Timing of childhood events early-adult household formation

Family Structure and Early Home Leaving: A Mediation Analysis

An ample body of research has shown that young adults from non-intact families are more likely to leave the parental home at an early age than young adults from intact families. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying this relationship. We drew on prospective longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) to examine why young adults from non-intact families are more likely to leave home early. Based on the feathered nest hypothesis, it was expected that young adults from non-intact families are pushed out of the parental home because of a lack in economic, social, and community resources. Moreover, it was expected that young adults from non-intact families are pulled toward independent living at a younger age because they have a partner and are employed earlier in life. We employed discrete-time event history models and used the KHB method to test relative weights of the mediators. The mediators explained 16% (women) and 22% (men) of the effect of living in a stepfamily, and 50% (women) and 37% (men) of the effect of living in a single-mother family. Economic resources were the main mediator for the effect of living in a single-mother family on early home leaving. For women, mother's life satisfaction and housing conditions significantly explained differences in early home leaving between single-mother and intact families. For men, residential mobility significantly mediated the effect of family structure on early home leaving.

Reciprocal influences between developmental transitions and parent–child relationships in young adulthood

Inconsistent findings exist on the effects of young adult–parent relationships on developmental status transitions into adulthood. Such transitions in turn predicted less conflicted and closer young adult–parent relationships. But systematic investigations of reciprocal effects between developmental transitions and young adult–parent relationships are lacking. A total of 477 participants initially aged 20–32 ( M = 23.9, SD = 1.5) were interviewed twice, once in 1993 and again in 1995/1996. Subsamples were drawn that had not yet undergone the transitions to work, leaving home, cohabitation with a romantic partner, marriage and parenthood at Time 1. It was assessed whether the levels of mutual trust, instrumentality of relationships, and critical discussions at Time 1 predicted developmental transitions by Time 2, and whether developmental transitions were followed by changes in the relationship measures. The more the participants trusted in their parents, the more likely they were to marry or to have children. Cohabitation was followed by decreased instrumentality. Higher discussion frequency predicted cohabitation and was a consequence of starting to work and leaving home. The results are discussed with regard to individuation theory of adolescent and young adult–parent relationship development.