Extended family households among children in the United States: Differences by race/ethnicity and socio-economic status

Abstract

This study uses nationally representative longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, to examine the prevalence and predictors of extended family households among children in the United States and to explore variation by race/ethnicity and socio-economic status (SES). Findings suggest that extended family households are a common living arrangement for children, with 35 per cent of youth experiencing this family structure before age 18. Racial/ethnic and SES differences are substantial: 57 per cent of Black and 35 per cent of Hispanic children ever live in an extended family, compared with 20 per cent of White children. Further, 47 per cent of children whose parents did not finish high school spend time in an extended family, relative to 17 per cent of children whose parents earned a bachelor's degree or higher. Models of predictors show that transitions into extended families are largely a response to social and economic needs.

Keywords:

• extended family
• family structure
• co-residence
• children
• race/ethnicity
• socio-economic status

ORCID

Christina J. Cross http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8858-9125

Notes

1 Please direct all correspondence to Christina J. Cross, Department of Sociology, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; or by E-mail: [email protected]

2 Material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. DGE 1256260. The author thanks Jennifer Barber, Paula Fomby, and three anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful feedback on drafts of this paper; the author also thanks Barbara Anderson, Karyn Lacy, Fabian Pfeffer, Natasha Pilkauskas, and the Inequality, Demography, and Family workshop at the University of Michigan for very helpful comments and suggestions.