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Childless Older Adults

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Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging

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Definition

Childless people are persons who do not have children. In the following, “older childless” are people in the second half of their life (50 and over) without children. Childlessness can be a voluntarily decision or an involuntary fact, and few older people also outlived their children.

Overview

Fertility and specifically childlessness are important topics in nowadays discussions about population aging across Western societies. Having fewer or even no children does not only affect lives on the individual and family level, but it also puts modern welfare states under pressure. Especially countries with pay-as-you-go pension schemes face challenges to ensure pensions with less contributors (smaller workforce) and more receivers (more pensioners) (Lee 2003). Apart from guaranteeing social security in an aging society, the adequate provision of care for frail older people is also at risk (Colombo et al. 2011). Many welfare states rely on the family to ensure old age care...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Medical Sociology, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Christian Deindl

  2. Institute of Sociology, TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany

    Martina Brandt

Authors
  1. Christian Deindl
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  2. Martina Brandt
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christian Deindl .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Population Division, UN Dept of Economic Social Affairs Population Division, New York, NY, USA

    Danan Gu

  2. Department of Population Health Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA

    Matthew E. Dupre

Section Editor information

  1. Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, New York, NY, USA

    Danan Gu

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Deindl, C., Brandt, M. (2019). Childless Older Adults. In: Gu, D., Dupre, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69892-2_821-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69892-2_821-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-69892-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-69892-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

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