Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-2025
Publication Title
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
Abstract
Using the 2000 Census and 2005–2019 American Community Surveys, we examine the propensity of older adults to live with children. We show that seniors from disadvantaged subgroups are more likely to live in multi- or skip-generational arrangements. Contextual factors associated with more multigenerational living include a less generous safety net and high housing costs. Skip-generational living is associated with high female incarceration rates. Conditional on demographic characteristics and these contextual factors, seniors in multigenerational living arrangements are less likely to be in poverty and those in skip-generational arrangements more likely. Overall, the findings are consistent with the possibility that multigenerational arrangements help families address resource needs, whereas skip-generational arrangements heighten the risk of poverty or reflect crises that do so.
Keywords
living arrangements, multigeneration, skip-generation, seniors, poverty
Volume
11
Issue
2
First Page
46
Last Page
64
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Rights
© 2025 Russell Sage Foundation. Schmidt, Lucie, Lara Shore-Sheppard, and Tara Watson. 2025.
Version
Version of Record
Recommended Citation
Schmidt, Lucie; Shore-Sheppard, Lara; and Watson, Tara, "Living with Children and Economic Disadvantage Among Seniors" (2025). Economics: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/eco_facpubs/124