Abstract

The past three decades have seen important transformations in family life in Chile: falling marriage and fertility rates and increasing cohabitation and extramarital births. Increasing female employment has weakened the traditional male-breadwinner family. This article provides evidence of the effects of these changes in family living arrangements in Chile and their implications for intergenerational relations. We use 1990, 2000 and 2011 data from the National Socio-economic Characterisation Survey to explore why extended family living is increasingly important for young women in the early stages of family formation. We hypothesise two different processes to explain this increase. Firstly, due to the rise in women’s employment, young women need greater assistance from their extended family to reconcile the demands of work and family responsibilities. Secondly, declining marriage rates and rising rates of cohabitation and lone parenthood increase the need for extended family support. Our findings show that family change is the main driver of the rise in extended family living, indicating that intergenerational dependence is often driven by the economic and social support needed by young families. Despite improvements in social welfare and female employment, better-designed housing and work–family reconciliation policies are needed to offer young families an alternative to intergenerational family support.