Doubled Up: Shared Households and the Precarious Lives of Families

Fifteen percent of children in America now live in households in which families share space with other families or adults in order to make ends meet, according to this illuminating debut study. Public policy scholar Harvey draws on interviews with 60 parents living in “doubled up” households (as both hosts and guests) to explore not only the hardships that force families to move in with others but also what motivates the host families to open up their home to long-term guests, and how sharing living space affects the emotional, social, and economic trajectories of both guest and host families. While doubling up can offer a more robust support structure—including more adults available for childcare and split costs—it also leads to complex and stressful interpersonal negotiations concerning the adults’ relative authority and autonomy, particularly when it comes to disciplining one another’s children, dividing up bills, and having visitors. Parents often feel a psychological burden from doubling up, Harvey finds as she presents the poignant, sometimes heartbreaking reflections of her subjects. (“I feel that right here I’m just in a little box,” one guest mother says.) Moreover, these arrangements rarely give families the kind of financial boost they were hoping for—families who double up once often end up doing so multiple times. This sheds much-needed light on a little-discussed aspect of income inequality in America. (June)