Who Helps Whom in Older Parent-Child Families

While previous research has assumed that older persons who live with adult children do so because of their poverty or disability, some recent evidence suggests that many of these extended households primarily benefit the child. This article attempts to provide a better understanding of the relative contributions of parents and adult children who live together through detailed analysis of data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). We find unmarried children tend to benefit more from and contribute less to extended households than married children. Similarly, unmarried parents benefit more from living with children than married parents. Results of logistic regression show that financial need and need for assistance with activities of daily living wre important determinants of coresidence for both unmarried children and unmarried parents. Controlling need, racial and ethnic minorities were more likely to live in extended families than non-Hispanic Whites.