Historical Trends in Children Living in Multigenerational Households in the United States: 1870–2018

Abstract

Over the last two decades, the share of U.S. children under age 18 who live in a multigenerational household (with a grandparent and parent) has increased dramatically. Yet we do not know whether this increase is a recent phenomenon or a return to earlier levels of coresidence. Using data from the decennial census from 1870 to 2010 and the 2018 American Community Survey, we examine historical trends in children’s multigenerational living arrangements, differences by race/ethnicity and education, and factors that explain the observed trends. We find that in 2018, 10% of U.S. children lived in a multigenerational household, a return to levels last observed in 1950. The current increase in multigenerational households began in 1980, when only 5% of children lived in such a household. Few differences in the prevalence of multigenerational coresidence by race/ethnicity or education existed in the early part of the twentieth century; racial/ethnic and education differences in coresidence are a more recent phenomena. Decomposition analyses do little to explain the decline in coresidence between 1940 and 1980, suggesting that unmeasured factors explain the decrease. Declines in marriage and in the share of White children most strongly explained the increase in multigenerational coresidence between 1980 and 2018. For White children with highly educated parents, factors explaining the increase in coresidence differ from other groups. Our findings suggest that the links between race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status and multigenerational coresidence have changed over time, and today the link between parental education and coresidence varies within racial/ethnic groups.

Under Whose Roof? Understanding the Living Arrangements of Children in Doubled-Up Households

“…One recent study found that the share of children liv ing with extended fam ily or nonkin increased by over 18% from 1996 to 2009, driven pri mar ily by mul ti gen er a tional house holds (Pilkauskas and Cross 2018). Several other stud ies have like wise documented recent increases in chil dren liv ing in mul ti gener a tional house holds (Dunifon et al 2014;Kreider and Ellis 2011;Pilkauskas 2012;Pilkauskas et al 2020). Previous research has thus high lighted the large and grow ing num ber of dou bled-up chil dren; how ever, hosts and guests have typ i cally been grouped together, despite evi dence that fam i lies dou ble up as hosts and guests for dif fer ent reasons and that host/guest sta tus shapes how they expe ri ence these arrange ments.…”

Multigenerational Households During Childhood and Trajectories of Cognitive Functioning Among U.S. Older Adults

“…A multigenerational living arrangement was historically quite common for many individuals born before 1950s. Recent analyses of historical U.S. Census data (1870–1950) show that 9% to 10% of children lived in a household with at least one grandparent present ( Pilkauskas et al, 2020 ). Such a household tends to be socioeconomically advantaged, with higher levels of primary caregiver’s education ( Pilkauskas et al, 2020 ), unlike contemporary multigenerational households ( Dunifon et al, 2014 ).…”

“…Recent analyses of historical U.S. Census data (1870–1950) show that 9% to 10% of children lived in a household with at least one grandparent present ( Pilkauskas et al, 2020 ). Such a household tends to be socioeconomically advantaged, with higher levels of primary caregiver’s education ( Pilkauskas et al, 2020 ), unlike contemporary multigenerational households ( Dunifon et al, 2014 ). This implies that growing up in multigenerational households may carry a different set of meanings and implications for one’s adult health than would be the case today, especially for cognitive health; however, the empirical investigation on this topic was relatively ignored.…”

Linked Lives and Childhood Experience of Family Death on Educational Attainment

“…Critiquing the literature’s focus on immediate family members, Gerstel (2011) emphasizes the important supportive roles that aunts and uncles, or even cousins, play in the lives of black and Latino families, especially in providing care for children. Extended and multigenerational household structures are more and more common for everyone, but they are more prevalent among black than white children (Mollborn, Fomby, and Dennis 2011; Pilkauskas, Amorim, and Dunifon forthcoming; Pilkauskas and Cross 2018). Recent work shows that 35 percent of youth live with extended family members at some point before turning age 18 and that race and class differences in lifetime prevalence of experiencing this family form are much greater than cross-sectional differences (Cross 2018).…”