Intergenerational Coresidence and Mothers' Body Weight at Midlife

Area of Science:

• Sociology
• Public Health
• Demography

Background:

• Midlife mothers increasingly experience extended coresidence with adult children (boomerang and never-left children).
• Rising rates of adult obesity coincide with these demographic shifts.
• The impact of prolonged coresidence on maternal health, specifically body weight, remains understudied.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between extended mother-young adult child coresidence and changes in maternal body weight.
• To compare body weight trajectories of mothers with different coresidence patterns: "gone-for-good," "never-left," and "boomerangers."

Main Methods:

• Utilized longitudinal data from the National Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) and its young adult sample (NLSY79-YA).
• Analyzed data across 20 consecutive years for 7,197 mothers.
• Employed multilevel regression models to assess body weight changes in relation to coresidence status.

Main Results:

• "Never-left" mothers had higher body weight at age 40 but similar weight at 50 compared to "gone-for-good" mothers.
• "Boomeranger" mothers exhibited higher body weight throughout midlife relative to "gone-for-good" mothers.
• Both "boomeranger" and "never-left" mothers had similar weight at age 40, but "boomeranger" mothers showed greater weight gain across midlife.

Conclusions:

• Different patterns of mother-young adult coresidence are associated with distinct maternal body weight changes.
• Findings highlight the health implications of demographic trends like "failure to launch" for mothers.
• Recommends a holistic, inclusive sociological perspective to understand family functioning and health outcomes.