Interracial couples and intergenerational coresidence: Interracial couples who provide housing assistance to their aging parents

Background: Married and cohabiting partners frequently share the responsibility of caring for their aging parents. Adult children’s union formation and partner selection decisions have important implications for their ability to care for their aging parents. However, extant research has yet to examine how adult children’s partner selection decisions influence the levels of financial, emotional, and instrumental support adult children provide their aging parents. Objective: We explore how adult children’s decision to cross ethnoracial boundaries in union formation affects their propensity to reside with the male or female partner’s parents. Methods: Using data from the 2007–2022 American Community Survey, we estimate logistic regression to predict the odds of living with aging parents for couples with varying joint ethnorace. We then estimate logistic regression models to predict the odds of living with the female partner’s parents over the male partner’s parents for couples of varying joint ethnorace. Results: White/Black and White/Hispanic couples are more likely than endogamous White couples but less likely than endogamous minority couples to live with aging parents. White female/Black male couples are less likely than Black female/White male couples to live with the female partner’s parents. Contribution: The in-between prevalence of intergenerational coresidence among interracial couples suggests that interracial unions are bridging ethnoracial distinctions by expanding family networks across ethnoracial groups.