Homeleaving at the Transition to Adulthood: Moving Out vs. Economic Independence

Jessica Carbino, University of California, Los Angeles
Judith A. Seltzer, University of California, Los Angeles

Increases in the percentage of young adults who live with their parents bring renewed attention to homeleaving in the transition to adulthood. We ask what factors predict youths’ first physical departure from parents’ home. We also describe who leaves the parental home but remains economically dependent on parents. We then investigate differences between the predictors of physical homeleaving when the youth remains economically dependent and the predictors of homeleaving accompanied by economic independence. We use unique data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 that distinguish youths’ physical location from their status as economically dependent on parents. Individuals’ physical location affects labor market opportunities, the availability of social welfare programs, and parents’ ability to monitor young adults’ behavior. Our findings will shed light on homeleaving and economic independence, two dimensions of the transition to adulthood that are frequently treated as equivalent in demographic surveys.