Determinants of Extended Household Structure: Cultural Pattern or Economic Need?

This research examines th relationship between household composition and sources of household income among Hispanics, blacks, and non-Hispanic whites. Specifically, we investigate the extent to which extended living arrangements help buffer the effect of labor market disadvantages faced by minority household heads. Results of logit and regression analyses indicate that differences in the prevalence of extented family households reflect primarily group-specific differences in the propensity to extend, but that this demographic mechanism may also serve as a compensatory strategy for supplementing the temporarily or chronically low earnings of minority household heads. In black and Hispanic households, nonnuclear members contribute significantly to total household income, although their relative contributions are approximately similar for poor and nonpoor households. Nonnuclear members in non-Hispanic white households appear not to participate significantly in the generation of household income.