Housing Conditions and Housing Stability after a Partner’s Death: How Early Widowed Keep the House? An Exploratory Study from the French Permanent Demographic Sample.

Margaux Tocqueville , French Institute for Demographic Studies

In Europe a widowed is someone whose spouse died and who has not remarried. Nevertheless, this definition does not consider current changes such as declining rates of marriage and increasing non-married cohabiting couples. We propose an extended definition of widowhood that takes into account non-married widowed, relying on a de facto definition: experience a partner’s death, regardless of one’s legal matrimonial status. From this definition an early widowed is the same but one’s widowhood began before 55 years old. This 55-year limit is a conventional age as, in France, it coincides with the age at which survivor’s pension can be accessed unconditionally. Though it might be a significant change in people lives, early widowhood is rarely taken into account within union dissolutions studies. With the French permanent demographic sample, we retrace various aspects of early widowed life course such as employment, housing, conjugal and fertile life. This research provides insights into how early widowhood impacts everyday life, starting by housing conditions. Early widowed, as opposed to separated people, may have more favourable outcomes for housing stability as they do not need to negotiate with their ex-partner whether or not they keep the housing. We suppose managers and professionals are more likely to distance themselves from the event, while employees and manual workers experience it as a more disruptive and emotional event. Housing characteristics, homeownership status, age at widowhood, gender, and the presence of children are expected to affect the decision to keep or leave one's housing.

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 Presented in Session P3. Migration, Economics, Policies, History