Household dynamics and living arrangements across the life course

Research co-ordinated by Prof. Maria Evandrou (University of Southampton)

This theme explores people's living arrangements throughout their lives, looking at the reasons why people live in certain ways and how this relates to wider society.

The past few decades have seen changes in the patterns of living arrangements among people in the UK. In particular, more people now live on their own and living in a 'nuclear family' is becoming less common. In practical terms, this move towards living alone combined with people living longer could have important implications for the provision of social care. These trends may also be related to changes in the nature of family, friendship and other types of relationships, with the boundaries of what makes a 'family' in today's society becoming blurred. Therefore the work in this theme is not limited to relationships within the household but also includes social networks and relationships beyond the household. Given that these changes may also reflect changing patterns of events across people lifetimes, we take a life course approach and include three sub-themes focussing on young adults, mid-life and later life:

• The living arrangements of young adults in the UK
• The dynamics of household change in mid-life
• The dynamics of household change in later life

Related activites:

Household and family demography in the Global South  - This group of project's is coordinated by Prof. Vicky Hosegood (Southampton & Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies), the projects aim to design appropriate health and welfare interventions and policies that are family-orientated.