Grandparents appeared to serve as an important private safety net when COVID-19 first hit the U.S., according to a study led by a Washington State University researcher.
survey data
collected by the U.S. Census, Amorim and co-author Natasha Pilkauskas of University of Michigan analyzed the trends for children in doubled-up households from 2015-2021. About 15.3% of children lived in these types of households in 2015, and there was an incremental average increase of about 0.1 percentage points each year, but from 2019 to 2020 the share of children in these arrangements jumped from 15.7% to 16.3%, an increase six times greater than expected.
The authors said these demographics suggest the surge in co-residence was driven by both the need for economic and other instrumental support–such as childcare and perhaps to some degree elder care on the part of the grandparents. These needs appeared to outweigh concerns over spreading COVID-19 to more vulnerable older relatives.
The authors also uncovered a seasonality in trends of"doubling up." Before the pandemic, increases in these co-residing households tended to follow a pattern with more co-residence occurring in late fall and winter. The researchers speculate that this may follow already established seasonal patterns of births and divorces.
"We found this type of co-residence to be really short lived. This really drives home the idea that doubling up, particularly living with grandparents, is a strategy that's used to address economic or instrumental needs, but it's not really the preference for Americans," said Amorim."As soon as people are able to move out and live independently, they do.
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