This article focuses on the ways in which patterns of marriage and fertility shape older people's involvement in community groups and their support networks. The data are from Australia, Finland, Germany, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Findings show that childless older adults, regardless of…

Examined longitudinally the relationship between earlier risk factors and later problems in young Finnish women's social functioning. Found that low work involvement mediated between risk factors and accumulation of problems in social functioning in young adulthood. Risk factors increased the likelihood of early motherhood, but early motherhood…