Distance to family members and relocations of older adults

For older people, proximity to family members may well be highly valuable. In this paper, we investigate to what extent the relocation behaviour of older people is associated with the distance to their children and siblings. For the analysis, we have used data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study. This dataset includes detailed geographical information about places of residence. We employ descriptive analyses and multinomial logistic regression of moving closer to family members and moving away from them. We find that, with increasing distance to children, older people are more inclined to move closer to their children and slightly less inclined to move away from them. The findings for moving closer to and away from siblings are similar, but less pronounced. We also find that older people with grandchildren are more likely to move closer to their children than those without grandchildren. No influence of health problems on relocations of older adults is found.