RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Living with Children and Economic Disadvantage Among Seniors
JF RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
FD Russell Sage Foundation
SP 46
OP 64
DO 10.7758/RSF.2025.11.2.03
VO 11
IS 2
A1 Schmidt, Lucie
A1 Shore-Sheppard, Lara
A1 Watson, Tara
YR 2025
UL http://www.rsfjournal.org/content/11/2/46.abstract
AB 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.