Race and Independent Living Among Elderly Brazilians Since 1980.

This paper examines independent living among elderly Brazilians 65+ of different racial groups since 1980. Consistent with current ideas about the living arrangements of elderly people around the world, there was an overall increase in independent living among Brazilian elders. However, the increase mainly reflects change among White Brazilians who constitute a little over half the population whereas there was little change among Browns or Blacks. Since in general Whites tend to have higher socioeconomic status than Browns and Blacks in Brazil, one might suppose that a racial disparity merely reflects socioeconomic differences, and that disparate change merely reflects differential change among different social strata. If this were true, there should be 1) no racial difference in the likelihood of independent living, and 2) no racial difference in the change in that likelihood once socioeconomic factors are controlled. We find from examining microsamples of the 1980 and 2000 censuses that, 1) there is a net racial difference in independent living in both 1980 and 2000, and 2) there is a net racial difference in change among unmarried men. Either or both situations among all elders could be due to some cultural or minority status factor not captured by the structural characteristics included in our statistical models. Additional study is needed to more positively identify what those explanatory factors might be, and would ideally include information about non-coresident kin as well as coresident kin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]