The Living Arrangements of Young Parents and Their Children

Karen B. Guzzo, Bowling Green State University

Multigenerational household research often overlooks the middle generation – those who live with their own parents and their own children. Similarly, work on boomerang kids rarely considers young parents, who might particularly need help from their parents. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), I examine the characteristics of three types of young parents aged 24 (N = 1,984): living with parents consistently between birth and age 24; living with parents at birth but subsequently moved out; and living independently at birth. Results show that more than half of young parents live with their own parents at their first birth or subsequently. Among those who were either living independently at birth or moved out subsequently, event history models reveal that union instability is strongly associated with the odds of moving back home, as is not living with their firstborn child. Overall, young parents have complicated and fluid living arrangements.