“I’m never alone and lonely” Multigenerational living in Brisbane, QLD

City Futures Research Centre

Edgar Liu, Research Fellow Hazel Easthope, ARC Future Fellow Bruce Judd, Director of Australian School of Architecture and Design Ian Burnley, Emeritus Professor

The project 3-year Australian Research Council Discovery Project (2012 - 2014) Living together: The rise of multigenerational households in Australian cities • 3 hypothesised principal drivers

1. Structural changes in Australian societies, notably the ageing of the population, changing employment structures, and constrained housing supply

2. Public policy decisions about the provision of housing and areas of family significance, notably higher education, child care and aged care

3. Social and cultural views about the family, influenced by shifts in the social and cultural makeup of our cities

The project 1. Statistical analysis of custom census tables, 1986-2011 2. Detailed survey of multigenerational households in Sydney & Brisbane

– August 2012 to July 2013 – 392 valid completions [Brisbane: 133 valid completions] – C.I. = 5.34 @ 95% [Brisbane: 8.5 @ 95%]

3. Solicited diaries on thoughts and experiences of living in multigenerational households – 22 diaries from 15 households – [Brisbane: 16 diaries from 11 households]

4. In-depth interviews re: outlooks and relationships with others – 21 interviews with 17 households – [Brisbane: 18 interviews with 15 households]

5. Interviews with State policymakers, private sector, NGOs

Multigenerational households • Cohen & Casper (2002:1) –

“conceptually, standard practices of identifying multigenerational living arrangements and their implications remain elusive”

• We define multigenerational households as: – Households where two or more

generations of related adults cohabit in the same dwelling, with the oldest of the youngest generation being aged 18 years or older

Multigenerational households • Notable cultural differences in practice

– More common in African, Asian, Middle Eastern and Southern/Eastern European societies

– Research beginning to emerge in ‘non-traditional’ societies like Australia, Canada, UK & US

• Wide variety of influences/drivers, including immigration & late 2000s

economic downturn

• Flatau et al. (2007:67) changing social norms and values

Who • 2011: 1 in 5 Australians (4.3 million) lived in 1.2 million multigenerational

households • More prominent in major cities • [Brisbane: 385,304 people in 106,097 households]

Australia Sydney Brisbane As % of total population 19.7% 24.5% 19.5%

% of owner-occupiers 78.5% (61.8%)

77.8%) (62.0%)

76.2% (61.0%)

% in detached dwellings 88.6% (72.4%)

82.9% (65.5%)

94.2% (81.9%)

Change since 1986 (persons) 29.8% (37.9%)

37.1% (30.5%)

53.4% (100.9%)

Change since 1986 (households) 39.4% (49.6%)

43.6% (32.5%)

62.5% (88.4%)

Note: % for all other household types presented in brackets Source: Easthope et al. (2013); Liu et al. (2013)

Who

% of Australian residents born in these regions who live in multigenerational households

Who Brisbane Sydney

2-generation: young never left 53 40% 130 50%

2-generation: young boomeranged 21 16% 23 9%

2-generation: older * 18 14% 13 5%

3-generation household 28 21% 29 11%

4-generation household 0 0% 2 1%

skipped generation household ^ 0 0% 1 0%

Insufficient data 13 10% 61 24%

Total 133 259

* Older parents moved in with their adult children, or older adult children (34+) who moved in with their older parents ^ Households where only the grandparents and grandchildren live together

Why

Finance Brisbane Sydney

% live together for financial reasons 53% 38%

% said finance was only reason 15% 16%

% said finance as well as other reasons 38% 21%

Other commonly reasons - Care arrangement and support - Adult children yet to leave home - Starting / continuing education - Older (grand)parents moved in

27% 13% 12% 9%

19% 18% 11% 10%

Brisbane 2-gen: young never left

2-gen: young boomeranged

2-gen: older

3-gen household Total

Financial 38% 42% 13% 38% 36%

Care arrangement & support 14% 11% 43% 22% 18%

Adult children yet to leave home 15% 3% 4% 0% 9%

Starting/continuing education 11% 13% 0% 0% 8%

Convenience / practicality 5% 5% 4% 8% 6%

Older (grand)parents moved in 4% 3% 22% 5% 6%

Relationship breakdown 1% 5% 9% 14% 5%

"We're a family" 5% 8% 0% 3% 5%

Adult children boomeranged 4% 8% 0% 8% 5%

Cultural 2% 0% 4% 0% 2%

Other 0% 3% 0% 3% 1%

Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Benefits

Brisbane 2-gen: young

never left

2-gen: young

boomerang

2-gen: older

3-gen household Total

Companionship & support 80% 63% 76% 59% 66%

Care arrangement 0% 0% 8% 7% 5%

Intergenerational relationship 4% 0% 4% 21% 8%

Financial benefits 6% 22% 4% 14% 12%

Cultural traditions 2% 0% 0% 0% 1%

Practicality & convenience 6% 7% 6% 0% 6%

Nothing 2% 7% 2% 0% 3%

Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Benefits • Franklin & Trantor (2011: 1): “residential propinquity can be converted into

social bonds that matter, endure and enrich” [original emphasis]

• Companionship – “Someone to talk to and go places with” [Survey #379, 2-gen: younger never

left] – “[My daughter and I] we are both single so living together gives us both

company and someone to share the expenses with.” [QLD401-1D, 2-gen: younger never left]

– “Our household comprises 20 year old daughter, husband who works a roster away 3 weeks then home 1 week and myself working full time, so it is mainly my daughter and myself at home on evenings and weekends. This is a huge benefit to me for both social and logistical reasons as otherwise I would be on my own for 3 weeks at a time and also have the total responsibility of looking after our 2 dogs, house and yard work.” [QLD402D, 2-gen: younger never left]

Benefits • Intergenerational relationships

– “I enjoy my adult child’s company.” [Survey #29, 2-gen: younger never left] – “Being able to spend time with my grandchildren.” [Survey #32, 3-generation

household] – “It was very important for me for our children to have a strong relationship

with their grandparents because I think grandparents have got a lot to offer kids. I don't think, kids can sometimes miss out on that in this western model of child-raising where you don't allow – a lot of people I know don't allow their in-laws or their own parents to look after their children. They put them in day-care because it seems to be an incredibly normal thing to do, to put the children in day-care.” [QLD408I, 3-generation household]

– “[My daughter] has expressed many times over this month that she misses grandpa and it is time for him to come home. He is at the half way point in his trip so we have one more month until he gets back.” [QLD403-1D, 3-generation household]

Benefits • Financial benefits

– “It’s affordable, and you have people to talk to.” [Survey #310, 2-gen: younger boomeranged]

– “My son being able to spend so much time and learn a lot from his grandparents. Being able to save more money than we would otherwise.” [Survey #430, 3-generation household]

– “Support, the extra help, we look after each other. We can afford better things.” [Survey #398, 3-generation household]

– “I guess my parents are sort of well off so they don't have too much of an issue continuing to look after us, even after we're 18. That's sort of - they're happy to do that because they have enough money to do it. So they're happy to have us living here without paying rent or anything.” [QLD412I, 2-gen: younger boomeranged]

Drawbacks

Brisbane 2-gen: young

never left

2-gen: young

boomerang 2-gen: older 3-gen

household Total

Privacy / interference 36% 64% 41% 44% 43%

Chores / Not pitching in 17% 4% 18% 9% 13%

Stigma of living at home 2% 8% 0% 0% 2%

Noise 2% 4% 5% 0% 2%

Space 7% 4% 5% 16% 8%

Impact on familial / social relationships 15% 8% 18% 16% 14%

Financial constraints 7% 0% 0% 3% 4% Lack of flexibility / compromises 8% 8% 14% 13% 10%

Generational contract / expectations 5% 0% 0% 0% 2%

Nothing 2% 0% 0% 0% 1%

Drawbacks • Privacy / interference

– “Having to explain when I get home at 2am in the morning drunk” [Survey #374, 2-gen: younger boomeranged]

– “Someone is always home. I rarely have the place to myself.” [Survey #350, 2-gen: younger boomeranged]

– “No privacy. Rules are made by older generation. Some loss of freedoms. Can be noisy when having whole-family discussions.” [Survey #426, 2-gen: younger boomeranged]

– “It can be difficult to find any alone time when you live in a multigenerational household. It can be hard to find time or space for personal discussions with friends or my husband without either the older generation present. You never get the opportunity to watch TV or read a book by yourself as there are always other people around wanting to do things with you or talk to you.” [QLD408D]

Drawbacks • Impact on familial / social relationships

– “I feel like I'm doing everything without the help of the rest of my siblings. Everything is left up to my husband and I.” [Survey #63, 3-genenration household]

– “Expectation of other family members that I and my children (her grandchildren) have sole responsibility for my mothers' care including physical, emotional and financial.” [Survey #44, 2-gen: older]

– “I think there's a lot of dependency on me and there's a lot of information that I get that other - I have one other sibling. He wouldn't know five per cent of the things that I have to get involved in because he doesn't live here. I think it's placed a big strain on the relationship between us as brother and sister because his wife's perception is that it's not our problem to look after our parents and that's not her value at all.” [QLD408I, 3-generation household]

– “No privacy, interference about raising my son (he can be very spoiled/not disciplined by grandparents), no quality time for my husband and I, no independence, being treated like a child not an adult, judgement about our decisions, future plans etc.” [Survey #430, 3-generation household]

being treated like a child not an adult

Drawbacks

• Gee et al. (2003) – Why did you move out? “For experience living without parents. Moved in with

boyfriend/friends” … Why did you return? “Broke up with boyfriend. Ran out of money. Couldn't keep up with uni and work” [Survey #426, 2-gen younger boomeranged]

– Why did you move out? “I was travelling overseas.” … Why did you return? “Because I had no money after travelling.” [Survey #361, 2-gen younger boomeranged]

2-gen: young never left 2-gen: young boomeranged

Chores / Not pitching in 17% 4%

Drawbacks • Parent-adult child relationship

– “I appreciated living at home a lot more after living with friends.” Do you feel that your family look at you differently after you moved back? “Oh, yeah, I definitely noticed it when I was moving back in, yeah. I think it was a lot easier for us to talk to each other.” [QLD412I, 2-gen: younger boomeranged]

– “I definitely feel more responsibility towards [my parents] after having lived away. I don't know if it's because I lived away or because of the way that I saw my family change while I was away. So looking from a distance and a little bit more objectively, I could see the relationship between my parents and siblings, and that my parents need support in some ways that my siblings are not giving to them. So when I came back, I felt I really need to contribute more, and each time I feel that so I take on more responsibility around the house or just in emotional support for my mother for example.” [QLD404-2I, 2-gen: younger boomeranged]

Conclusion • Many pathways lead to multigenerational living • Comparable (positive & negative) experiences across the different

pathways – Daughter: “I think it's more – it's either more common or it's you talk about it a

bit more. Like you would know more people because they will admit to living at home, but I don't think it's anymore accepted.”

– Mother: “People say, has your daughter left home. No, she lives at home with me. Well you'll have to let go some time. It's sort of like, yeah, there's still a bit of a thing about it.” [QLD401I, 2-gen: purchasing home together]

Conclusion • Stigmatised images of multigenerational households

– “We've changed the configuration of our living arrangements a number of times.” [QLD403I, 3-generation household]

– Daughter: “The perception for my sibling's point of view is that I'm yeah, I'm getting all the benefits and not having to, yeah, they don't see any of the challenges that come with that.” Son-in-law: “People make comments like, so that's good so you get free childcare. Well I suppose you do but no you don't because I guess you have a lot more expenses.” [QLD408I, 3-generation household]

Conclusion • CMF (2014: 21) – “This is not to suggest … some sort of silver lining in the

cloud of difficulties they’re now confronted with – or that policymakers have no need to look for ways to intervene in order to provide support and assistance to relieve the strain. Without such interventions, the burdens on many families may prove intolerable.”

References • CMF (2014) Meet the full nesters, Centre for the Modern Family, October. • Cohen, P. and Casper, L. (2002). “In whose home? Multigenerational families in the United States,

1998-2000.” Sociological Perspectives 45(1): 1-20. • Easthope, H., Liu, E., Burnley, I. and Judd, B. (2013). “We're a family - it makes sense to live

together”: Multigenerational households in Sydney and Brisbane. State of Australian Cities Conference. Sydney, New South Wales.

• Flatau, P., James, I., Watson, R., Wood, G. and Hendershott, P. (2007). “Leaving the parental home in Australia over the generations: Evidence from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey.” Journal of Population Research 24(1): 51-71.

• Franklin, A. and Trantor, B. (2011) “AHURI essay: Housing, loneliness and health”. Final Report No. 164 Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute. Melbourne.

• Gee, E., Mitchell, B. and Wister, A. (2003). “Home Leaving Trajectories in Canada: Exploring Cultural and Gendered Dimensions.” Canadian Studies in Population 30(2): 245-270.

• Liu, E., Easthope, H., Burnley, I. and Judd, B. (2013). “Multigenerational households in Australian cities: Evidence from Sydney and Brisbane at the turn of the twenty-first century”. 7th Australasian Housing Researchers' Conference. Fremantle WA.