Leaving home in post-war Sweden

Abstract

Leaving the parental home is an important transition in life since it is often connected to independence through education, labour market participation, marriage, etc. In this paper we analyse the decision to leave home among a sample of 3582 males and females in three birth cohorts (1949, 1959 and 1964), using survival analysis. The dataset is derived from the Swedish Family Survey, conducted in 1992/93. We find little change over time, i. e. from cohort to cohort, when it comes to leaving home in post-war Sweden. Leaving home differs between males and females when it comes to age and women change their behaviour somewhat more than men over time. Although different cohorts of young people may face different opportunities as society and the economy change, individual and family-related factors have more powerful effects than general socio-economic change. The first departure from the parental home responds to place of origin and family context. Within family context, social as well as economic factors are important.