Intergenerational Coresidence in Developing Countries.

We use newly-available census microdata from IPUMS-International to assess trends in intergenerational coresidence in 15 developing countries. Contrary to expectations, we find no general decline in intergenerational coresidence over the past several decades. There have been, however, significant changes in the configuration of intergenerational coresidence. Families in which the older generation is household head—a configuration consistent with traditional patriarchal forms in which the older generation retains authority—are becoming more common in most of the countries. Intergenerational families headed by the younger generation—the configuration one would expect if intergenerational coresidence were motivated by a need for old-age support—are on the decline in most of the countries. Multivariate analysis reveals that intergenerational families headed by the older generation are positively associated with measures of economic development. These findings are at variance with widely-accepted social theory. We hypothesize that housing shortage, economic stress in the younger generation, and old-age pensions may contribute to the change. More broadly, in some developing countries rising incomes may have allowed more people to achieve their preferred family structure of intergenerational coresidence following traditional family forms. Intergenerational Coresidence in Developing Countries A sizeable literature suggests that coresidence of elderly persons with their children is on the decline in most developing countries. These studies draw on a long tradition of theories that postulate an inverse association of household complexity and economic development. This analysis uses new data and measures to assess changes in intergenerational coresidence in 15 developing countries. We have three main objectives. First, we measure trends in intergenerational coresidence in developing countries from the perspective of both the younger generation and the older generation. Second, we assess trends in intergenerational coresidence by headship patterns. Finally, we carry out multivariate analyses to control for changes in population composition and assess the relationship of intergenerational coresidence to economic development. The results indicate that there are no clear trends in intergenerational coresidence over the past several decades. In some countries, there were modest increases in coresidence; in other countries, there were modest declines. Even more intriguing, when we focus on intergenerational families headed by the older generation—the family configuration most closely associated with traditional stem-family and joint-family systems—we find significant increases in all but two of the countries examined. This suggests that traditional family forms are stable or increasing across much of the developing world. Moreover, multivariate analyses reveal that key measures of economic development are positively associated with intergenerational families headed by the