Constrained from leaving or comfortable at home? Young people’s explanations for delayed home-leaving in 28 European countries

Abstract

Many comparative studies of home-leaving examine behavior associated with this transition and the relative importance of both structural and cultural factors in helping or hindering it. Yet, we know surprisingly little about how youth understand these factors on a broad scale to be influencing home-leaving for their generation. This article compares young people’s beliefs across cultures about why late home-leaving occurs using Eurobarometer survey data from 28 countries. I incorporate comparative home-leaving literature with theories about attitudinal worlds of welfare and explanations for social problems to argue that modes of explanation for late home-leaving hinge on whether youth see external, structural causes preventing earlier leaving (constraint-oriented explanations) or internal, more culturally motivated causes that lead individuals to stay at home longer (choice-oriented explanations). Demographic and institutional conditions that capture aspects of nations’ home-leaving contexts, such as women’s mean age at childbirth and the robustness of labor and housing markets, significantly correlate with the prevalence of these explanations. Findings suggest that youth tend to perceive their generation’s housing exits as structurally limited by scarce housing and weak purchasing power. However, in richer countries with more effective employment markets and better access to rental housing stock, choice-oriented explanations are more popular.