Multigenerational Family Living: Evidence and Policy Implications from Australia

Multigenerational living - where more than one generation of related adults cohabit in the same dwelling - is recognized as a common arrangement amongst many Asian, Middle Eastern and Southern European cultures, but this arrangement is becoming increasingly familiar in many Western societies. Much Western research on multigenerational households has highlighted young adults’ delayed first home leaving, the result of difficult economic prospects and the prolonged adolescence of generation Y. This book shows that the causes and results of this phenomenon are more complex.

The book sheds fresh light on a range of structural and social drivers that have led multigenerational families to cohabit and the ways in which families negotiate the dynamic interactions amongst these drivers in their everyday lives. It critically examines factors such as demographics, the environment, culture and family considerations of identity, health, care and well-being, revealing how such factors reflect (and are reflected by) a retracting welfare state and changing understandings of families in an increasingly mobile world.

Based on a series of qualitative and quantitative research projects conducted in Australia, the book provides an interdisciplinary examination of intergenerational cohabitation that explores a variety of concerns and experiences. It will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in housing, demographics and the sociology of the family.

Edgar Liu is a Research Fellow at the City Futures Research Centre, Faculty of Built Environment, UNSW Australia (University of New South Wales).

Hazel Easthope is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow and Senior Research Fellow at City Futures Research Centre, Faculty of Built Environment, UNSW Australia.