The purpose of this research is to examine changes in household structure and living arrangements of older persons in three Caribbean countries- - Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and Puerto Rico. The study includes intra-country comparisons of household patterns in order to identify differences between the Angl6 and Hispanic Caribbean; other cross-country comparisons will examine sources of variation, such as ethnic composition, and the different economic development strategies implemented in the countries since the 19605. Both types of analyses investigate household patterns across all ages, in order to compare coresidence trends among the elderly with those of other age groups. These analyses, as well as focusing specifically on older persons, will examine the influence of demographic characteristics, resources, disability status, and cultural factors as determinants of household structure and living arrangements. Observed patterns will be compared across three time points -1970, 1980, and 1990, with a view toward evaluating the impact of changes in the influences and decomposition of key demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. The conceptual framework guiding research incorporates influences on household composition emanating from development strategies and their consequences for economic structure: individual-level decision making processes; and the role of the household in mediating individual behaviors within the constraints of structural conditions. Hypotheses derived from this framework involve variations in coresidence evaluated at both the household and individual levels of analyses. The hypothesized relationships are represented in logistic regression and multinomial logit models, used to analyze the likelihood of various outcome categories of household structure and living arrangements. All of the proposed analyses are based on census microdata samples for the three countries; these are rich data sources that have been greatly underutilized. This study also addresses issues regarding the macro-societal impact of population aging on household patterns. Demographic decomposition techniques are used to determine the relative impact of the changing age composition of the population on changes in headship roles. A similar analysis focuses on sources of change in the characteristics of the elderly population, and of changes in the propensity for types of living arrangements.
