Fernández‑Carro, CeliaGumà, Jordi2023-07-142023-07-142022Fernández‑Carro C, Gumà Lao J. A life-course approach to the relationship between education, family trajectory and late-life loneliness among older women in Europe. Soc Indic Res. 2022;162(3):1345-63. DOI: 10.1007/s11205-022-02885-x0303-8300http://hdl.handle.net/10230/57580The aim of this study is to expand our knowledge about the factors that condition late-life loneliness from a longitudinal perspective. We assess the long-term relationship between education, late-life loneliness and family trajectories in terms of the role of partnership and motherhood, as well as their timing for older women. We set two initial hypotheses: (1) family trajectory has a mediating effect and (2) education has a selection effect. Cross-sectional and retrospective data are drawn from the three waves of the SHARE survey (3rd, 5th and 7th waves), selecting a subsample of women aged 65 and over from 11 European countries (N = 10,615). After distinguishing eight different family trajectories by carrying out a Sequence Analysis, the Karlson-Holm-Breen method is used to assess the mediator effect of family trajectory on the relationship between education and loneliness. Multinomial analysis is used to explore whether the probability of different family trajectories of older European women is defined by their level of education. Our results show that education has a selection effect on family trajectories: a higher educational level increases the probability of a non-standardised family trajectory. Significant results of the mediator effect of family trajectory are however only observed for women with medium-level education, as being single and childless at older ages increases the probability of loneliness among these women. Adopting a life-course perspective has permitted us to introduce the longitudinal dimensions of life events, education and family trajectories to the study of feelings of loneliness among women in old age.application/pdfeng© The Author(s) 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11205-022-02885-xLonelinessOld ageLongitudinal analysisFamily networksGenderEuropeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess