M. Manfredini, M. Breschi & A. Fornasin Living arrangements and the elderly Casalguidi,

The starting point One of the main assumptions of family historians is that elderly people living in large and complex households could count on more favorable living conditions than those living in nuclear ones. There is in fact large agreement that complex households – multigenerational households in particular - could provide the elderly with “a secure existence through co-residence with their children” (Kertzer, 1995, 368), and that they were also in a position of power and great authority over the whole household. Our goal is to check whether such social and structural differences could turn into mortality differentials for the elderly of a Tuscan community of mid-19th century – CASALGUIDI - in which two opposite family systems co-existed, the joint family system of sharecroppers and the nuclear family system of day laborers.

The population of Casalguidi, Mean Pop. Size2,400 Mean Household number 462 Economy Prevalently rural and characterized by the typical Tuscan sharecropping, called Mezzadria Political situation In the period , Casalguidi belonged to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. In 1861 it became part of the Italian Kingdom Casalguidi

Sharecroppers and day laborers Two opposite family systems Day laborers Earlier marriage only for M (yrs) 27.3 M 25.0 F Lower permanent celibacy rates (%) Living arrangement Nuclear family systemSharecroppers Late marriage (yrs) 28.7 M 24.9 F High permanent celibacy rates (%) Living arrangement Joint family system

Method Raw Data Raw Data1. Parish registers of Birth, Marriage and Death for the period Annual Stati Animarum (census-like data) 3. Family Tax Registers Technique TechniqueNominative Record Linkage Dataset DatasetHousehold, individual and couple life-histories reconstructed year by year and linked to SES information. Up to date, the dataset consists of circa 100,000 person- years and 19,000 household-years

The people 60+ years in Casalguidi MFTOT Individuals ,026 Person-years4,0764,0078,083

Household structure and the elderly Household perspective With elderly Without elderly Total hh-years Nuclear ,982 Complex ,332 No structure One-person hh Total ,553 % of households with elderly people by household structure Complex = Multiple, extended, and frereche

Headship rate Males Females

Households with elderly people by Family Tax and structure (%) ComplexNuclearTotal Untaxed Low Tax Group High & Medium Tax Group Total household-years 3,7622,0096,167 Total = Complex + Nuclear + One-person hh + No structure hh

Event History Analysis Models of Old Age Mortality – Variables Household structure Nuclear, both parents coresiding (reference category) Nuclear, one-parent household Complex, 1 conjugal unit Complex, 2+ conjugal units No structure Family Tax (proxy of wealth and SES) Untaxed (reference category) Low Tax Group Medium & High Tax Group The model controls also for individual’s age, position within the household (HH or not), and for the cholera epidemic of

Event History Analysis Models of Old Age Mortality – Results In bold, coefficients statistically significant at p<0.05.

Conclusions… In the mid-19th century community of Casalguidi, two very different family systems co-existed: the joint-family system of sharecroppers and the nuclear family system of day laborers. On account of the different socioeconomic status of the two farm categories, elderly individuals living in complex households were in better economic conditions than those in nuclear ones. Did living arrangement and SES have an effect on elderly mortality? Which counted more? Event History Analysis of old-age mortality has showed that the survival of old age people was largely conditioned by household SES (Family Tax), whereas the form of living arrangement did play only a marginal (and not significant) role, both for males and females. …and future perspectives Shifting from the rigid and schematic categorization of the forms of living arrangement to the more dynamic analysis of co-resident individuals Including the kin network outside the household as a potential explicative factor of differentials in old age mortality.

Household structure and the elderly Individual perspective Modifications/changes in living arrangements of elderly people. Only individuals observed for 5+ years. Complex = 69.9% Nuclear = 24.9% Others = 5.2% Nuclear – Complex = 55.6% Complex – Nuclear = 25.5% Others = 19.0%