Age-Condensed and Age-Gapped Families

ABSTRACT

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey, Mature Women's Cohort, this study found that not only is a sizable minority of mature women likely to reside with their aging parents and relatives in any given survey year, but that this trend increases over time. Unexpectedly, black women were found to be more likely than white women to reside in age-gapped families, signifying that they were more likely than white women to delay childbirth. Black women also were found to have greater frequencies and prevalence of residing in intergenerational families than white women. This pattern indicated, by extension, that intergenerational responsibilities might be a greater factor contributing to delayed childbirth for black women than was the case for white women. As expected, few aging parents or relatives were found in age-condensed families. The presence of grandchildren, rather than a respondent's own children, apparently accounted for this finding. This pattern suggested that, for maturing women who had been teenage mothers, the flow of intergenerational responsibilities proceeds more extensively in the direction of subsequent generations rather than toward previous generations.

Key Words:

• Coresidency
• elderly
• women
• intergenerational
• race