Intergenerational Coresidence in Developing Countries

Abstract

A sizable literature suggests that coresidence of elderly persons with their children is on the decline in most developing countries. These studies draw on a long tradition of theories that postulate an inverse association between household complexity and economic development. Our analysis of this topic uses new data and measures to assess changes in intergenerational coresidence in 15 developing countries.We have three main objectives. First, we measure trends in intergenerational coresidence in developing countries from the perspective of both the younger generation and the older generation. Second, we assess trends in intergenerational coresidence by household headship patterns. Finally, we conduct multivariate analyses to control for changes in population composition and to assess the relationship between intergenerational coresidence and economic development.The results indicate no clear trends in intergenerational coresidence over the past several decades. Some countries experienced modest increases in coresidence; other countries had modest declines. Even more intriguing, when we focus on intergenerational families headed by the older generation-the family configuration most closely associated with traditional stem-family and joint-family systems-we find significant increases in all but two of the countries examined. This suggests that traditional family forms are stable or increasing across much of the developing world. Moreover, multivariate analyses reveal that key measures of economic development are positively associated with intergenerational families headed by the older generation. Theories of coresidence and developmentIn the second half of the nineteenth century, Frédéric Le Play proposed that economic development was contributing to a decline of intergenerational coresidence. Traditionally, Le Play argued, generations had been bound together by property. The younger generation remained in the ancestral home, providing labor as the family patriarch grew old and eventually inheriting the farm. With commercial and industrial growth in the nineteenth century, fewer families had property to hand down. As a consequence, Le Play contended, more and more of the elderly began to reside separately from their children (Le Play 1884: 3-28).The idea that economic development is associated with simplification of the household and independent residence of the elderly became widely accepted in the twentieth century. Midtwentieth-century sociological literature highlighted the connection between industrialization and nuclear-family structure (e.g., Parsons 1949;Nimkoff 1962). Intergenerational coresidence was said to be undermined by growing wage labor opportunities, which provided incentives for the younger generation to leave the farm and move to urban areas. Moreover, many theorists argued that small nuclear families were best adapted to urban societies characterized by high geographic and social mobility (Wirth 1938;Parsons and Bales 1955;Burgess 1960). NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptPopul Dev Rev. Autho...

Changing household patterns of young couples in low- and middle-income countries

“…As suggested by Ruggles and Heggeness (2008), wealthy parents may also be supporting their children later in life, something that would facilitate (the continuation of) intergenerational coresidence, even after marriage.…”

“…For instance, in the case of patrilineal joint-family and stem-family systems these are concentrated in the hands of the older generation of men (Le Play 1884;Ruggles 1994;Pottthast-Jutkeit 1997;Shäfer 1997). As a result, the younger generation is dependent on the older one, relying on elders for housing, employment, and eventual inheritance (Ruggles & Heggeness 2008). However, as populations age and household structures simplify in developing countries, this hierarchical structure changes whilst elderly coresident parents become more dependent on their children for both economic support and care.…”

“…As expressed by Ruggles & Heggeness (2008), identifying which generation is dependent has theoretical implications for the impact of economic development on the frequency of intergenerational co-residence. In particular, if the younger generation profits from expanded economic opportunities, we would expect a reduced frequency of co-residence in traditional patriarchal multigenerational families (but see also Coontz 2000), since the alternatives to familial employment would become more attractive.…”

“…This means that younger cohorts (who progressively have fewer siblings) have increasing chances to live with (longer surviving) parents. According to Ruggles & Heggeness (2008) this may cause two types of outcomes: if the parent has a farm and the coresident child will inherit, fewer siblings means less competition, but in case the elderly parent is destitute and needs to move in with a child for care, fewer siblings mean increased responsibility. This would imply that current demographic changes in developing countries are substantially increasing the potential for intergenerational co-residence.…”

“…Since then, academic literature generally supposed intergenerational co-residence to be a feature of traditional agricultural societies that declines in importance as a society industrializes, experiences economic expansion or high migration flows (Ruggles & Heggeness 2008). Ruggles & Heggeness concluded, however, that despite the trade-off between the costs and benefits of co-residence for each generation and the general consensus by others that intergenerational co-residence is declining in most countries as a result of economic development, no clear trend in intergenerational co-residence was observed for 15 low-and middle-income countries over the last three decades of the 20th century 1 .…”