Predictors of Doubling Up by Householder Status

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Abstract

Doubled-up, or shared, households house over 15% of American children, and recent research suggests that these arrangements can have lasting impacts on child well-being. However, we know little about the factors that precipitate doubling up for families with children. In this paper, we use data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), which gathers data at four-month intervals, to examine how mother’s characteristics and changes shape her chances of forming a doubled-up household. We consider the relative influence of three main types of attributes: nativity and race/ethnicity, economic and housing characteristics, and family characteristics. Additionally, unlike most research on doubling up, we distinguish between mothers who double up as hosts, meaning they own/rent their home and are allowing another adult to live with them, and those who double up as guests, meaning they live in a home owned/rented by someone outside their nuclear family. Understanding the factors that precipitate doubling up for families with children can shed light on why families double up and provide insight into how policy might shape whether and why families double up.

Authors

• Hope Harvey, University of Kentucky

• Rachel Dunifon