Beyond the Economic-Need Hypothesis: A Life-Course Explanation of Women’s Extended Family Living Arrangements in Chile

Abstract

Previous research has mainly understood household extension as a family strategy to face economic deprivation, giving little attention to other factors affecting it. Using 2017 data from the National Socioeconomic Characterization Survey, this article evaluates the role played by economic and life-course factors in extended family living arrangements among women in family units in Chile (n = 60,111). Results indicate that economic needs are an important driver for those seeking refuge in someone else’s home, but they are less important for those hosting other relatives within their household. Importantly, the likelihood of living in an extended household—and the position that family units occupy within the household (as head-families or subfamilies)—changes over the life span. Young women (15–34 years) are more likely to live in extended households as sub-families, while middle-aged women (45–64 years) tend to live in extended households as household heads, hosting young cohabiting couples, or lone mothers.