Racial differences in the determinants of living arrangements of widowed and divorced elderly women.

Ability to afford single, separate households has been perceived as the key determinant of living alone among single older women. This paper shows that, when race is analyzed separately, family-related variables such as marital history and the number of children raised, rather than economic affordability, are the most important factors in the living arrangement decision of widowed elderly women of color. Economic affordability also turns out to be insignificant when white and nonwhite divorced elderly women are analyzed separately.