Co-Residence of Aging Parents and Adult Children and Its Effect on Parental Well-Being

Background and Purpose: Several trends in contemporary society have made it more likely for parents to be living with their adult children. On one hand, for many adult children the parental home serves as a safety net when faced with unemployment or financial hardship.  Also, adult children, especially daughters, turn to their parents for help after a divorce. On the other hand, due to increasing life expectancy, a greater number of older adults have a need for care and an adult child in the household may be a source of support and comfort. There is a large literature on the well-being of parents in midlife who have a young adult living in the home. However, outside of the caregiving context, there has been virtually no research on whether co-residing with an adult child during the later years of life has a beneficial  or negative effect on the quality of life of older adults. This study examines whether living with an adult child during early old age (at age 71 on average) has a positive or negative impact of the well-being on aging parents.    

Methods: We used data collected as part of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study from older parents age 65 or older (n=6,537), who had a least one adult child age 35 or older. We compared the parent and adult child characteristics in co-residing and non-co-residing families using bivariate statistics. In a series of regression models, we estimated the effects of co-residence on parental well-being represented by depressive symptoms (CES-D; Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression) and Ryff’s psychological well-being measures. We also tested the interactions of co-residence by parents’ limitations in Activities in Daily Living (ADL) and marital status.

Results: We found that among 6,537 parents, 471 (7%) parents lived together with a child aged 35 and over. Aging parents who co-resided with an adult child were more likely to be mothers, be currently unmarried, have fewer years of education, have a greater number of children, and have at least one ADL limitations than parents who did not co-reside with an adult child. Compared with the randomly selected children in the non-co-residing group, children who co-resided with their parents were more likely to be sons, younger, currently unemployed and not married, and less likely to have attended college and have children. Findings from regression models showed that co-residence predicted higher levels of depressive symptoms and lower levels of psychological well-being of parents, and these deleterious effects of co-residence in later life were significant regardless of parents’ marital status and ADL limitations.

Conclusions and Implications: This study suggests that aging parents experience poorer well-being when they co-reside with their adult child whether or not co-residency was initiated by parents’ needs or/and children’s needs. Given the strong effects of co-residence status on parental well-being in later life, practitioners should assess whether or not this living situation is optimal for the well-being of the elder.