Almost 17% of kids lived with their living in 1/3 of kids live in extended family homes before 18, a new study suggests. The study conducted by the University of Michigan researcher suggests that about 35 percent of children in the United States have lived with a relative other than their parent or sibling at some point by age 18.
A more distant family unit is framed when a child is living with any relative past the child’s parent or sibling. It could be a grandparent, close relative or uncle, or different relatives.
In her exploration, Scientists looked to comprehend whenever more distant family families have turned out to be progressively regular after some time. Scientists additionally took a gander at different components adding to the more distant family.
- Socioeconomic differences make a big difference: 47 percent of children whose parents did not finish high school spend time in an extended family, compared to 17 percent of children whose parents earned a bachelor’s degree or higher.
- The differences are substantial when broken down by race: about 57 percent of black and 35 percent of Hispanic children have lived in an extended family, compared to 20 percent of white children.
- Of the extended family households, about 24 percent lived with a grandparent, 18 percent with an aunt or uncle, and 24 percent with another relative.
Christina Cross, a doctoral candidate at U-M’s Ford School of Public Policy and the U-M Department of Sociology said, “It’s important to understand it because research shows strong associations between children’s living arrangements and their psychological, behavioral and educational outcomes. The results allow us to better understand the potential breadth of influence of the extended family households on child well-being.”
“These findings are important given that nuclear family households have long been considered the standard and normative household in the U.S. A narrow focus on the nuclear family overlooks the diverse ways in which families, particularly those from minority and/or low-income backgrounds arrange family life.”
The study is published in the journal Population Studies.