Three-Generational Households and Family Characteristics with Family Structural, Social-Economic and Cultural Factors

Purpose: The number of adolescents in three generational families has recently increased in prevalence in the United States. The growth of three generational families has raised the possibility that grandparents may play a critical role in the care and well-being of children and adolescents. Despite the potential importance of grandparents in families, there is a limited body of empirical research related to three-generational households. Given these trends, this study examine the determinants of co-residence with grandparents in three-generational households within family, social-economic and cultural factors.

Methods: The data come from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and the analytic sample consists of 10,105 adolescents who belonged to one and two-parent households with and without a grandparent present. The dependent variable is co-residence with grandparents from waves 1-3. Family structure, family socio-economic factors (e.g., family income, parental education, and maternal employment status), and family cultural factors (e.g., Adolescent immigrant generation, Language spoken at home, Family cohesion, and Parents and children relationship) were included as significant predictors. Stepwise logistic regression models were used to examine the association between co-residence with grandparents and significant predictors in family contexts. Missing data was imputed using chained equations to generate 5 sets of imputed data.

Results: For the first model adjusted for ethnicity, adolescents in two-parent households were less likely to live with grandparents than those in single-parent households (b=-1.12, p<0.01). Hispanic, African American, and Asian adolescents were more likely to live with grandparents than White adolescents. When the model was then stratified by ethnicity, this study found that Hispanic adolescents from Spanish-speaking homes were more likely to live in three-generational households than those from English-speaking homes (b =0.81, p<0.05). Among African American, first generation immigrant adolescents had a higher likelihood of living with grandparents than second/third generation adolescents (b =1.86, p<0.01). When the model was stratified by family structure, high quality relationships with parents were positively associated with living with grandparents only in single-parent households (b =0.38, p<0.01).  

Implications: These results suggest that family characteristics in three-generational households vary by ethnic group and family structure. Notably, family cultural factors are significant determinent of co-residence with grandparents in three-generational households.