An Ethnic Comparison of the Economic Situation of Widows: Longitudinal Evidence from the H-EPESE and AHEAD

Jacqueline L. Angel, University of Texas at Austin
Cynthia Buckley, University of Texas at Austin
Ronald Angel, University of Texas at Austin
Maren Andrea Jimenez, University of Texas at Austin

Research indicates that Hispanics generally, and Mexican Americans, in particular, benefit from aspects of their culture which are shown to be socially “protective.” This cultural protection operates primarily through strong family traditions and support systems. One critical family tie, marriage, has repeatedly shown considerable association with increased emotional, physical, and financial well being within the older population. Conversely, widowhood is seen as a significant risk factor for poor health and economic disadvantage. We hypothesize that marital support tends to be stronger for Latinas than for non-Hispanic whites, and therefore we anticipate a larger economic disparity between current married and widowed Mexican Americans than between their non-Hispanic white counterparts. Previous evidence has relied upon measures of marital status at one point in time, with few studies assessing the importance of marital duration and role continuity in explaining income and asset variation within categories of marital status. In this study, we begin to decompose the effect of marital status transitions by examining four components of marital experiences. The categories include: age at marital entry; number of unions; duration of marriage, and timing of spousal loss. The aim of this paper is to investigate two interrelated questions: (1) Is the negative effect of widowhood stronger for Mexican American women than non-Hispanic whites? If so, what explains this difference? (2) To what extent are observed differences in marital status a function of marital timing and duration factors. Combining data from the Longitudinal Study of Elderly Mexican American Health (H-EPESE) and the Assets and Health Dynamics among the Oldest Old, we examine differences in the financial security of Mexican American and non-Hispanic white women, and how that economic stability is influenced by the loss of a spouse. This is an unique contribution as both datasets contain information regarding not only marital status but marital history, over a substantial time period (four waves H-EPESE and three waves of AHEAD). By focusing on women in late life, we are able to employ a large sample of women with long marital duration as well as a similarly sizable and diverse number of widows. Within the H-EPESE, there are 582 married and 630 widowed Mexican American women, and approximately 1,800 (married) and 1,400 (widowed) non-Hispanic white women. We limit our analyses to women who married before their twenty-fifth birthday and remained married until the time of the first observation or the death of their husband. Stratifying for duration and number of marriages enables us to more precisely estimate the differences between those currently married and the widowed within the Mexican American and non-Hispanic white subgroups. Controlling for sociocultural factors, health, family structure, household living arrangements, and demographic covariates, we assess their net effect on three indicators of economic stability: financial strain, private health insurance, and household income. We expect to find that women currently married fare better than their widowed counterparts, especially among those who have higher marital duration and only one union. Among older Mexican American women, those recently widowed will be more disadvantaged relative to their married counterparts than non-Hispanic white recent widows. The analyses provide much needed information on the economic consequences of widowhood and how these consequences may explain economic disparities within and between Mexican American and non-Hispanic white elderly population in the United States.