ANN ARBOR—Time was when young adults moved out of their parent’s home to get married. Today, many are moving back in with mom and dad after their marriages end.

“About 30 percent of young men and women return home to live with their parents after their marriage breaks up,” says Rukmalie Jayakody, a research assistant at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research. This pattern, she adds, has become more common over time.

“By comparison, almost 40 percent of young women stay in their parents’ homes until they get married, and those who do are significantly more likely than other young adults to go back home if their marriage ends.”

Jayakody presented her study last month at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America. The analysis was based on a sample of 3,268 men and women drawn from the National Survey of Families and Households.

Respondents were interviewed in 1987-88 about when and why they left home and about any times they returned home.

Jayakody found that the relative risk of returning home during the first year after a marital breakup was five-and-a-half times greater than the risk of returning home in years four through ten, and the risk of returning home in the second year after a marriage ended was twice as high.

She found that men and women were equally likely to return home after a marital breakup. “Previous studies have indicated that men are more likely to return home in general,” she notes, “but these were cross-sectional studies and probably reflect the fact that once men have moved back home, they’re likely to stay there longer than are women.”

Jayakody also found that education was linked to the likelihood of returning home. “Men or women with a high school diploma but no college degree at the time their marriages ended had the highest risk of returning home,” she says. Compared with high school graduates, college graduates had a 20 percent lower risk of moving back in with parents after a marital disruption, while young adults with less than a high school degree had a 23 percent lower risk of moving back in with their parents.

“College graduates probably have better jobs and economic prospects, thereby decreasing their need for financial help from parents,” she says. “Not completing high school may be an indicator of a poor home environment, making the prospects of returning home less favorable.”

People whose marriages ended during the 1980s had a 56 percent higher risk of returning home than those whose marriages ended before 1960, and a 40 percent higher risk than those whose marriages ended during the 1960s and 1970s.

“The uncertainty of the job market, declines in the standard of living, and frustration and anxiety over economic survival that young adults experienced during the 1980s likely influenced them to return to their parents’ home as a way to save money and cut down on bills,” notes Jayakody. “Also, attitudes towards divorce were much more favorable during the 1980s than they were in earlier decades, making it easier for adult children to return home without dealing with parental disapproval of their broken marriage.”

National Survey of Families and HouseholdsU-M News and Information ServicesUniversity of Michigan