Do different operationalizations of family structure offer different understandings of the links between family structure and older adult mortality? Using the American Health and Retirement Study (N = 29,665), we examine mortality risks by three measures of family structure: whether respondents have different family statuses (e.g. married vs. unmarried), volume of family members available (e.g. having one vs. two living immediate family members), and family embeddedness (e.g. having neither spouse nor child vs. having spouse but no child). We focus on three kin types: partner/spouse, children, and siblings. We find that differences in empirical estimates across measures of family structure are not dramatic, but that family embeddedness can show some additional heterogeneity in mortality patterns over family status variables or the volume of ties. This paper tests different ways of operationalizing family structure to study mortality outcomes and advances our understanding of how family functions as a key social determinant of health.

中文翻译：

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美国的家庭嵌入度和老年人死亡率

家庭结构的不同运作是否对家庭结构与老年人死亡率之间的联系有不同的理解？利用美国健康与退休研究（N = 29,665），我们通过家庭结构的三种衡量标准来检查死亡风险：受访者是否有不同的家庭状况（例如已婚与未婚）、可用家庭成员的数量（例如有一个与两个）居住的直系亲属），以及家庭嵌入性（例如，没有配偶或孩子与有配偶但没有孩子）。我们关注三种亲属类型：伴侣/配偶、子女和兄弟姐妹。我们发现，不同家庭结构衡量标准的经验估计差异并不显着，但家庭嵌入性可以显示出死亡率模式相对于家庭地位变量或关系数量的一些额外异质性。本文测试了运用家庭结构来研究死亡率结果的不同方法，并加深了我们对家庭如何作为健康的关键社会决定因素的理解。