Social network key to happiness of seniors with no kids: Study

Four-fifths of them cite similar well-being to those with kids because of family or friends

-  Shermaine Ang

Madam Eunice Gan, who is 75 and lives alone, fears the day she will not be able to walk, or loses her cognitive abilities.

Loneliness hits when she is ill. “You feel that you’re old, your body’s breaking down. Why am I getting sick so often? It can be rather depressing.”

But her close relationship with her niece and grandnephew, who live across the road from her flat in Jurong East, helps keep her fears at bay.

“My nieces are like my daughters. And with my grandnephew, it’s a very special relationship, which I think is a blessing,” said Madam Gan, who is among a group of seniors without children, an increasingly common situation for many older couples and singles in Singapore.

Nearly 15 per cent of Singaporeans in their 60s, and one in five Singaporeans in their 50s, do not have children, according to research on ageing in recent years.

For these adults, a recent local study has highlighted the importance of strong social networks in supporting their happiness and life satisfaction as they grow older without children to depend on.

The paper, published in April in The Journals Of Gerontology, found that four-fifths of childless individuals aged 50 and above in Singapore rated their well-being on comparable levels to those with children because they had support from family, friends or both.

The rest – one-fifth of the group, who had poorer well-being than their peers with children – had limited support from family and friends, according to the study led by NUS associate professor of sociology Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan.

Adults who were older, foreign-born, had poor health or lower socio-economic status, or lacked religious affiliation tended to have limited support networks. Those with multiple siblings and who were more highly educated typically had a wider support network.