Doubling Up as a Private Safety Net for Families with Children

Low-income families rely on various sources of support, both public and private, to make ends meet. Although doubling up (moving in with relatives or nonkin) is a common source of support, previous research has not examined the economic value of doubling up as part of a family’s income packaging strategy. Using longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study, we examine doubling up as a source of private support—a private safety net—among families with young children. We find that doubling up is a very important private safety net in the first few years of a child’s life, especially for single and cohabiting mothers. Although high rates of unemployment (and other macro-economic indicators) are associated with increased odds of doubling up, the effect is small, indicating that this particular private safety net is not an effective coping mechanism for families during severe economic downturns.