Under Different Roofs? Coresidence With Adult Children and Parents' Mental Health Across Race and Ethnicity Over Two Decades

Abstract

Abstract Many U.S. parents share a household with an adult child in later life. However, the reasons parents and adult children coreside may vary over time and across family race/ethnicity, shaping relationships with parents' mental health. Using the Health and Retirement Study, this study investigates the determinants and mental health correlates of coresidence with adult children from 1998 to 2018 among White, Black, and Hispanic parents under age 65 and aged 65+. Findings show that the predictors of coresidence shifted with increasing odds that parents lived with an adult child, and several varied by parents' age group and race/ethnicity. Compared with White parents, Black and Hispanic parents were more likely to live with adult children, especially at older ages, and to indicate that their children helped them with household finances or functional limitations. Living with adult children was associated with higher depressive symptoms among White parents, and mental health was negatively related to living with adult children who were not working or were helping parents with functional limitations. The findings highlight increasing diversity among adult child–coresident parents and underscore persistent differences in the predictors and meaning of coresidence with adult children across race/ethnicity.