EFFECTS OF POTENTIAL CHANGES IN CORESIDENCE ON MATCHED OLDER PARENT-ADULT CHILD DYADS

One important consequence of the rise in the number and proportion of older adults in our society may be an increased occurrence: of living patterns where the older person shares a household with one or more of his or her adult children. To this point, only limited research has a ddressed the effects of coresidence on the quality of life of the memb ers of the dyad Using data from the National Survey of Families and Ho useholds, we examined perceived effects of a discontinuance of a curre nt pattern of coresidence on matched pairs of older parents and their adult children. While a majority of both groups report that specific l ife dimensions would remain largely unchanged if they were nor sharing a household, elderly parents anticipate much more negative consequenc es from the hypothetical separation than do their adult children. The responses of the older parents apparently reflect the greater dependen ce and vulnerability that result from a variety of economic and health -related problems. Perceptions of both groups are only modestly affect ed by several sociodemographic and structural characteristics, though age is a fairly consistent predictor of more negative perceptions amon g the elders. Future research should move beyond these structural fact ors to address a variety of process variables that might better descri be the dynamics of the relationship.