Living Arrangements of Older Women and Men in Kuwait

The main objectives of this article are toanalyze the correlates of living arrangementsof persons aged 60 or above in the oil-rich,Muslim country of Kuwait and to examine whetheror not patterns of co-residence differ bygender. Data were obtained from a nationallyrepresentative survey of households of Kuwaitinationals, and this paper is based on the 687older Kuwaiti residents of these households.Living arrangements were generally similar forwomen and men. Eighty nine percent of women and94 percent of men co-reside in households with atleast one son or daughter. Only 0.3 percent of menand 1.9 percent of women live alone.Socio-demographic characteristics of women andmen differed significantly; 58 percent of women werewidowed compared with 5 percent of men. Logisticregression analysis showed that women had twotimes higher odds than men of living withouttheir children. The odds of residing withoutchildren also increased with the respondent'sage and education but decreased with increasingwealth. Continued rapid demographic,socioeconomic, and cultural change in Kuwaitforetells continued decline in co-residencewith children, and the implications of suchchange in a small city-state merits furtherresearch.