Growing Parental Power in Parent-Adult Child Households: A Bi-Generational View of Coresidence in the U.S., 1960 and 2000

Joan R. Kahn, University of Maryland
Fran Goldscheider, University of Maryland

Research on coresidence between parents and their adult children has challenged the myth that elders are the primary beneficiaries, and instead has shown that coresidential households benefit the younger generation more than their parents. Nevertheless, the rise in nonfamily living in the later 20th century has reshaped the process. Further, the economic fortunes of those at the older and younger ends of the adult life course have shifted with increasing financial well-being among older adults and greater financial strain especially among the young adult parents of children (Preston 1984). This paper examines the extent to which changes over time in generational financial well-being are reflected in the likelihood of coresidence and in the relative position of both generations in parent-adult child households. We use U.S. Census data from 1960 and 2000 to see whether the processes leading to such households have changed.