Intergenerational Coresidence and Life Satisfaction across Asia and Europe

Chia Liu, University of St Andrews
Ryohei Mogi, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Intergenerational coresidence as a means of providing care for older adults remains common. However, the relationship between living arrangements and life satisfaction for both adult children and older parents across regions with distinct coresidence norms has been underexplored. This study investigates the associations between living in an intergenerational household and self-reported life satisfaction among younger generation (30- to 45-year-old) and older generation (60+) in 36 countries in Europe and Asia. We apply multilevel modelling on data from the European Social Surveys (2002-2018) and the East Asian Social Surveys (2006 and 2016). We find that there is a small negative effect of living with children for older adults but the effect varies little across countries. Younger adults who live with parents are not markedly different from those who live without parents and the effect also varies little across countries. In countries with higher average life satisfaction, the impact of intergenerational living arrangements is less pronounced. These findings challenge the assumed benefits of intergenerational coresidence and suggests that factors other than intergenerational coresidence—such as pension schemes, welfare systems, and age-friendliness—may have a greater influence on individuals' life satisfaction, especially in older age.

Keywords: Population Ageing, Multi-level modeling , Older Adults and Intergenerational Relations, Families, Unions and Households

See paper.