Racial Differences in the Determinants of the Coresidence of and Contacts Between Elderly Parents and Their Adult Children

This paper analyzes differences between blacks and whites in factors associated with intergenerational coresidence and contacts of a sample of 2,708 persons aged 74 years and over with their adult children. The findings show that the racial difference in parents' marital status explains the largest variance for racial difference in intergenerational coresidence. Married white elderly are the least likely of all black and white elderly to live with their adult children, and for blacks, the parents' marital status was not a factor at all. Also, parents' marital status, number of children, and geographic distance between parents and children, not race, are found to be significant determinants of the frequency of intergenerational contacts.