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The Rise of Three-Generation Households Among Households Headed by Two Parents and Mothers Only in Australia

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Abstract

This study offers knowledge about factors associated with a key type of family change, namely, two- to-three-generation household transformations, which are poorly understood, despite increasing numbers of three-generation households, especially ones headed by females. Using a representative sample of 5,874 Australian children, results showed that the circumstances of children in two-generation households differed greatly by family structure. Thus, before investigating determinants of three-generation household formation, children were first grouped as living in either two-parent or single-mother households. For both groups of children, several factors were found associated with three-generation household formation. In two-parent households, the odds of three-generation household formation decreased with mothers’ ages, fathers’ higher educational attainments, and more children, but increased as children grew older. In single-mother households, the odds of three-generation household formation decreased with mothers’ higher educational attainments, increasing income, and more children, but increased if mothers had never been married and worked more hours. Living in rural areas decreased odds of three-generation household formation for children in both types of households. Overall, grandparents appear to play a relatively more important resource role in three-generation, mother only households than in three-generation, two-parent households.

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Notes

  1. Response rates compare favorably with rates in the first waves of HILDA’s British and German counterparts (Wooden et al. 2002). Comparisons with population data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics suggest that the sample has features corresponding with what would have been expected in the sample were it truly random. Observable differences between the responding and selected samples are corrected by applying provided population weights.

  2. In-person interviews and follow-up of respondents have minimized respondent attrition from the HILDA survey and questionnaire item non-response (Wooden et al. 2002). These survey design elements have greatly reduced the missing data and need for statistical corrections or sensitivity analyses. Nevertheless, analyses were conducted to confirm that missing data did not change magnitudes of estimates or levels of statistical significance.

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Acknowledgments

The author wishes to acknowledge helpful comments received from colleagues at the University of Southern California, University of Melbourne, and University of Chicago, as well as excellent suggestions from two anonymous reviewers. Brandon gratefully acknowledges the outstanding programming assistance and suggestions offered by Ms. Carole Heyworth. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs or the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne, which manages the data for this study. They cannot be taken, in any way, as expressions of government or university policy.

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  1. Department of Sociology, The University at Albany, Albany, NY, USA

    Peter D. Brandon

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Brandon, P.D. The Rise of Three-Generation Households Among Households Headed by Two Parents and Mothers Only in Australia. J Fam Econ Iss 33, 376–388 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-012-9284-5

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