It is kind of exciting to discover a new word. One new word can explode into many new directions of thought. Yesterday that happened to me when I came across “kinless”.
Many of us will at some point fall into the category of ‘kinless’ or ‘almost kinless’. What follows below is what I have stolen from an Ottawa Citizen article and, of course, adapted for my purposes.
Growing numbers of Canadians are “kinless,” an older adult with neither a spouse nor living children. Others are not technically kinless, but have kids who live far away.
Sometimes called “solo agers” — and less charitably, “elder orphans” — it is one by-product of shrinking families, and a pressing policy concern especially to local health authorities when they become involved.
Canada is among the nations with the highest prevalence of kinlessness in the world, alongside Ireland, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
Geriatrician Dr. Samir Sinha, director of health policy research at the National Institute on Ageing, has growing numbers of patients who are kinless. This is particularly common in some segments of the population, such as people who are LGBTQ+, who are less likely to have a partner and may be estranged from their families. There are also people who are not technically kinless, but are still isolated.
“Family structures are changing,” said Sinha, the director of geriatrics at Mount Sinai Hospital and University Health Network in Toronto. “I have increasing numbers of patients who have never married or had children. Or if they did marry, they outlived their spouse.”
In 2007, about 7.2 per cent of people 45 and older in Canada did not have a partner or a child, said Rachel Margolis, a demographer at Western University. By 2011, that had increased to approximately 10 per cent.
At the same time, loneliness is a growing population health threat. Since the majority of care for older adults comes from family, kinlessness is a “potentially critical demographic” trend for society, the institutions that provide services for older adults, as well as for those who find themselves kinless, they warned.
People have to think about the possibility that they may become kinless over time — and what they will do about it, said Sinha.
“We have to help people build social networks that are meaningful to them, places where people can gather to build new networks,” he said.
“I have patients who say: ‘I have a will.’ I tell them: ‘I don’t care what happens after you cross the rainbow bridge. I want to know what you are planning for the last hundred yards.’ “
Friends, acquaintances and neighbours can serve as “elastic ties” for older adults without family. Research shows that there is some “substitution” happening in social relations among those who are kinless, said Margolis.
But that alone may not fully make up for a lack of family ties. Substituting friends or community involvement for family works well into middle age, but declines as people age, ties with work colleagues unravel, same-age friends die and health problems make involvement more difficult.
Childless and unpartnered older adults are the most likely to report being lonely. Middle-aged and older people without children or a partner are less likely to be involved in the community, particularly men. Being widowed increases the risk of dying, possibly because of a lack of companionship and healthy habits such as shared meals, said Margolis.
“Your social health is just as important as your physical health.”
The social dynamics of kinless people also work differently from those with partners and children. Kinless adults communicate with relatives less frequently than those with either a partner or children or both, and instead interact with friends more often. This is especially true of university-educated kinless people. It suggests to researchers that kinless people are not “substituting” in siblings, cousins and other relatives for the decreased social relations that can come without having children.
“It takes more effort for kinless people to set up and maintain a social life,” said Margolis.
Samir Sinha: handout photo jpg
Most people want to age in place. But lacking a spouse and having no kin — or no kin living nearby — is one of the factors leading to being placed in long-term care.
People have to think about the possibility that they may become kinless over time — and what they will do about it, said Sinha.
“We have to help people build social networks that are meaningful to them, places where people can gather to build new networks,” he said.
Becoming involved with a NORC committee might just be a solution.
