Do Grandparent-Headed Households Promote Intergenerational Income Transfers and Residential Stability in Children's Lives?

Anastasia R. Snyder, Pennsylvania State University
Diane K. McLaughlin, Pennsylvania State University
Jill L. Findeis, Pennsylvania State University
Alisha J. Coleman, Pennsylvania State University

Children are dependents–either on public or private (family-based) transfers. The shift of public and private transfers away from children, and toward the elderly, as described by Preston (1984), has only intensified in recent years. Using child and household level data files from the 5% 2000 PUMS , we examine grandparent headed households with children, as a context where elderly resources are being shifted back toward the young, and how these household are associated with economic well-being and residential stability of children. The main outcomes of interest are household poverty and income-packaging, and the residential stability of these households. We are especially interested in how public and private income sources are combined in grandparent-headed families that contain children. This study will shed new light on the degree to which this emerging family context promotes stability and the inter-generational shift of private and public resources from the elderly to the young.