Household Living Arrangements in the United States

Abstract

This dissertation examines household living arrangements in the United States (U.S.). Across three chapters, I revisit longstanding areas of inquiry concerning the residential ties between parents and children and provide new insight into how these ties vary across parental figures, across childhood, and across historical periods. Chapter 1 focuses on mothers’ living arrangements with their minor biological children, a dimension of household life largely overlooked by family scholars. I find that mothers’ residential ties to their children are relatively dynamic when viewed across their childrearing years, and thus maternal nonresidence, rather than an anomalous experience, emerges as a salient feature of contemporary U.S. motherhood. Chapter 2 provides the first comprehensive account of children’s residential trajectories with their biological fathers from birth to age 18. This longitudinal perspective reveals that a substantial share of children living apart from their fathers come to live with them again. Entry into paternal coresidence is thus a common feature of children’s nonresident trajectories. Finally, Chapter 3 reevaluates historical trends in children’s household dynamics. I find that children’s experience of parental entrances and exits remained remarkably stable across five decades, even as parental household structure changed substantially. Together, these chapters suggest that parent-child ties may be more fluid than prevailing accounts have recognized. This fluidity characterizes both maternal and paternal arrangements and, rather than being uniquely contemporary, appears to have persisted over historical time.