Financial security, emotional stability and longevity are among the benefits of sharing a household with family, or living near enough so that elders can readily help.
That’s the message shared by members of the panel “Multigenerational Housing and Caregiving” during the 26th Annual Retirement and Disability Research Consortium meeting held August 7-9 in Washington D.C.
Panelist Hongwei Xu, a sociology professor at Queens College of the City University of New York, told attendees that the Asian tradition of elders providing surrogate or custodial child support enables younger generations to increase their income.
“It’s done out of solidarity and mutual aid, not for money exchange, and so the adult children can be double income earners. The grandparents help in the feeding and cooking,’’ said Xu, a new father. “When we have an emergency (with the baby), we know my parents or in-laws will help.’’
“For Asians and Hispanics, who are more likely to be first-generation immigrants, there is a tradition of moving into the adult children’s households so the children can be income earners,’’ he said.
Other panelists said that White Americans were less likely than Asians, Hispanics and Black Americans to share housing with other generations, until the Covid-19 pandemic.
By the Numbers
Children who left urban areas to flee the pandemic, in 2020 and 2021, have often remained, usually to save money, the panelists said. Of the young adults who moved back to their parents’ homes during the pandemic, a panelist said, two-thirds of them were still living there in 2022.
In addition to the older generation caring for young children, there is a growing need for children and grandchildren to care for aging elders, said Stephanie K. Firestone, of AARP International and moderator of the Multigenerational Housing and Caregiving panel.
She said U.S. Census figures predict that the number of Americans older than 65 will increase from 58 million currently to 82 million by 2060. This older population will need housing and care.
“And we’re not talking about professional care, but caregiving by family and friends. Of the 63% of older adults receiving family care, one-third of the caregivers are in their mid-20s to late 40s. That means that concurrent with building a family and careers, there is the increased demand of caregiving; it’s a huge strain on these generations,’’ Firestone said.
Cultural Divide
At the same time, Firestone said, those under 25 and over 65 have the most housing cost burdens; they’re spending more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities, while living with the challenge of having a multigenerational household.
She said AARP International was researching the nature of multigenerational housing choices — whether families were living together largely out of choice, or economic need. Or a combination of both, but with the tilt toward socialization and companionship dominating the choice.
Among older Black Americans, 27% live in multigenerational households, while 40% of older Hispanics share with other generations. Figures were derived from AARP International research among residents of the U.S., Latin America, Asia and Europe. The survey data came from existing online conversations in English, Spanish and Chinese.
“Rich cultural traditions inform those living arrangements, not just need,’’ Firestone said.
Mutual Support
Firestone said that countries such as Singapore are leading the pack with innovative social programs encouraging family proximity. The Singapore government sponsors proximity housing grants, which enable first-time homeowners to buy a house especially suited to live with an older adult family member, such as parents and grandparents. Grants are $30,000 for shared households, or $15,000 for houses within four kilometers (slightly more than three miles) of family members.
“They recognize that this mutual care, this mutual system of support is good for both generations, and it lowers housing costs,’’ Firestone said.
Too Much House
Rising housing costs, which prompted children who returned to their parents’ homes during Covid-19 to remain, also hurts older Americans, especially those living alone, Firestone added.
“An older person may have raised a family and lived in the same house for many years, for many decades and they still live in that home. But it’s a challenge, managing the home; it’s expensive, too big.’’
So, many older adults become part of the 30% of Americans living in single households in 2022, up from 13% in 1960. This, Firestone said, has led to the crisis in loneliness that comes from isolation from family, and friends, referring to the 2023 Surgeon General Report on the issue.
Trends and Benefits
Jennifer Caputo, of the research company Westat, said that among respondents aged 50 to 61 in a survey about retirement expectations, there is steady growth of those leaning toward mutigenerational households. The impact of this trend on social well-being and good health is being studied, she said.
“Sharing living costs with adult children can benefit parents. A lot of the recent growth of multigenerational living was driven by the pandemic, the Great Recession (of 2008-09), and by the changing economic challenges of younger people living alone,’’ Caputo said.
She said research finds that twice as many ethnic minorities live in multigenerational housing as compared to White Americans, most commonly to share economic needs.
Race and ethnicity more often determine whether retirees share households, Caputo said.
“Black and Hispanic parents expect to retire earlier and have less wealth than their white peers, whose living arrangements more often are with just a spouse or romantic partner. Marriage is beneficial for economic security,’’ she said.
Raising Grandkids Can Impact Mortality
Another point raised during the discussion is that 6 million to 7 million grandparents live in the same household as their children and grandchildren. Many of these grandparents are the primary caregivers. Nearly half of these caregivers spend five years or longer living with and raising their grandchildren, which could affect their economic, physical and mental health well-being — for better or for worse.
White grandparents faced higher mortality risk but this risk was not significant for Black and Hispanic grandparents, panelists said. Meanwhile, Asian grandparents who lived with grandchildren and provided primary care for five years or longer saw consistently reduced mortality risk.
While research does show an impact on mortality, the findings vary depending on living arrangements. For example, a group of European professors did a systematic review released in 2022 of many studies on caregiving grandparents. It found:
• In 68% of the cases, individuals who had custody of their grandchildren without the parents present had a decrease in their health or well-being.
• Grandparents who live in three-generation households experienced mixed results (39% positive; 39% negative).
• Grandparents who did not live with their grandchildren but were involved in providing support and care fared the best. That group had a 69% improvement in health outcomes.
However, the researchers noted that while most studies observed associations based on grandchild caregiving, they didn’t determine whether it actually caused health effects.
“Despite the paucity of strong causal evidence, moderate grandparental involvement of non-coresiding grandparents should still be encouraged and enabled in terms of social policy decisions,” the study concluded. “Finally, we need more studies that can detect the causal nature of this association, as the lack of causal evidence concerns all three contexts of grandparenting.”
Additional Research Findings
The panelists also noted that:
A survey taken 2014 through 2022 found that shared households were more normative among less financially fortunate older adults. Hosts or home/mortgage/lease holders saved money by living in shared arrangements. The medium monthly savings $95 a month.
Guests saved between $724 to $754 monthly by living in shared households.
Older adult men were found to need caregiving 10% more than older adult women, and white adults were slightly more in need of care — about 5% — than Black and Hispanic older adults. White older adults pay for care about 10% more often than Black and Hispanic older adults.
Very few family caregivers are paid to give care.
Nearly twice as many older male adults receive care from their wives than vice versa.
A greater share of Black older adults received care from grandchildren (18%), compared with older Hispanics (12%) and older Whites (10%).
Women are much more likely to receive care from adult children than are men, reflecting mortality rates of women living longer than men.
Younger caregivers are starting caregiving earlier, which could have a negative economic effect on these caregivers over time.
Shared housing helps older adults with the loneliness factor.
Sharing housing has become more of an accepted strategy since Covid-19, making being part of an intergenerational household less of a stigma, especially among Whites.
Beliefs are changing about how families should help one another in what can be mutually beneficial economically, physically and mentally.
Joining Firestone, Hongwei and Caputo on the panel were Jessica Forden, of The New School, New York, and Kristin L. Perkins, Georgetown University.
Topics discussed were “How are Household Living Arrangements Related to Retirement Expectations and Savings Across Race and Ethnicity,’’ “Coresident Grandparents Mortality Risk by Race/Ethnicity,’’ “Do Share Households Reduce or Increase Housing Cost Burden Among Old Adults,’’ and “Who Pays for Elder Care? An Analysis of the Burden on Caregivers and Families.’’
The Retirement and Disability Research Consortium is funded by the Social Security Administration through cooperative agreements with the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, The NBER Retirement and Disability Research Center, the New York Retirement & Disability Research Center, the UMBC Retirement and Disability Research Consortium, The University of Michigan Retirement and Disability Research Center, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Retirement and Disability Research Center.
In a four-decade career in journalism, Eleanor O’Sullivan has reviewed many books on best practices for financial advisors, has written for Financial Advisor and the USA Today network, and was movie critic for the Asbury Park Press.
