Social Inequalities in Bereavement across the Life Course: A Study of Four-Generation Kinship Networks in Sweden

The death of family members is a near-ubiquitous human experience that profoundly impacts social and psychological well-being. Mortality decline in high-income countries has rendered this experience more predictable across the life course, yet family bereavement patterns vary across socioeconomic strata. This study proposes a demographic framework for understanding how the interplay of mortality inequalities and variation in kinship structure shapes inequalities in bereavement. Drawing on life course theory, it conceptualizes the burden of bereavement as a multifaceted phenomenon relating to cumulative exposure to kin deaths (intensity), when these deaths occur during the life course (timing), and whether they follow the generational ordering (anticipation). Using Swedish population register data, we reconstruct four-generation kinship networks around the 1973 birth cohort and estimate the burden of bereavement by education and income. Inequalities in bereavement are decomposed into differences in kin mortality and structure. The findings reveal a socioeconomic gradient in family bereavement, mainly in timing and anticipation effects. Individuals with lower socioeconomic status experience the death of parents, siblings, cousins, and children earlier in life. Disparities in cumulative exposure to bereavement are largely offset by differences in kin structure. This study underscores how demographic processes shape inequalities in bereavement across the life course.

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