Beyond household walls: the spatial structure of American extended kinship networks

ABSTRACT

How far do Americans live from their close and extended kin? The answer is likely to structure the types of social, instrumental, and financial support that they are able to provide to one another. Based on the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, kin pairs vary widely in odds of household co-residence, co-residence in the same administrative units, and inter-tract distances if they do not live in the same census tract. Multivariate regression tests show that family structure, educational attainment, and age are closely associated with kin proximity. Fixed-effects models demonstrate that family formation shapes spatial relations between kin.

KEYWORDS:

• Co-residence
• spatial relations
• family structure
• age
• educational attainment

Additional information

Funding

This study was financed by the Center for Retirement Research, Boston College grant BC-S5.