The Determinants of Geographical Distance between Married Couples and Their Parents

Abstract

As intergenerational family relationship is rapidly changing, it is also reshaping geographical distance between generations. The ingrained culture of living together with husband’s parents is decreasing while cohabitation with wife’s parents is increasing. Moreover, as distinct from cohabitation, the new phenomenon called “adjacent residence” has come to the surface. This study aims to explore the current situation of geographical distance between generations in the Korean society and its determinants. It analyzed married women in their 30s and 40s with at least one elderly parent from the 3rd Wave of Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families, using the multinomial logistic regression model. It categorized geographical distance into 3 types: 1) residence more than 30 minutes apart, 2) adjacent residence within 30 minutes, and 3) cohabitation. In the aspect of resources and needs of elderly parents, it considers both elderly parents’ status, their health condition, and each couple’s sibling size. For couples, their children’s age and wife’s employment status/working hours were considered in terms of necessity, and husband’s employment status and economic power in terms of resources. The findings show that wife’s employment status has a positive effect on cohabitation with and geographical proximity to their elderly parents. There is a weak moderating effect of the number of siblings on elderly parents. The association could be different in terms of parent-line. The age of married women is associated with a possibility of living with only husband’s elderly parents. The effect of elderly parents’ needs was found to be stronger among the husband’s elderly parents. The probability of cohabitation/living close to husband’s elderly parents is higher if their married children live in rural areas. Limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.