# KIN, SAVING, AND HOUSEHOLDS OF THE ELDERLY

> **NIH NIH R01** · TRUSTEES OF INDIANA UNIVERSITY · 1991 · $63,833

## Abstract

This project will evaluate the household patterns of the elderly in
nineteenth-century Europe in terms of alternative strategies for old age
security:  co-residence with children and accumulation of savings.  Past
research has challenged the view that multigeneration households were
common in the past.  Previous studies suggest that older persons with
spouses or unmarried children tended to remain the heads of independent
households, and some historians, notably Peter Laslett, question the role
of married children in providing old age security.  In the nineteenth
century competing economic and demographic forces may have caused co-
residence of parents with married children to increase or decrease.  On one
hand, higher incomes and more savings would have made parents less
dependent on their children in old age.  On the other hand, higher wages in
the second generation could have made them more able to cope with the
combined burden of elderly parents and their young children.  Samples of
the elderly will be drawn from population registers in the city of
Verviers, Belgium for the years 1833 and 1866.  Each sample will be
followed for ten to fifteen years to reconstruct changes in household
patterns and dynamics.  The population registers also enable us to locate
the children of ever-married sample members, and tax and probate records
will provide information about wealth.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3121177
- **Project number:** 5R01AG009331-02
- **Recipient organization:** TRUSTEES OF INDIANA UNIVERSITY
- **SAM.gov UEI:** YH86RTW2YVJ4
- **Principal Investigator:** GEORGE C. ALTER
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1991
- **Award amount:** $63,833
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1990-01-01 → 1992-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3121177

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3121177, KIN, SAVING, AND HOUSEHOLDS OF THE ELDERLY (5R01AG009331-02). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3121177. Licensed CC0.

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