Study: Parents with adult children living at home

2001

The majority of parents living with at least one adult child at home expressed no sign of frustration about their living arrangements, according to a new study published today in Canadian Social Trends. But that does not mean there was perfect harmony in all these households.

The study "Parents with adult children living at home", available free online, based on data from the 2001 General Social Survey, compared the profile of parents who are living with at least one of their adult children with parents whose adult children had left the home.

The study found that 32% of parents whose youngest child was between 20 and 34 years old had at least one child living at home with them. Of these parents, one-quarter were in fact living with a "boomerang kid", that is, a child who had returned to live in the parental home after already leaving once (or more).

Most parents agree that having children has made them happier people, and co-residence does not modify that opinion. 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.

However, the study did find that having children at home increased the frequency with which the parents report having arguments with their spouse over subjects such as money, chores and responsibilities, and the children.

For example, the probability that parents would sometimes or often argue over questions of money was 31% when there were two or more adult children at home, compared with only 21% when all children had left home.

These differences in the frequency of conflicts remained significant even when other factors, for example the parent's age, gender and level of income, were taken into account.

Parents were more likely to live with an adult child if they resided in a big metropolitan centre. The higher cost of living and easier access to postsecondary institutions might explain, at least in part, why parents in more urban areas are more likely to provide shelter for their adult children.

Cultural factors were also associated with co-residence of parents and their adult children. Parents born in Asia and South or Central America were more likely to co-reside with their adult children than those born in Canada. 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%.

The study found that socio-economic status was not a factor in co-residence. In other words, parents with higher education or income levels were neither more nor less likely to provide accommodation for their adult children.

However the type of house, which can indicate the amount of living space available, did make a difference. Parents who had a single detached house, semi-detached or duplex were more likely to co-reside with their adult child than those living in apartment buildings.

Finally, parents who themselves had left home at a younger age were less likely to live with their adult children. 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.

This new issue of Canadian Social Trends also contains three other articles.

"Young adults who give and receive help" examines the extent of helping behaviours given and received by young adults aged 15 to 24.

"Home heating and the environment" shows that, since the 1940s, Canadians have rapidly adopted new energy sources for household heating and that this has affected greenhouse gas emissions in recent decades.

"Passing on the ancestral language" examines the preservation of ancestral languages by looking at the extent to which allophone immigrants (i.e., those whose mother tongue is neither English nor French) have transmitted their mother tongue to their Canadian-born children.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 4501.

The spring 2006 issue of Canadian Social Trends, no. 80 (11-008-XIE, $9/$29; 11-008-XPE, $12/$39) is now available.

For more information, contact Client Services and Dissemination (613-951-5979; sasd-dssea@statcan.gc.ca), Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division.