Does spatial proximity supplant family ties? Exploring the role of neighborly support for older people in diverse, aging cities

ABSTRACT

The aging population, coupled with increasing diversification, is currently altering the social fabric of cities worldwide. At the local level, social ties within a neighborhood play a key role in enabling older people to age in familiar surroundings. However, family ties in the neighborhood become less common implying that older people become more dependent on alternative support systems such as friends and neighbors. Drawing from a mixed-method research in Berlin (Germany), focus group discussions (26 participants) and survey data (n= 506), we explore the scope of neighborhood support in later life. Our qualitative findings suggest that women, migrants, and people without families close by primarily provide support to fellow older people. Findings from ordinal regression analysis support this on a larger scale. We conclude that these findings point to a new meaning of spatial proximity for social support in times of weakened family ties and growing diversity in old age.

KEYWORDS:

• Aging population
• diversity in later life
• neighborhood relations
• changing family support
• mixed methods

Acknowledgments

We are thankful to Hannah Haacke, Tobia Lakes and Dagmar Haase for their cooperation in this research project.

Data sharing and data accessibility

Due to the wish of our interviewees and participants in the survey, supporting data is not openly available. For further information about the data and conditions for access, please contact [email protected]

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. All names of the interviewees are pseudonyms.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) under Grant HE 2417/16-1. The funding source had no involvement in any stage of the research.