Many authors have documented a global rise in singlehood during the past decades, expanding beyond Western or industrialized countries. Simultaneously, the number of single households is increasing, not only due to the aging of the population, but also because young adults are increasingly living solo. Whereas having no partner and solo living do not necessarily coincide, existing studies tend to overlook this distinction. In this paper, we provide conceptual clarity as to what types of singlehood can be distinguished, through a framework that builds on two dimensions: living solo and being partnered. Next, we delve into the issue of measurement. We illustrate the issues in implementing an extended singlehood framework to empirical data. To do so, we examine internationally comparative retrospective studies and prospective panel studies, and identify three levels of operationalization that current datasets achieve when identifying a redefined notion of singlehood.

中文翻译：

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家庭研究中单身的定义和衡量

许多作者都记录了过去几十年全球单身人数的增加，并扩展到西方或工业化国家以外的地区。与此同时，单身家庭的数量正在增加，这不仅是由于人口老龄化，还因为越来越多的年轻人独居。尽管没有伴侣和独居并不一定一致，但现有的研究往往忽视了这一区别。在本文中，我们通过建立在两个维度上的框架：独居和伴侣生活，提供了可以区分哪些类型的单身的概念清晰。接下来，我们深入探讨测量问题。我们说明了对经验数据实施扩展单一框架的问题。为此，我们研究了国际比较回顾性研究和前瞻性小组研究，