Predicting Parents' Experiences With Coresident Adult Children

This research examined the likelihood of parent-adult child coresidence and the implications of coresidence for the quality of life as perceived by parents. Data from the 1987-1988 National Survey of Families and Households showed that a positive home environment is a strong selection factor in predicting the probability of coresidence. The presence of unlaunched adult children is most likely when families have not been reconstituted through parental remarriage, when parent-child relations are good, and when parents hold favorable attitudes toward the continued support of adult children. After controlling for selection effects, predictions concerning the normative expectedness of the living arrangement, the influence of children's dependency, and parents' social class on parental experiences in the coresident living arrangement were tested. The normative expectedness of the coresident living arrangement, as indicated by the age of coresident adult children, had little impact on parents' experiences. Adult children's economic dependency had a negative impact on parental assessments of the coresident living situation. Middle-class parents reported more negative effects of coresidence than did parents of lower socioeconomic status.