Co-resident Parents and Young People Aged 15-34: Who Does What Housework?

Abstract

Young adults are now more likely to co-reside with their parents than previous generations, but domestic work patterns among this family type are largely unexplored. This study addresses this issue using Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Time Use Surveys (1992, 1997, 2006) and Poisson-Gamma regression analyses. It examines patterns in and correlates of domestic labor in two-generation households in which young people aged 15-34 co-reside with their parents (n=1946 households comprised of 2806 young people and 5129 parents). It differentiates between routine indoor tasks (cooking, cleaning, laundry), non-routine tasks (outdoor work, household management and maintenance, car care) and groc..