Abstract
Recent demographic trends, such as declining fertility and mortality rates and changes in union stability, will lead to larger numbers of middle-aged adults with fewer family members. Such a trend is of paramount relevance, given that individuals who have no kin may face greater risks of mental health deterioration and lack of personal care in later life. Yet, much of contemporary research has only focused on a small part of the family network, i.e. the nuclear family formed by partners and their children, or on vertical ties between parents, children and grandchildren. This focus ignores the potential effect of extended kinship relations on individuals’ mental health and wellbeing. The KinHealth project investigates whether the extended kinship, including in-laws, siblings, cousins, nieces/nephews, and uncles/aunts, plays a relevant role, over and above the nuclear family, in promoting individuals’ wellbeing. Does the extended kinship matter for the mental health and subjective wellbeing of middle-aged adults? The project - which focuses on a specific cohort of adults aged 50-65 who are relatively free from health needs and are likely to have both older and younger relatives alive - articulates this overarching question into three research objectives. Objective 1: to uncover the kinship network and describe its characteristics. In a study published in Population Space and Place (https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.70063), we show that middle-aged Italians are more likely to live near their parents and children than to their siblings, and that there are substantial variations across Italian provinces: Southern areas generally characterized by closer proximity to kin, particularly to siblings and parents, compared to Northern areas. These patterns across Southern and Northern areas are partially explained by high unemployment rates and traditional family norms. Consequently, in two other studies, we focused on the rapid changes in family norms and behaviors affecting the Italian context, particularly the increasing divorce rates that tend to weaken parent–child relationships, especially on the paternal side. We found that these negative effects of parental separation are not mitigated by educational attainment (https://doi.org/10.20377/jfr-982) but can be attenuated through the introduction of new digital forms of communication (http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.13037). We also collected new online data on the broader kinship network. The KinHealth survey was conducted by the profession agency ‘Demetra’ between November 2024 and February 2025 (5,601 respondents aged 45 to 65). We show that the strengthen of family relationships declines according to genealogical distance, and that obligations to provide support to nephews/nieces, uncles/aunts, and cousins are much weaker and surrounded by less consensus than those of supporting parents and children, with siblings’ obligations occupying an intermediate position. Extended kinship obligations become stronger in contexts where there is societal disapproval for not providing help to distant kin in need (https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.70092). Objective 2: to assess the association between the extended and an individual’s mental health and wellbeing. Our findings on the broader European context show that middle-aged and older adults, especially men, without a partner and children – often defined as “kinless” adults – exhibit lowest levels of happiness and life satisfaction, compared with adults in other family structure types. However, having children is not inherently beneficial, as those who have no contact with them have comparable levels of wellbeing to kinless adults (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X2610066X). Moreover, the well-being disadvantage of kinless adults is reduced among those with stronger social connections to extended kin and the wider community, suggesting that these relationships may serve as alternative sources of support and social integration beyond the nuclear family, although they appear to be less effective in Mediterranean countries such as Italy (https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbaf055) Objective 3: to assess whether providing support and care to older and younger relatives is associated with declines in mental health and wellbeing. Our results based on European data show the existence of a significant negative association between caregiving responsibilities and mental health, at least in terms of depressive symptoms. This relationship depends on individual characteristics, such as gender and the caregiver-recipient relationship (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-95995-0).
Dettagli del progetto
Responsabile scientifico: Marco Albertini
Strutture Unibo coinvolte:
Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche e Sociali
Coordinatore:
Università degli Studi di PADOVA(Italy)
Contributo totale Unibo: Euro (EUR) 10.091,00
Durata del progetto in mesi: 24
Data di inizio
30/11/2023
Data di fine:
29/11/2025
