Crowded Nests: Parent-Adult Child Coresidence Transitions and Parental Mental Health Following the Great Recession

• In Event: 4213 - Health in Social Context: The Role of Work, School, Family, and Community

Abstract

Although researchers have examined the predictors of contemporary increases in parent-adult child coresidence, questions about what this demographic shift means for the well-being of parents remain. This paper draws on insights from the life course perspective to investigate the relationship between parent-adult child coresidence transitions and parental mental health among U.S. adults age 50+. Based on analyses of the 2008-2012 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (N=11,277), parents with a newly coresidential adult child between 2008 and 2010 experienced an increase in depressive symptoms in 2012 relative to their peers without coresidential adult children, independently of factors that select parents into these living
arrangements. Further analyses suggest that transitions that occurred in the Southern U.S. and returns of out-of-work children to the parental nest were particularly depressing for parents. These findings highlight the significance of evolving intergenerational living arrangements for the well-being of contemporary older adults.

Author

• Jennifer Caputo, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research