Volume 37 - Article 63 | Pages 1975–2010  

Differences in leaving home by individual and parental education among young adults in Europe

By Katrin Schwanitz, Clara Mulder, Laurent Toulemon

Abstract

Background: There is a strong variation in young adults’ leaving-home behavior throughout Europe. Earlier research has indicated that individual and parental education are crucial determinants of leaving home. It is, however, unclear how country contexts shape the association between young adults' education as well as parental education and leaving the parental home.

Objective: The current study examines country differences in the effect of young adults' education and parental education on leaving the parental home for the first time across 17 European countries.

Methods: We use data from the Harmonized Histories Program for 85,243 young adults (aged 16–35 years) in 17 European countries. We estimate discrete-time competing-risks event history models of leaving home to live without a partner versus with a partner.

Results: Our results underscore the importance of the country context in shaping young adults’ leaving home and how it is affected by educational attainment, enrollment, and parental education. For example, the positive educational gradient in leaving home to live without a partner was found to be stronger in most of the Western European countries (except Austria) and less strong in Sweden and Norway and in most of the Eastern European countries (except the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland).

Contribution: This study complements and updates our understanding of leaving home in Europe by focusing on the relation between young adults’ education and parental education and leaving home across Western and Eastern European countries.

Author's Affiliation

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Measuring the educational gradient of period fertility in 28 European countries: A new approach based on parity-specific fertility estimates
Volume 49 - Article 34

Unpacking intentions to leave the parental home in Europe using the Generations and Gender Survey
Volume 45 - Article 2

Gendered intergenerational time transfers in Estonia
Volume 44 - Article 34

Family life transitions, residential relocations, and housing in the life course: Current research and opportunities for future work: Introduction to the Special Collection on “Separation, Divorce, and Residential Mobility in a Comparative Perspective”
Volume 43 - Article 2

Nonresident family as a motive for migration
Volume 42 - Article 13

Separation, divorce, and housing tenure: A cross-country comparison
Volume 41 - Article 39

Putting family centre stage: Ties to nonresident family, internal migration, and immobility
Volume 39 - Article 43

Union dissolution and migration
Volume 34 - Article 26

Family dynamics and housing: Conceptual issues and empirical findings
Volume 29 - Article 14

Should governments in Europe be more aggressive in pushing for gender equality to raise fertility? The first "YES"
Volume 24 - Article 7

Multi-residence in France and Australia: Why count them? What is at stake? Double counting and actual family situations
Volume 23 - Article 1

France: High and stable fertility
Volume 19 - Article 16

Overview Chapter 4: Changing family and partnership behaviour: Common trends and persistent diversity across Europe
Volume 19 - Article 6

Summary and general conclusions: Childbearing Trends and Policies in Europe
Volume 19 - Article 2

Geographical distances between adult children and their parents in the Netherlands
Volume 17 - Article 22

Population and housing: A two-sided relationship
Volume 15 - Article 13

A comparative analysis of leaving home in the United States, the Netherlands and West Germany
Volume 7 - Article 17

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

Left behind single in the partnering market? Entry into cohabiting unions by women and men with low educational attainment across regions of Europe, cohorts 1960 to 1985
Volume 51 - Article 43    | Keywords: cohabitation, education, Europe, European Social Survey, event history analysis, logistic regression, marginalization, partner selection, singlehood, union formation

Is single parenthood increasingly an experience of less-educated mothers? A European comparison over five decades
Volume 51 - Article 34    | Keywords: age, children, cross-national comparison, education, Europe, family life course, inequality, single motherhood

Socioeconomic development and Chinese young adults’ propensity to live alone: An extended replication study
Volume 51 - Article 31    | Keywords: living alone, one-person households, socioeconomic development, young adults

The transition to adulthood in Europe at the intersection of gender and parental socioeconomic status
Volume 51 - Article 23    | Keywords: Europe, Europe, event history, event history, gender, multilevel analysis, parental socio-economic status, stratification, transition to adulthood

Transitions to adulthood in men and women in rural Malawi in the 21st century using sequence analysis: Some evidence of delay
Volume 51 - Article 14    | Keywords: Africa, Health and Demographic Surveillance System, longitudinal analysis, Malawi, sequence analysis, transition to adulthood