential endogeneity between well-being and living arrangements suggested that self-rated health, but not subjective economic well-being, is related to selection into coresidence. Single mothers in fair/poor health appear more likely to coreside with others and, accounting for this selection, intergenerational coresidence appears to be very beneficial for self-rated health. We discuss the implications of these findings for processes of stratification in Japan in light of the limited public income support available to single mothers.

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Acknowledgments

The research reported herein was supported by a Grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R03-HD049567) and by the College of Letters and Science and the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Additional support was provided by the Institute of Social and Economic Research at Osaka University. Research was conducted at the Center for Demography and Ecology and the Center for Demography of Health and Aging at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which are supported by Center Grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R24 HD047873) and the National Institute on Aging (P30 AG17266).

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  1. Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1180 Observatory Dr., Madison, WI, 53705, USA

    James M. Raymo

  2. Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training, 4-8-23, Kamishakujii, Nerima-ku, Tokyo, 177-8503, Japan

    Yanfei Zhou

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Correspondence to James M. Raymo.

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Raymo, J.M., Zhou, Y. Living Arrangements and the Well-Being of Single Mothers in Japan. Popul Res Policy Rev 31, 727–749 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-012-9247-4

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