Seniors Living with Children May Be a Bad Idea

As the elderly population rises, along with long-term carecosts, multi-generational households are likely to increase.  This trend may not make grandma very happy.

According to a new study, seniors living in a household withsomeone under 18 report less happiness and more stress.  This prevalence of negative emotionalexperiences was also found in wealthy European countries with low fertilityrates but not found in poorer regions of the world with high fertilityrates.  This contrast likely has to dowith extended families being more commonplace in poorer regions.  Multi-generational families in rich countriesare usually an indicator that something has gone wrong.

See Janet Novack, Get Off My Lawn: Living with Kids MakesSeniors Less Happy, Forbes, June 13, 2013.