Lifetime Exposure to Kin with Disability in European Countries

Margherita Moretti , Bocconi University
Nicoletta Balbo, Bocconi University
Marco Tosi, University of Padua
Diego Alburez-Gutierrez, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

From birth, individuals are embedded within a kinship network, not only providing crucial sources of support and care, but also representing potential caregiving demands when kin experience disability. While kinship availability and structure have been studied to some extent, less is known about the exposure to disability within the kinship networks, despite the important implications this exposure may have. We map this exposure across European countries in 2021 using demographic kinship models, and specifically the two-sex populations with time-varying demographic rates, further extended to specify kin disability status. Fertility and mortality data come from the United Nations World Population Prospects, and the disability prevalence from the EU-SILC survey. Results show that, across Europe, the proportion of kin with disability across ages for women typically ranges from around 20% to 40%. Northern (and Western) European countries generally display lower proportions than Southern Europe, while Eastern Europe presents a more mixed picture. The proportion of kin with disability that women have follows a consistent age-related pattern: it rises during childhood and youth, peaking around age 25, as grandparents’ disability becomes increasingly prevalent, then declines through midlife before rising again at older ages, as parents and then siblings get older, and eventually descendants also contribute to the exposure. Some countries (such as Norway) show smaller variations than others (such as Portugal) in how this proportion changes over age. Differences between countries reflect different demographic and health histories and patterns

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 Presented in Session 8. Kinship Networks over the Life Course