Intergenerational Coresidence Research Articles

The benefits of intergenerational co-residence: reconsidering the effects of women’s education on their housework hours in urban China

ABSTRACT Previous research on housework has mainly focused on nuclear households. This study proposes a new theoretical framework, power negotiation preference in different family contexts, to understand how women’s resources bring different levels of power when negotiating with different household members. Empirically, this study examines how the effect of married women’s education on their housework hours varies based on whether or not they live with their parents and/or in-laws. Using OLS regression on data from the China Family Panel Studies, a nationally representative survey, this study finds that the direct effect of women’s education lowering their housework hours is stronger when they live with their parents or in-laws. In addition, the effect of women’s education is stronger on weekdays compared to weekends when women do not live with parents or in-laws, but does not differ by weekdays or weekends when they live with their parents or in-laws.

Older parents’ perceptions of children's filial piety in rural China: The roles of coresidence, geographic proximity, and intergenerational support

Filial piety—the belief that children should provide care, support, respect, and obedience to their older parents—is a fundamental normative expectation in East Asian societies. This study investigates the relationship between the geographic proximity of children and the support received from them, and their parents’ perceptions of filial piety in rural China. We used the 2021 wave of the Longitudinal Study of Older Adults in Anhui Province to predict parental assessments of filial piety for each of their children. Random-effects linear probability models using an internal moderator approach were employed to compare coresident children with non-coresident children based on their proximity and support provided. Findings indicate that parents tend to perceive their coresident children as being more filial compared to non-coresident children, particularly when parents are in worse functional health. However, non-coresident children can compensate for their deficiency in being perceived as filial by providing more financial support and maintaining frequent telephone communication with their parents. The study's results suggest that filial piety norms in rural China have adapted to the diminished emphasis on intergenerational coresidence resulting from the trends of urbanization and significant rural–urban migration in modern China, requiring that children find alternative ways to fulfill their filial obligations.

How does intergenerational coresidence affect the physical health of middle-aged children? Evidence from China

ABSTRACT Due to increasing longevity and decreasing fertility, the middle-aged generation has emerged as the primary caregivers for their elderly parents in China. Using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey, this study employs an endogenous treatment effect model to estimate the causal impact of intergenerational coresidence on the physical health of middle-aged children. The findings reveal that coresidence significantly deteriorates the physical health of middle-aged children. Notably, this effect is more pronounced in employed individuals compared to unemployed ones. Marginal effect analysis uncovers that coresidence has adverse effects on middle-aged children who are either particularly healthy or particularly unhealthy, while the marginal impact of coresidence on children in average health conditions is insignificant.

CORESIDENCE: National and subnational data on household size and composition around the world, 1964–2021

The CORESIDENCE Database (CoDB) represents a significant advancement in the field of family studies, addressing existing data gaps and facilitating comprehensive analysis of households’ composition and living arrangements at the national and subnational levels. This article introduces the CoDB, developed for the ERC project Intergenerational Coresidence in Global Perspective: Dimensions of Change. The database draws on global-scale individual microdata from four main repositories and national household surveys, encompassing over 150 million individual records representing more than 98% of the world’s population. The CoDB provides datasets at the national, subnational, and subnational-harmonized levels, covering 156 countries, 3950 regions, and 1511 harmonized regions for the period 1964–2021. It includes 146 indicators on household composition and family arrangements, allowing researchers to explore intergenerational co-residence patterns, gender dynamics within households, and longitudinal trends in living arrangements. The CoDB fills an important gap in comparative household studies, enabling researchers to undertake ground breaking research at both macro and micro levels, ultimately fostering a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics of family structures and living arrangements.

Racial/ethnic differences in living arrangements, distant relations, and later‐life mental health

AbstractObjectiveThis research investigates associations between living arrangements and older adults' depressive symptoms and whether these associations are moderated by extended family, friends, and neighborhoods for White, Black, and Hispanic older adults.BackgroundThe drastic marriage and kinship decline since the 1970s has raised growing concerns about aging alone in both the public and scholarship. This paper adopts critical race theory to examine the social convoy model which argues that distant networks will fill in to protect individuals from stressors in the absence of proximal relations.MethodsThis paper applies multilevel mixed‐effects linear models to 2006–2018 waves of Health and Retirement Study (N = 44,304 obs., with 32,599 White, 7028 Black, and 4677 Hispanics).ResultsWhile married couples living alone have the best mental health among Whites, co‐residing with both spouses/partners and children (the intergenerational coresidence) is associated with the lowest depressive symptoms for Black and Hispanic older adults. Moreover, strong social support from extended family and friends and a high level of neighborhood social cohesion can significantly mitigate increased depressive symptoms associated with living alone or with others only (people other than spouses/partners and children) for Whites, but not for Blacks and Hispanics.ConclusionThis research challenges the paradigm that considers “married couples living alone” as a normalized family structure. It also emphasizes the “double plight” of Black and Hispanic older adults, who show both a disproportionate decline in family ties and a lack of supportive distant relations serving as buffer zones in the absence of spouses and children.

Intergenerational Co-residence and Women’s Employment in Urban India

Intergenerational Co-residence and Women’s Employment in Urban India

Intergenerational financial support for homeownership and co-residence in Chinese cities

Drawing on questionnaire data from six cities in China, this study explores the relationship between intergenerational financial support from parents in adult children's housing purchases and key life course facts. The regression results indicate an inverted ‘U’-shaped relationship between the age of young adults and the occurrence of financial support from their parents in housing purchases. Intergenerational co-residence, popular in China, is significantly and positively associated with financial support from parents for housing purchases. This suggests that many Chinese parents seek to achieve further intergenerational reciprocity through co-residence after giving financial support to their adult children. Interestingly, the regression results on samples without loans show that intergenerational co-residence is not significantly related to occurrences of parental financial support in housing purchases. This indicates that more affluent families purchasing housing without loans may not need to engage in intergenerational reciprocity through intergenerational co-residence. This paper provides new empirical evidence of intergeneration wealth transfers on homeownership in the context of China. It enriches our understanding of the relationship between intergenerational financial support for homeownership and the phenomenon of co-residence.

Intergenerational coresidence and the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States

This paper investigates the relation between intergenerational coresidence and mortality from Covid-19 in 2020. Using a cross-section of U.S. counties, we show that this association is positive, sizeable, significant, and robust to the inclusion of several demographic and socio-economic controls. Furthermore, using evidence from past, pre-pandemic years, we argue that this positive, sizeable and significant association is somewhat specific to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Intergenerational Ties and COVID-19 Contagion: AStudy on European Adults Aged 50 Years and Older Using SHARE Data.

Intergenerational coresidence and interdependence among family members are salient forms of family support. However, they can also likely increase social and physical contact and thus potential coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmission, especially among older adults. This study makes an original contribution to the literature by investigating which individual and household characteristics are associated with the risk of COVID-19 contagion among community-dwelling adults aged 50years or older living in 27 European countries. We accounted for multiple indicators of intergenerational relationships and conducted a gendered analysis. The data came from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), including 2 waves of the SHARE Corona Survey. Using linear probability models, the risk of experiencing COVID-19 outcomes was predicted by different family structures and intergenerational relationship indicators. While intergenerational coresidence was not associated with the risk of COVID-19, a higher frequency of face-to-face contact with adult children was associated with a lower risk of COVID-19 among mothers. This result stresses the importance of social support from adult children during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we also showed that grandparents who took care of grandchildren were at a higher risk of COVID-19.Additionally, childless individuals had a lower risk of COVID-19 during the second wave of the pandemic. This study highlights the importance of intergenerational relationships in pandemic studies and underscores the need to examine how intergenerational ties might be a source of social support. Implications for policy interventions are discussed in the final section.

PROMOTING POSITIVE AGING IN COMMUNITY-DWELLING SOUTH ASIAN AMERICANS: AN EXPLORATORY QUALITATIVE STUDY

Abstract Between 2010 and 2017, South Asians were the fastest-growing major ethnic minority group in the US, growing at a rate of 40% over the previous decade (SAALT, 2019). This exponential growth, along with a rapidly aging US population, implies that a significant proportion of the South Asian American population will be 65 years or older in the coming years; yet research on the lived experiences/needs of older South Asian Americans is limited. To address this gap, this qualitative study explored barriers and facilitators to healthy or positive aging in a sample of community-dwelling South Asian Americans 50 years and older. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 South Asian American older adults (18 women and 14 men). Thematic analysis of the interview data showed that level of acculturation, proficiency in English, cultural beliefs/practices, awareness about available health and social services, degree of religiosity, and the density of social networks were key determinants of healthy aging. Compared to those who were US-born or had immigrated earlier in life, participants who had immigrated later in life (post-retirement) appeared more financially and/or emotionally dependent on their adult children and expressed ambivalence vis-à-vis future caregiving arrangements and intergenerational co-residence. Nearly all participants shared that helping their adult children with childcare, cooking, or other household chores gave them a sense of purpose and made them feel valued. Study findings suggest that along with culturally appropriate programs and policies to support healthy aging, increased volunteering opportunities may enhance subjective well-being in South Asian American older adults.

Intergenerational coresidence living arrangements of young adults with their parents in Taiwan: The role of filial Piety

Young adults throughout the world today, including those in Taiwan, are permanently leaving their parents' homes at a much later age compared with their parents' generation, a situation labeled as the failure-to-launch or boomerang generation. What role do filial piety beliefs play in East Asian especially in Chinese societies concerning intergenerational coresidence? Most studies on filial piety have examined older adult children and post-retirement parents, and have not simultaneously considered the viewpoints of both generations, which was investigated by using a two-level nested logit model. A sample of 657 families was selected from the Panel Study of Family Dynamics (PSFD), conducted in Taiwan from 1999 to 2007. The young adult factors of having fewer economic resources and being unmarried were more important than their parents’ having greater economic resources and other demographic characteristics, and the filial piety beliefs of young adults were less significant, but still associated with intergenerational coresidence.

A Matching Model of Co-Residence with a Family Network: Empirical Evidence from China

Abstract We develop a co-residence model between young adults and the elderly as an application of the Shapley–Shubik–Becker bilateral matching framework. This model captures competition between adult children and between parents and parents-in-law. Using microdata from China, we estimate our model by using a network simulation method to fill in partially unobservable marriage links. We find that our model explains the child-side and parent-side competitions observed in the data better than two alternative multinomial logit models with only one-sided competition. In addition, counterfactual experiments quantify the effects of changes in the one-child policy and housing prices on intergenerational co-residence.

Intergenerational Coresidence and Life Satisfaction in Old Age: The Moderating Role of Homeownership

Intergenerational Coresidence and Life Satisfaction in Old Age: The Moderating Role of Homeownership

Long‐term trajectories of intergenerational coresidence: Evidence of living arrangements patterns in Chile

AbstractObjectiveThis study examines long‐term trajectories of intergenerational coresidence (IC) among a cohort of individuals aged 65 and 75 in Chile, focusing on their diversity, prevalence, internal dynamism, and sociodemographic characteristics.BackgroundIC is comparatively high in Latin America and is related to both family norms and social vulnerabilities. However, empirical evidence on this topic comes mostly from cross‐sectional studies using aggregated population data, which neglect the inherently dynamic nature of coresidential arrangements across the life course.MethodWe use representative life‐history data in Santiago, Chile (N = 802), sequence analysis to reconstruct long‐term trajectories, and bivariate analysis to examine their associations with sociodemographic factors.ResultsOur findings show that, first, IC in Chile may be more prevalent and diverse than suggested in previous cross‐sectional studies. Second, our findings indicate patterns of long‐term IC and stable conjugal cohabitation are compatible. Third, the results shed new light on the association of IC with particular sociodemographic groups.ConclusionThis study analyzed patterns of living arrangements among family members based both on intergenerational and conjugal cohabitation and their dynamic character throughout the life course. Our results challenge interpretations of contemporary living arrangements among family members at an international level.ImplicationsThis study shows that IC in Chile has been largely underrepresented, both in magnitude and heterogeneity. This finding informs public policies about the reality of family configurations that require specific care, housing, and financial support.

Household transitions between ages 5 and 15 and educational outcomes: Fathers and grandparents in Peru.

Latin America has high rates of single motherhood and intergenerational coresidence, resulting in children experiencing changes in household composition - particularly with respect to fathers and grandparents. In other contexts, such changes have been shown to influence educational outcomes. To test if the presence of grandparents and fathers in the household are differentially associated with educational outcomes during schooling years in Peru. Young Lives longitudinal data consist of around 2,000 children who were followed from age 1 to age 15 between 2002 and 2017. Using value-added and child fixed effects models, I examine if the number of changes in household structure involving fathers and grandparents, the type of change (exit or entrance), and the identity of the household members are associated with cognitive outcomes. Persistence was tested as well as heterogeneous associations by child's age at transition and disadvantage. More than half the children experienced a change in household composition between ages 5 and 15. Father separation was associated with worse cognitive scores and lower likelihood of being on-grade. This was strongest if separation occurred when children were older. Grandparent presence in the household was not as strongly correlated with child outcomes, but results suggest that children have better cognitive performance after grandparent separation from the household. Associations between household composition and child outcomes were stronger if children were disadvantaged. This research provides evidence that fathers and grandparents are both important contributors to child educational outcomes in a context where three-generational households are common.

Ethnoracial disparities in intergenerational coresidence among Canadian millennial

Using the Canadian Census of 2016 and restricting the sample to the Canadian-born millennials, this paper is concerned with ethnoracial disparities in adult children's coresidence with their parents. Substantial disparities are found in the prevalence of intergenerational coresidence by race and ethnic origin. Rather surprisingly, Canadian-born millennials of Chinese, Japanese and Korean descent are found the least likely to coreside with their parents than their counterparts in other ethnoracial groups. There is little gender difference in this regard. Further exploration shows that millennials of Chinese, Japanese and Korean descent are much more likely than others to be geographically mobile across Canada, and this greater mobility drives the gaps. In other words, the lower intergenerational coresidence among Canadian millennials of Chinese, Japanese and Korean descent also implies a lower intergenerational proximity among these groups. Future implications of the findings for local labour and housing markets, as well as the healthcare system, are discussed in light of the Confucian concept of filial piety.

Grandparent-grandchild relationships, generativity, subjective well-being and self-rated health of older people in Chile

With increasing life expectancy, grandparents and grandchildren have more years available to share. Furthermore, with lower fertility rates and fewer grandchildren, relationships can be more frequent and profound. Intergenerational relationships are expected to be associated with older people's quality of life, especially in Latin American countries such as Chile, with high intergenerational co-residence and contact between generations. This research aims to analyze the associations between the characteristics of intergenerational relationships and grandparents' subjective well-being (Diener Scale and Satisfaction) and self-rated health. The novelty stems from including the structural characteristics of relationships with grandchildren (frequency of contact, closeness, and care), the activities they share (generativity), and the quality of relationships (ambivalence). This study is based on data from a specific face-to-face grandparenting survey conducted on a sample of 464 grandparents in January 2020. It is representative of older Chilean grandparents living in private dwellings. Multiple logistic and ordinary regression models were estimated using the Diener Scale, unique satisfaction question, and health self-perception. The results demonstrated that subjective well-being, but not self-rated health, was highly associated with the characteristics of intergenerational relationships, especially with the quality of relationships and with generative activities such as recreational activities and family identity. In conclusion, intergenerational relationships' quality and content are strongly associated with subjective well-being in old age, but not with health self-perception. Even in a Latin American country like Chile, with high co-residence and intergenerational contact, the variations in quality and generativity activities significantly explain the variations in subjective well-being. For this reason, policies for the promotion of well-being in older people must consider the family environment in which older people live, encompassing wider family networks, including grandchildren.

Coresidence increases the risk of testing positive for COVID-19 among older Brazilians

BackgroundBrazil is among the countries hit hardest by COVID-19, and older adults are among the vulnerable groups. Intergenerational coresidence and interdependence among family members, both prevalent in Brazil, likely increase social and physical contact and thus potential infection.MethodsUsing nationally representative data from the COVID-19 module of the Brazilian National Household Sample Survey (Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios), collected between July and November of 2020, we examined the association between living arrangements and exposure to and testing for COVID-19 among 63,816 Brazilians aged 60 years and older. We examine whether living arrangements influence self-reported COVID-19 symptoms as an indicator of subjective health assessment, testing as an indicator of health care service use, and a positive COVID-19 test result as an objective indicator of exposure to the disease.ResultsLiving arrangements shape older adults’ vulnerabilities to COVID-19 exposure and testing. Specifically, those living alone were more likely to report having symptoms and having had a test for COVID-19. However, older adults in multigenerational and skipped generation households were more likely than solo-dwellers to test positive for COVID-19. Those with symptoms were more likely to test, regardless of their living arrangement. Among older adults without symptoms, those living alone had a higher probability of testing than those living in multigenerational or skipped-generation households.ConclusionsOverall, our findings suggest that coresidence with younger family members puts older adults’ health at risk in the context of COVID-19. As younger Brazilians are increasingly vulnerable to COVID-19 and experiencing severe outcomes, policy makers need to be more attentive to the health needs of households that comprise older and younger cohorts, which are also more prevalent in poor and marginalized segments of the population.

Coresidence Increases Risk of Testing Positive for COVID-19 Among Older Brazilians

Brazil is among the countries hit hardest by COVID-19, and older adults are among the vulnerable groups. Intergenerational coresidence and interdependence among family members, both prevalent in Brazil, likely increase social and physical contact. Using nationally representative data from the COVID-19 module of the Brazilian National Household Sample Survey, collected from July to November of 2020, we examined the association between living arrangements and exposure to and testing for COVID-19 among 63,816 Brazilians 60+. Our multivariate analyses utilize multilevel mixed-effects Poisson regression to examine the association between living arrangements and the COVID-19 outcome measures. Results show that those living alone were more likely to report having symptoms and having had a test for COVID-19. However, older adults in multigenerational (PR=1.532, 95% CI 1.15, 2.04, p<0.001) and skipped generation households (PR=1.607, 95% CI 1.04, 2.48, p<0.001) were more likely than solo-dwellers to test positive for COVID-19. Those with symptoms were more likely to test, regardless of their living arrangement. Among older adults without symptoms, those living alone had a higher probability of testing than those living in multigenerational or skipped-generation households. Overall, our findings suggest that coresidence with younger family members is a risk factor for older adults’ health due to the higher COVID-19 positivity. As younger Brazilians are increasingly vulnerable to COVID-19 and experiencing severe outcomes, policy makers need to be more attentive to the health needs of households that comprise older and younger cohorts, which are also more prevalent in poor and marginalized segments of the population.

Intergenerational living arrangements and marital fertility in Japan: a counterfactual approach

This paper aims to investigate the causal links between intergenerational living arrangements and marital fertility in Japan, using data from the 2010 and 2015 Japanese National Fertility Surveys (N = 1308). The results indicate that coresidence with the husband’s parents is positively associated with completed marital fertility in the unmatched sample in which confounders of coresidence are not balanced between married couples who do and do not coreside with their parents. However, the propensity score matching estimators show that this association is reduced to a non-significant level once the matching technique corrects the covariate imbalance. These findings suggest that intergenerational coresidence has only limited direct effects on marital fertility in contemporary Japan.