Differences in Native–Born and Immigrant Co-Resident Grandparent Households: Does Culture Matter?

Lynne M. Casper, University of Southern California
Sandra M. Florian, University of Southern California
Radheeka Jayasundera, University of Southern California

We use data from the 2007 American Community Survey to investigate differences in co-resident grandparent family structure between the native born and the foreign born in the United States (N=40,652). Whereas nuclear families are the norm in Europe and thus in European-origin families in the U.S., other cultures stress the importance of the extended family, familism, and/or filial piety. Given socioeconomic and cultural differences in immigrant families, we hypothesize that 1) co-residential grandparent families will be more common among immigrants and among native-born racial and/ethnic minority groups; 2) immigrant grandparent co-resident families will be more likely to be maintained by parents (sandwich generation); 3) sandwich generation families will be more prevalent among immigrants of Asian origin than among other immigrants, and; 4) these differences will exist net of length of time in the U.S., citizenship status, English language proficiency, SES, and other factors. Our results confirm each of these hypotheses.