Independent Ageing Amongst Older Adults Who Live Alone: Social Networks and Support in Singapore

Abstract

This paper examines how older adults who live alone draw on local and extra-local social ties—including kinship relations, community networks, and friendships—to age independently in Singapore. Conceptually, it engages with extant debates on the hierarchical-compensatory and task-specific theories. The paper draws on a mixed-methods study that combines survey data with qualitative data from interviews, observations and GPS tracking of participants who live in two neighbourhoods. We show how older adults who live alone access and mobilise support in response to their changing life circumstances. Our findings indicate that older adults who live alone are not passive. Rather, they maintain their independence through interdependent relationships with a range of local and extra-local social networks, which are fluid and will evolve over time. Emotional closeness determines most of all how positively older adults perceive and experience care and support. This paper demonstrates the importance of considering emotional proximity, changing social networks, and interdependence in understanding how older adults age independently.