The impact of adult children living at home on the well-being of Spanish parents: Evidence from panel data

Abstract

Despite the prevalence of co-residence of adult children and their parents across Europe, there is only limited empirical evidence on the impact of such living arrangements on well-being. This paper investigates the impact of adult children living in the household on the well-being of Spanish parents aged 50-75. Using three waves of panel data from the Spanish Survey of Household Finances we assess whether the impact on parental well-being differs depending on the age of the child, and whether the effect depends on the gender of the parent. We find that there is a negative impact on parents’ well-being of older adult children (aged 30 or over) living in the household, while cohabitation with younger children (aged 18-29) is not found to affect parental well-being. When analysing the impact on mothers and fathers separately we find that the negative effect of older children living in the household is driven by a significant reduction in the well-being of mothers, with no evidence of a corresponding effect on fathers. The negative effect on mothers’ well-being seems to be related to co-residence with older sons rather than older daughters.