Based on China Health and Nutrition Survey data from 1991 to 2015 spanning 25 years, the research focuses on the transition of intergenerational coresidence in China. The coresidence rate of older parents with their children started to decline from a high level in the early 1990s, but stopped falling after 2000, and maintained a relatively stable level since then. The results of the two-way fixed effect model showed that parents’ health and marital status significantly affected intergenerational coresidence, and the effects varied across periods and showed different patterns in urban and rural areas. In urban area, older parents in frailer status tended to live with their children in earlier period, but healthier older parents were more likely to live with their children in recent years. In rural area, having a spouse increased the possibility of intergenerational coresidence for older parents in earlier years, but the rural elderly without spouses are more likely to live with their children in recent years. The results indicated that coresidence in urban household was primarily a need-driven arrangement since the 1990s, to some extent, and the driving needs were transformed mainly from parents’ needs to children’s needs. In addition, the driven mechanisms of coresidence in rural household manifested a weakening of value norms and a strengthening of parents’ needs.
