The Differentiation of Multigenerational Households

Abstract

Previous research on multigenerational households in later life has generally ignored the distinction between multigenerational households located in the home of a parent and those located in the home of a child. This distinction has implications for dependency on the part of the older adult and also for social policy which is primarily concerned with the child-provided type of multigenerational household. The present analysis employs the distinction of parent's home versus child's home, and investigates multigenerational households in a random sample of adults in Hamilton, Ontario. In a qualitative analysis, the two types of multigenerational households are shown to be related to different family life course phases and to differ on a number of dimensions, including family size, age, effectual and consensual solidarity, income, marital status, and gender. The analysis indicates the need for future research on multigenerational households to explicitly differentiate between the two types of households examined in this paper.