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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Predicting the timing of leaving home and related developmental tasks: Parents’ and children’s perspectives

subject

description

In this longitudinal study, we examined the changes in romantic activity, parental support, and the quality of parents’ marital relationships as predictors of the timing of leaving home in a sample of 93 children and their parents. During their adolescent years, on-time leavers received decreasing levels of parental support and were more romantically active, compared with late leavers or those later residing with their parents. The lower romantic activity of the two latter groups continued throughout emerging adulthood. No differences between the three groups emerged with respect to professional career. Parents’ marital quality had no impact on the timing of leaving home. The children’s and parents’ retrospective evaluations of the timing of leaving home were similar, but mothers perceived the transition as being more stressful than fathers did.