The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Melbourne, concluded that the changing nature of family living situations often led to avoidable conflict. Associate Professor Cassandra Szoeke and Katherine Burn, from the University's Faculty of Medicine, Health and Dentistry Sciences, examined both 'boomerang kids' (those who return home) and 'failure to launch' kids (those who never left).
The project reviewed 20 studies involving 20 million people worldwide was published in Maturitas. The research shows:
The shifting economic climate and changes in social norms were driving the phenomenon of kids staying at home for longer.
The main reasons for young adults choosing to remain at home were for stability and additional support while they transition to university or employment.
Divorce, unemployment and health problems often led to children returning. This return under negative circumstances can heavily impact on the wellbeing of everyone in the household.
Parents who are well-educated, married and well-off tend to have children who stay home longer, whereas children who grow up in households with a single parent, or step-parent, or didn't finish high school, tend to leave early.
http://phys.org/news/2015-11-young-adults-boomerang-home.html
[Also Covered By]: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-11/uom-mya111115.php
(Score: 3, Insightful) by CortoMaltese on Friday November 13 2015, @03:22PM
I never understood "western" obsession with kicking your kids out as soon as you can, some people need stability before they can start their own families, and there's less chance that you will be thrown into an old people's home when you can't care for yourself anymore.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by scruffybeard on Friday November 13 2015, @03:38PM
If you are living at home because you want to live in a muti-generational home, that is great. I think the problem is that there is large number who think they need to move right from college to a McMansion in the suburbs. Just watch two episodes of "House Hunters". I am sick of those adult brats that complain about an otherwise nice place because it doesn't have granite counters, and garage-sized closets. It is not that I want my kids to leave home, but that at some point the baby bird has to leave the nest and learn to fend for themselves.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fliptop on Friday November 13 2015, @04:36PM
You have that backwards, first they learn to fend, then it's ok for them to leave. They can learn a lot of stuff while at home in their teens, especially if they want stuff like a car and a cell phone. The best lesson learned during the formative years IMHO is managing time. Between school, sports, homework, and working (if you want that cell phone/car) it's pretty tough to learn how to balance all that and succeed. Especially if there's outside influences that encourage a lazy attitude toward life.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Friday November 13 2015, @04:59PM
Between school, sports, homework, and working (if you want that cell phone/car)
If most jobs won't hire until 16 because of child labor laws, how is a child supposed to earn money to buy a cell phone to call for a ride home? I'm not talking about the latest Galaxy but even just a flip phone. I've been told children under 16 should start a lawn care business, as that's one of the few available occupations, but is there enough demand for lawn care services for all the children under 16 in a given neighborhood?
(If I were to describe in detail why I should even care about this in the first place, that would open my family to doxing.)
(Score: 2) by tempest on Friday November 13 2015, @05:30PM
how is a child supposed to earn money to buy a cell phone to call for a ride home?
By working for their parents. Get paid to mow lawn, clean yard, shovel snow. That's how it was for me. Granted it was mandatory in my case, so sometimes I didn't feel like mowing but had to anyway, and other times I'd pray for the grass to grow so I'd get some cash.
I started mowing (other people's) lawns at 14, so maybe I'm biased, but I think there are opportunities for a kid. Some older folks end up struggling to maintain their yard, so I'd think demand will only be increasing. In some cases they pay the kid to use their lawnmower, they don't even need one. I'm a little astounded that people pay for "lawn care services". Like, aren't there kids in the neighborhood? Then again I rarely see kids shoveling snow now days either. There was some good cash in that back in the day.
Not to say you're wrong, because there are so may variables depending on the situation, but I see most kids these days pass up opportunities instead of seizing them.
(Score: 2) by fliptop on Friday November 13 2015, @07:55PM
Exactly. They had basic chores that were expected, like keeping their rooms clean, helping out in the kitchen, etc. But there were extra things they did for me like helping in the garden, paint, and other general housekeeping stuff that I paid them for. Plus, they were able to land babysitting jobs when they were younger.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Friday November 13 2015, @06:43PM
I used to mow yards when I was young, but today, kids aren't doing that. The big companies are because they are faster and cheaper because they can afford the better mowing equipment. So, no, there isn't a lot of demand for under 16 kids mowing lawns.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday November 13 2015, @11:25PM
Mowing is of questionable value anyway. Why do we have this obsession with keeping the grass short? I've heard that it's to make it impossible for snakes to hide in the grass. Also, to cut down on the fire hazard. Yet there is another way to "mow" the grass: herbivores. Turn goats or cows loose on the lawn and they'll graze it nice and short. They'll graze it too short if they're overcrowded.
The advent of the power mower enabled us to indulge this obsession, and without any icky poop piles in the yard. It's not at all clear that this is an advance. Maybe more sanitary to keep us away from cow poop, or maybe not, as lack of exposure to such may be causing us to have more allergies. A silver lining in that the immediate future should have more career opportunities for allergists?
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Saturday November 14 2015, @12:10AM
Why do we have this obsession with keeping the grass short? I've heard that it's to make it impossible for snakes to hide in the grass. Also, to cut down on the fire hazard.
Interesting question. A bit of Google searching later (start with grass height law) produced an article by Lisa Goldberg [baltimoresun.com], which states that your snake hypothesis isn't far off:
Turn goats or cows loose on the lawn and they'll graze it nice and short. [...] The advent of the power mower enabled us to indulge this obsession, and without any icky poop piles in the yard.
Perhaps the answer is to encourage city dwellers to keep miniature goats, which I'm told don't poop any more than a dog does.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 13 2015, @08:15PM
Sigh. After all these years, it's the same old whine. Move on, Tepples.
(Score: 2) by scruffybeard on Friday November 13 2015, @07:27PM
You are reading too much into my statement. There are some skills that can only be learned by doing. For most kids, once you have graduated high school and/or college, you should have all the basic skills necessary to live on your own. This is not to say that they won't need a lot of coaching, and perhaps a little financial help, but to still be at home, at say 24, because you "you can't afford to move out" is a bit of a cop-out in my book. Go find a grungy apartment, give up daily lattes and weekly pedicures, and start building your life.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 13 2015, @09:40PM
Fundamentally its a complex decision. If my parents live near the college and had an extra bedroom I would seriously have considered living at home, if for no reason other than to cut costs. I have a friend who slept on a couch for $200/month throughout college (2008+) to save money. I don't think that its at all unreasonable to "live at home" any more than it is to live in a dorm room. I likewise found the previous Soylent article somewhat inflammatory (https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=15/11/10/1330210). The "mens dorm" used to be a thing in the 1940s, but has gradually eroded away. Likewise, the Asian/Islander concept "live at home until you marry a girl and then get a house", or Italian concept of "one giant family house, 6 bedrooms!" seem like reasonable solutions to the housing problems.
The situation changes:
- family has good relations
- family lives near economic opportunities
- living at home is a cost avoidance, rather than sink
If your "family" is 2 parents, a grandparent, an uncle and a sister and there is still a spare bedroom near your job, it seems only sensible (after all, you visit 2x/week anyways for dinner).
If your "family" is a divorced mother on the bad side of town who keeps asking you for crack money, it would be silly.
I think that this is reflected in the true statistics.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by khallow on Friday November 13 2015, @04:31PM
(Score: 1) by Francis on Friday November 13 2015, @08:29PM
That's also why failing to launch and boomerang homes are a thing. We've torn down damn near all the support that young adults used to get. As well as shipped as many jobs overseas as possible to make sure that employees can't afford to have nice things.
I'd venture that a goodly portion of those returning home aren't choosing to do so, so much as they can't afford to live a decent lifestyle on the low wages that have become the norm.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday November 13 2015, @11:28PM
That's also why failing to launch and boomerang homes are a thing.
That happened to me. I had trouble as an undergraduate (all self-inflicted, I assure you), and when I graduated, I didn't have an obvious place to go. It took about three years to stabilize my life to the point that I wasn't dependent on my parents.
As well as shipped as many jobs overseas as possible to make sure that employees can't afford to have nice things.
Well, what remedies would actually make that better rather than worse? For example, the recent proposal to raise minimum wage to $15 an hour would be a dagger in back for young adults who already have much higher unemployment rates.
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Friday November 13 2015, @05:05PM
It depends on the situation. In many countries, having multiple generations living together never went out of style. In most 1st world countries, it did. If things are reversing, that may or may not be a bad thing. It all depends on the reason.
Case 1: You have kids who live at home as adults, and take on adult responsibilities. The parent-child relationship adapts accordingly, with the parents and children respecting each other as adults. There is no problem at all.
Case 2: You have helicopter parents who never allow their kids to spread their wings. For whatever reason, the kids accept this, and remain dependent on their parents into adulthood. Mommy still does their laundry, daddy makes sure they get out of bed on time for work, etc.. That is a problem, because the kids are stunted.
We're in the midst of this right now, with our oldest having turned 20, and holding his first full-time job. He's still living at home, but maturing nicely. I expect him to stay here another 2-3 years, no problem.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.