Nest-leaving,childhood family climate and later parent–child contact in Sweden

Abstract

In this paper, we ask whether the time spent in the parental home promotes the frequency of contacts between generations, and whether violating social norms regarding the socially accepted time for leaving home is related to less frequent interactions with parents in later life. We also devote particular attention to union dissolution and family conflict during childhood and adolescence as possible mechanisms behind this relationship. Employing multilevel linear probability models, data from two waves of the Swedish Level of Living Survey (2000 and 2010) are used to analyze earlier family history and face-to-face contacts between parents and their adult children. The findings reveal that the duration of co-residence is likely to foster family interactions in later life, and this positive relationship is only marginally explained by childhood family experiences. However, late home leavers tend to maintain frequent contacts with parents in part owing to having moved shorter geographical distances, and this is more evident for adult daughters than for sons. In addition, adult daughters who stay at home for longer have more opportunities to form binding relationships with mothers than with fathers.