Multigenerational coresidence and welfare policy

Abstract

As part of the 1996 federal welfare reform, lawmakers required unmarried, minor parents to live with their own parents (or another qualified adult). This paper considers a few key issues related to this requirement: 1) prior to the living arrangements requirement, did income from Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) lead teenage mothers to move out of their parents' home? 2) did young mothers who stayed at home do better or worse than their peers who moved out? and 3) how solid is the research evidence about these topics? Measurement barriers in census data prior to the mid-1980s and in state program administrative data, in the past and still today, impede identification of all teenage parents who live at home. Yet, even given this undercount, available data indicates that most unmarried, minor mothers lived with their parents, or other adult relatives, prior to the 1996 welfare reform. Although the research base on the topic is small, there is not clear evidence that the small fraction of young mothers who moved out of their parents' home did so because they could access AFDC income. Consistent descriptive evidence does suggest that living in a three-generational household is associated with teenage mothers' greater economic self-sufficiency; at the same time, however, coresiding teenage mothers appear to exhibit poorer parenting skills and the effects on their children and their own parents remain little understood. These findings are discussed in relation to the minor parent residence policy, and recommendations for future research are made including: 1) collection of data that better identifies minor parent families living in senior parents' households; 2) using whole-family perspectives that look beyond the minor mother to the well-being of her parents, children, and other family members; 3) studies that consider the selection of teenage mothers into various living arrangements when studying their consequences, and 4) intensive studies of positive and negative aspects of family functioning and social networks when minor mothers live in various arrangements. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.