The Likelihood of Parent-Adult Child Coresidence: Effects of Family Structure and Parental Characteristics

This study estimates the influence of child parent and family structural characteristics on the likelihood of parents having a coresident adult child. Data from a representative national sample of U.S. parents (N = 4893) show that parental dependency is not the major factor explaining coresidence at any point in the life course. The large majority of parents at all ages maintain their own households and most parents and adult children who coreside live in the parents household....Only parents with unmarried adult children have any appreciable risk of having an adult child at home....Parents marital dissolution and remarriage are negatively related to the likelihood of coresidence; parents with extended households are more likely to have a coresident adult child. (EXCERPT)