Study Reveals Elder Parents Value Their Adult Children Living With Them

April 24, 1996

GAINESVILLE — When adult children and their elder parents live together, both groups tend to be relatively happy and satisfied with the arrangement, says a new University of Florida study.

The results contradict a common belief that such “multi-generational households” are stressful places to live and that both the adult child and their parents would prefer alternative living arrangements.

Through a national random sample, the UF researchers studied 185 elders who were living with their adult children and asked them how their lives would change if they no longer lived together? More than half said overall, they would be less happy.

In the United States, approximately 20 percent of all people 65 or older live in multi-generational households, four times the number living in nursing homes.

“In some cultures multi-generational households are the norm, but in American culture we have created expectations that older people will live separately from their older children,” said Dr. Raymond T. Coward, who directs the University of Florida Institute for Gerontology. “Some people consider it odd when adult children live with their parents. Because these households are not the norm, some scientists have wondered about the quality of the relationships.”

Coward, who also is a professor of health policy and epidemiology at UF, said without very much data, some family gerontologists have labeled these households as unhappy places to be in. It was argued that the adult children would want to be independent of their parents and the parents would prefer to have an “empty nest.”

“From the study we found the opposite to be true. For most of the people involved, these living arrangements are quite satisfying,” he said. “Most older people, especially the single elder, reported that their lives would be worse if they no longer lived with their child.”

The researchers also found that older persons were most concerned that their opportunities for companionship would be reduced and their overall happiness would decline.

“Older parents who were married were less likely to express these negative concerns about the possibility of a co-resident child leaving,” Coward said. “Apparently the fact that the older parent would have a spouse remaining in the home softened the anticipated negative consequences of the child leaving.”

Coward said because older women are more likely to be widowed, they were more likely to be found in the group who believe living with an adult child as having a positive effect on their life.

When the researchers asked the adult children how they would be affected if their parents moved out, few said that they would be unhappy.

“Although the adult children were not eager to get out,” Coward said, “their responses did indicate that they were less likely to perceive that their life would be worse if they no longer lived with their parents.”

Dr. Vern Bengtson, AARP/University professor of gerontology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, said that results from a 25-year study of these types of households by his institution support UF’s findings.

“Our study shows that about 75 percent of adult children and their aging parents in these households have warm and cohesive relationships,” Bengtson said. “The most positive of these relationships are those that occur out of choice, not duty.”

Coward conducted the UF study with Dr. Stan L. Albrecht, professor in the department of health policy and epidemiology at the UF College of Medicine and Adam Shapiro, a doctoral candidate at the University of Texas. Their research was funded by the National Institute of Aging. Their report will appear later this spring in the Journal of Aging Studies and the Journal on Research and Aging.

Coward said different circumstances can create co-residence or multi-generational households.

“Typically we think of older people moving in with their children because the parents are ill and can’t take care of themselves,” he said. “However, some of these households are formed to help the child.

“Divorce or loss of a job are two reasons why children move back home,” he said. “Then there is the situation where the child, most likely a son, never has moved out.”

Coward and his colleagues are now conducting a study involving more than 1,200 elder Floridians. They will address their health, their needs for health-related services and their changing thoughts about their long-term care. The study is being focused particularly on the experiences of African-American elders.