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CRiSM Seminar - Ann Berrington

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Location: A1.01

Young adults in the UK have tended to leave the parental home earlier than their European peers but are also more likely to return. Recent cross‐sectional evidence showed an increase in co‐residence between parents and young adult children. There has been discussion in the British media about “boomerang children” but nationally representative, longitudinal data are required to disentangle the relative importance of postponement in first leaving and increased returns to the parental home. The British Household Panel Study includes individuals from 5500 households interviewed annually from 1991 to 2008. We pool data for individuals aged 16‐34 with data from two consecutive waves who are living away from their parents in the first wave (t0), then calculate the proportion returning one year later (t1). We use individual‐level, household‐level and contextual variables in discrete‐time logistic regression event history analyses to investigate the determinants of returning home. We additionally use a cohort ‐based approach including young adults aged 16‐17 years and living with their parents at baseline. We follow up these individuals for five years to investigate patterns of leaving and returning to the parental home. Additional analyses using a probit model with sample selection are used to examine the extent to which sample selection may have biased our results. The paired years analysis shows men are more likely to return home than women but over time, women have become more likely to return. ‘Turning points’ such as union dissolution and becoming unemployed show strong, positive associations with returning home. The cohort based approach indicates young adults living in a family with two natural parents are least likely to leave the parental home. For those with step families or living with a lone parent, we see more complex patterns of leaving and returning, indicative of more chaotic pathways out of the parental home.

 

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