title: Living Arrangements and the Well-being of Single Mothers in Japan.
abstract: The goal of this paper 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.
authors.affiliation: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Sociology, 1180 Observatory Dr., Madison, WI 53705.  jraymo@ssc.wisc.edu , tel: 608-262-2783, fax: 608-262-8400.
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Raymo
authors.forename: Yanfei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou