title: Companionship in the neighborhood context: older adults' living arrangements and perceptions of social cohesion.
abstract: This study investigated the impact of neighborhood social cohesion on the perceived companionship of nearly 1,500 community-dwelling older adults from the Neighborhood, Organization, Aging and Health project (NOAH), a Chicago-based study of older adult well-being in the neighborhood context. We hypothesized that the relationship between neighborhood-level social cohesion and individual residents' reports of companionship would be more pronounced among those who lived alone than those who resided with others. Controlling for age, gender, education, race, marital status, length of neighborhood residence, and self-rated health, neighborhood social cohesion predicted companionship among those who lived alone; for a one-unit increase in neighborhood social cohesion, the odds of reporting companionship increased by half. In contrast, social cohesion did not predict the companionship of those who resided with others. The results suggest that older adults who live alone particularly profit from the benefits of socially cohesive neighborhood environments.
authors.affiliation: Center on the Demography and Economics of Aging, University of Chicago, IL, USA lbromell@uchicago.edu.
authors.forename: Lea
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bromell
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology and Population Research Center, University of Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Kathleen A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Cagney
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D019058:Community Networks; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012944:Social Support
keywords: companionship; living arrangements; neighborhood context; older adults; social cohesion