Abstract
The growing study of leaving home in young adulthood in the United States has been hampered by data and measurement problems, which are producing a major theoretical confusion about the role of parental resources in influencing young adults’ leaving home. Does high parental income retain young adults in the home or subsidize their leaving (and parental privacy)? This paper uses the 1984 panel of Survey of Income and Program Participation to clarify this issue, and shows that the effects of parental resources differ depending on the route out of the home under consideration (marriage or premarital residential independence). Effects change substantially over the nest-leaving ages, but relatively few differences are found between young men and young women.
The text of this article is only available as a PDF.
References
Alwin, Duane (
1988
). “From Obedience to Autonomy: Changes in Traits Desired in Children, 1924–1978.”
. Public Opinion Quarterly
, 52
, 33
–52
. 10.1086/269081Avery, Roger, Frances Goldscheider, and Alden Speare Jr. 1990. “Unraveling Puzzles in Leaving Home: Effects of Marriage, Time Interval, Age, and Income.” PSTC Working Paper Series 90-04, Brown University.
Bianchi, Suzanne M. 1987. “Living at Home: Young Adults’ Living Arrangements in the 1980s.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Chicago.
Fischer, Claude S. (
1982
). To Dwell among Friends: Personal Networks in Town and City
. Chicago
: University of Chicago Press
.Glick, Paul, & Lin, Sung-Ling (
1985
). “More Young Adults Are Living with Parents; Who Are They?”
. Journal of Marriage and the Family
, 48
, 107
–12
. 10.2307/352233Goldscheider, Frances, & DaVanzo, Julie (
1985
). “Living Arrangements and the Transition to Adulthood.”
. Demography
, 22
, 545
–63
. 10.2307/2061587Goldscheider, Frances, & DaVanzo, Julie (
1989
). “Pathways to Independent Living in Early Adulthood: Marriage, Semiautonomy, and Premarital Residential Independence.”
. Demography
, 26
(4
), 597
–614
. 10.2307/2061260Goldscheider, Frances, & Goldscheider, Calvin (
1989
). “Family Structure and Conflict.”
. Journal of Marriage and the Family
, 51
, 87
–97
. 10.2307/352371Goldscheider, Frances, & Goldscheider, Calvin (
1991
). “The Intergenerational Flow of Income, Family Structure, and the Status of Black Americans.”
. Journal of Marriage and the Family
, 51
, 499
–508
. 10.2307/352915Goldscheider, Frances, & Waite, Linda (
1991
). New Families, No Families? The Transformation of the American Home
. Berkeley
: University of California Press
.Herriot, R.A. and D. Kasprzyk. 1986. “Some Aspects of SIPP.” SIPP Working Paper 8601, U.S. Bureau of the Census.
Hill, Martha S. (
1977
). “The Decision of Young Adults to Split-Off from Their Parents’ Household.”
. Ann Arbor
: Department of Economics, University of Michigan
.Kobrin, Frances (
1976
). “The Fall in Family Size and the Rise of the Primary Individual in the United States.”
. Demography
, 13
, 127
–38
. 10.2307/2060425Lichter, Daniel, leClere, Felicia B., & McLaughlin, Diane K. (
1991
). “Local Marriage Markets and the Marital Behavior of Black and White Women.”
. American Journal of Sociology
, 96
, 843
–67
. 10.1086/229610Mitchell, Barbara, Wister, Andrew V., & Burch, Thomas K. (
1990
). “The Family Environment and Leaving the Parental Home.”
. Journal of Marriage and the Family
, 51
, 605
–13
. 10.2307/352160Pitkin, John R., & Masnick, George S. (
1987
). “The Relationship between Heads and Non-Heads in the Household Population: An Extension of the Headship Rate Method.”
. In Bongaarts, John, Burch, Thomas, & Wachter, Kenneth (Eds.), Demography, Methods and Their Applications
(pp. 306
–29
). New York
: Oxford University Press
.Speare, Alden, Jr. and Roger Avery. 1989. “Measuring Exits and Entries of Young Adults from Their Parents’ Households.” Proceedings of the Section on Social Statistics, Meetings of the American Statistical Association, Washington, DC.
Thornton, Arland (
1991
). “The Influence of the Marital History of Parents on the Marital and Cohabitation Experiences of Children.”
. American Journal of Sociology
, 96
, 868
–94
. 10.1086/229611Waite, Linda, & Spitze, Glenna (
1981
). “Young Women’s Transition to Marriage,”
. Demography
, 18
, 681
–94
. 10.2307/2060955Wolf, Douglas, Vicki Freedman, Beth Soldo, and Elizabeth Stephen. 1991. “Making Room for Mom: Coresidence of Married Couples and Elderly Mothers.” Paper presented at the annual meetings of the Population Association of America, Washington, DC.
Wolf, Douglas, & Soldo, Beth (
1988
). “Household Composition Choices of Older Unmarried Women.”
. Demography
, 25
, 387
–404
. 10.2307/2061539© Population Association of America 1992
1992
Issue Section:
Household Organization
