Generational Change in Leaving the Parental Home

The transition to adulthood and family life in Western industrialized countries has changed dramatically over the past 30 years. This chapter examines leaving home and seeks to understand whether the drivers of changing age patterns in leaving home are motivated by ideational change or by institutional effects on the lives of individuals. By comparing birth cohorts from the 1950s through to the 1980s the analyses examine the changing timing of home leaving and its correlates, including education, labour force participation and relationship formation. The analyses find support for the thesis that ideational change has made it possible for young people to choose cohabitation over marriage when leaving home to enter a live-in relationship. However, institutional constraints have made it more important for young people to prolong education, to work part-time while studying, and to leave home to study when higher educational opportunities are not available, such as outside major urban areas, and to delay family formation due to the increasing demands of study and work.