Using data from the 1990 Panel Study of Income Dynmamics Latino Sample, this study examines three competing hypotheses for understanding extended family living among Mexcian, Puerto Rican and Cuban immigrants. The findings indicate no significant relationships between living with extended kin and cultural indicators - such as English fluency - or economic factors - such as employment and income. Rather, the data support a life course explanation. Extended family living arrangements among Latino immigrants represent a resource generating strategy for caring for young children and older adults. Differences in age, relative location of the life course, and migration opportunities inform group variation in extending living arrangements for Mexican, Puerto Rican and Cuban immigrants. These findings verify patterns of household composition among Latino immigrants suggested by nonrandom, ethnographic samples.

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USA Latino immigrants life course approach household composition immigrant population