IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v34y2002i6p981-999.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Leaving Home for College and Gaining Independence

Author

Listed:
  • Clara H Mulder

    (University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Study Centre for the Metropolitan Environment, Nieuwe Prinsengracht 130, NL-1018 VZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

  • William A V Clark

    (University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Geography, 1255 Bunche Hall, Box 951524, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1524, USA)

Abstract

As more and more young US adults attend college it has become an increasingly important filter in the process of becoming an independent household. Now for a large number of young adults living in the USA, living away at college is a first step in the process of gaining residential and economic independence. We analyze leaving home to go to college, the choice between returning home and becoming independent after living away at college, and the influence of experience with living away at college on becoming an independent household. We use data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and multilevel event-history and logistic-regression models to show that the likelihood of leaving home for college is positively affected by the father's education and the parental income. Unlike in previous research, we find evidence for the ‘feathered-nest’ hypothesis, in that the likelihood of returning home increases with parental income.

Suggested Citation

  • Clara H Mulder & William A V Clark, 2002. "Leaving Home for College and Gaining Independence," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 34(6), pages 981-999, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:34:y:2002:i:6:p:981-999
    DOI: 10.1068/a34149
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a34149
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a34149?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roger Avery & Frances Goldscheider & Alden Speare, 1992. "Feathered nest/gilded cage: Parental income and leaving home in the transition to adulthood," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 29(3), pages 375-388, August.
    2. Mike Murphy & Duolao Wang, 1998. "Family and sociodemographic influences on patterns of leaving home in Postwar Britain," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 35(3), pages 293-305, August.
    3. William A V Clark & Clara H Mulder, 2000. "Leaving Home and Entering the Housing Market," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 32(9), pages 1657-1671, September.
    4. Leslie Whittington & H. Elizabeth Peters, 1996. "Economic incentives for financial and residential independence," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 33(1), pages 82-97, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sergi Vidal & Johannes Huinink, 2019. "Introduction to the special collection on spatial mobility, family dynamics, and gender relations," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 41(21), pages 593-616.
    2. Katrin Schwanitz & Clara H. Mulder & Laurent Toulemon, 2017. "Differences in leaving home by individual and parental education among young adults in Europe," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 37(63), pages 1975-2010.
    3. Carla Sá & Raymond Florax & Piet Rietveld, 2007. "Living-arrangement and university decisions of Dutch young adults," NIPE Working Papers 14/2007, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    4. Frances Goldscheider & Sandra Hofferth & Sally Curtin, 2014. "Parenthood and Leaving Home in Young Adulthood," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 33(6), pages 771-796, December.
    5. Arnstein Aassve & Bruno Arpino & Francesco C Billari, 2013. "Age Norms on Leaving Home: Multilevel Evidence from the European Social Survey," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(2), pages 383-401, February.
    6. Aude Bernard & Martin Bell & Elin Charles-Edwards, 2016. "Internal migration age patterns and the transition to adulthood: Australia and Great Britain compared," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 123-146, June.
    7. Drew Allen & Gregory C. Wolniak, 2019. "Exploring the Effects of Tuition Increases on Racial/Ethnic Diversity at Public Colleges and Universities," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 60(1), pages 18-43, February.
    8. Juliet Stone & Ann Berrington & Jane Falkingham, 2014. "Gender, Turning Points, and Boomerangs: Returning Home in Young Adulthood in Great Britain," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(1), pages 257-276, February.
    9. Thomas Niedomysl, 2008. "Residential Preferences for Interregional Migration in Sweden: Demographic, Socioeconomic, and Geographical Determinants," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 40(5), pages 1109-1131, May.
    10. Clara H. Mulder, 2013. "Family dynamics and housing," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 29(14), pages 355-378.
    11. Ilya Kashnitsky & Nikita Mkrtchyan & Oleg Leshukov, 2016. "Interregional Migration of Youths in Russia: A Comprehensive Analysis of Demographic Statistics," Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow, National Research University Higher School of Economics, issue 3, pages 169-203.
    12. Glen Bramley & Tony Champion & Tania Fisher, 2006. "Exploring the Household Impacts of Migration in Britain Using Panel Survey Data," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(8), pages 907-926.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lee, Kwan Ok & Painter, Gary, 2013. "What happens to household formation in a recession?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 93-109.
    2. Aslan Zorlu & Clara Mulder, 2011. "Ethnic Differences in Leaving Home: Timing and Pathways," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(1), pages 49-72, February.
    3. Giulia Ferrari & Alessandro Rosina & Emiliano Sironi, 2014. "Beyond Good Intentions: The Decision-Making Process of Leaving the Family of Origin in Italy," Working Papers 060, "Carlo F. Dondena" Centre for Research on Social Dynamics (DONDENA), Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi.
    4. Arnstein Aassve & Bruno Arpino & Francesco C Billari, 2013. "Age Norms on Leaving Home: Multilevel Evidence from the European Social Survey," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(2), pages 383-401, February.
    5. David C. Ribar, 2015. "Is Leaving Home a Hardship?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 81(3), pages 598-618, January.
    6. Jacob, Marita & Kleinert, Corinna, 2007. "Does unemployment help or hinder becoming independent? : the role of employment status for leaving the parental home," IAB-Discussion Paper 200705, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    7. Clara H. Mulder, 2013. "Family dynamics and housing," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 29(14), pages 355-378.
    8. Aslan Zorlu & Ruben Gaalen, 2016. "Leaving Home and Destination of Early Nest Leavers: Ethnicity, Spaces and Prices," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 32(2), pages 267-291, May.
    9. Peter Karpestam, 2018. "Who Benefits from More Housing? A Panel Data Study on the Role of Housing in the Intermunicipal Migration of Different Age Cohorts in Sweden," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 48(3), pages 401-425, Winter.
    10. Cobb-Clark, Deborah A., 2008. "Leaving Home: What Economics Has to Say about the Living Arrangements of Young Australians," IZA Discussion Papers 3309, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Glen Bramley & Tony Champion & Tania Fisher, 2006. "Exploring the Household Impacts of Migration in Britain Using Panel Survey Data," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(8), pages 907-926.
    12. Clara H. Mulder & William A.V. Clark & Michael Wagner, 2002. "A comparative analysis of leaving home in the United States, the Netherlands and West Germany," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 7(17), pages 565-592.
    13. Adelaido García-Andrés & Jose N. Martinez & Ernesto Aguayo-Téllez, 2021. "Leaving the Nest or Living with Parents: Evidence from Mexico’s Young Adult Population," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 913-933, September.
    14. Iacovou, Maria, 2001. "Leaving home in the European Union," ISER Working Paper Series 2001-18, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    15. Clara H. Mulder & Michael Wagner, 2001. "The Connections between Family Formation and First-time Home Ownership in the Context of West Germany and the Netherlands," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 17(2), pages 137-164, June.
    16. Sigrid Luhr, 2018. "How Social Class Shapes Adolescent Financial Socialization: Understanding Differences in the Transition to Adulthood," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 39(3), pages 457-473, September.
    17. Bohyun Jang & John Casterline & Anastasia Snyder, 2014. "Migration and marriage: Modeling the joint process," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 30(47), pages 1339-1366.
    18. Jie Chen & Zan Yang, 2017. "What do young adults on the edges of homeownership look like in big cities in an emerging economy: Evidence from Shanghai," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(10), pages 2322-2341, August.
    19. Zhou Yu & Dowell Myers, 2010. "Misleading Comparisons of Homeownership Rates when the Variable Effect of Household Formation Is Ignored: Explaining Rising Homeownership and the Homeownership Gap between Blacks and Asians in the US," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(12), pages 2615-2640, November.
    20. Fenaba R. Addo & Jason N. Houle & Sharon Sassler, 2019. "The Changing Nature of the Association Between Student Loan Debt and Marital Behavior in Young Adulthood," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 86-101, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:34:y:2002:i:6:p:981-999. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.