Will the Children Ever Leave?

Abstract

Despite recent attention to parent-child coresidence, little is known about differences between continuing and return coresidence or how these may vary with age. A sample of 716 adult children residing in parent households (from the National Survey of Families and Households) is used to investigate the antecedents of continuing and return coresidence and the plans and expectations of coresident children; and although young adult children predominate in coresidence, variations across age groups are investigated. Coresidence history is related to such child characteristics as marital status and education, with varying patterns across age groups, but continuing and return coresidents are more similar than different. Plans and expectations are largely a function of child characteristics. Although return coresidence appears to be more problematic and continuing coresidence shows increasing stability with age, continuing and return coresident children respond to similar factors.