Adult Children Staying at Home

In fact, I just had a very similar conversation with a friend of mine last night. He feels that staying at home is "problematic" (my friend is in his mid-twenties and is still staying at home), but I think there is nothing wrong.

Now, the difference in opinion probably has to do with culture, and StatsCan is getting it right (my buddy is Caucasian and I'm Asian).

For many Asian people, they don't leave home until they get marry.

This trend does have some socio-economic interpretations.

One reason is property prices are not as affordable as before, and children living at home can save some money for their future property's down payment.

Another phenomenon is more couples are moving in together before they get married. More people are in common law relationships than twenty years ago. Part of it is our society beinig more liberal, and that couples can save significant amount on living expenses (rent, utilities, etc.) by moving-in together.

It would be interesting to see a comparison of percentage of income goes into living expenses between today and twenty years ago.

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POSTED AT 10:16 AM EST ON 21/03/06

Failure to launch? It's a double-edge sword, Statscan says
TERRY WEBER

Globe and Mail Update

Clean out the spare room and stock up the fridge, the kids are coming home.

According to a new Statistics Canada report Tuesday, about 32 per cent of parents with children between the ages of 20 and 34 say they are experiencing some form of failure to launch – meaning they have at least one adult child still living under their roof.

While the phenomenon – the subject of a new Hollywood hit movie – rankles mom and dad on the silver screen, it appears to have less of an impact on the parent-child relationship in real life.

According to the Statscan report – drawn from 2001 data – the majority of parents with an adult child still in the house expressed no frustration with the arrangement.

In general, the report said, parents agreed that having children made them happier people and that having an adult child still at home did not change that.

“On the contrary, parents living with at least one of their adult children were more likely to be very satisfied with the time they spent with their children,” the government agency said.

However, there also seems to be at least some trouble brewing beneath the surface.

The study found that having a grown child at home did increase the frequency of spousal arguments about things such as money, chores and the children themselves.

“The probability that parents would sometimes or often argue over questions of money was 31 per cent when there were two or more adult children at home, compared with only 21 per cent when all children had left home,” Statscan said.

The differences in the frequency of conflicts remain significant, the agency said, even when other factors such as the parent's age, gender and level of income were factored into the equation.

Tuesday's report also suggested that a significant number of adults who came home to roost did so after striking out on their own.

According to the findings, about one-quarter of those now living with parents were so-called “boomerang” children, meaning they returned to the parental home after leaving one or more times.

Statscan said parents living in bigger metropolitan areas were more likely to live with an adult child, possibly because of factors such as higher cost of living and easier access to post-secondary institutions.

Cultural factors also appeared to play a role.

“Parents born in Asia and South or Central America were more likely to co-reside with their adult children than those born in Canada,” Statscan said.

“This was especially the case for parents who had immigrated to Canada recently. For example, the probability that an Asian-born parent who came to Canada between 1980 and 2001 lived with at least one adult child was 82 per cent.”

While income and educational levels did not come into play, the type of housing parents lived in did.

Parents who lived in a detached, semi-detached or duplex were more likely to share space with an adult child than those living in apartments, the agency found.

The parent's own experience earlier in life also seemed to have an influence, Statscan said.

“Parents who themselves had left home at a younger age were less likely to live with their adult children,” the agency said.

“Parents who left their own parents' house in their teens or early 20s may have provided an example for their own children or, alternatively, could have encouraged their children to leave home earlier.”

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