FAMILY-STRUCTURE AND LEAVING THE NEST - A SOCIAL RESOURCE PERSPECTIVE

This article focuses on the role of family structure as a form of soci al capital (Coleman 1988) in the timing of and pathways for home-leavi ng behavior among youths. Using data from the 1987 Canadian Youth Foun dation Survey, bivariate analyses of reasons for staying and leaving t he nest and proportional hazards modeling of age at home-leaving suppo rt and extend previous research demonstrating the importance of family structure. Financial, human, and cultural capital, as well as sex and region, are also examined. The most striking finding is that youths e xposed to biological and single-parent family environments are between five and six times as likely to remain at home than those exposed to stepfamily structures for the ages 15 to 24, net of the other variable s. Interestingly, young adults living in both stepparent and single-pa rent families are more likely to report leaving home due to conflictua l parent-child relations, and to leave the nest to achieve independenc e rather than to marry or pursue additional schooling. The findings ar e discussed in terms of their long-term consequences for youths.