“She’s Leaving Home . . .” Antecedents, Consequences, and Cultural Patterns in the Leaving Home Process

Abstract

In the past, the tasks of establishing psychological and practical independence were linked in time. Nowadays, these transitions are no longer successively manageable sequences; rather, they are characterized by fluctuations, discontinuities, and reversals. In this review, research findings on factors contributing to the diversity in emerging adults’ leaving home patterns (including early leaving, late leaving, or continued residence in the parents’ home) are summarized. These findings show that although culture, gender, social class, and education shape leaving home patterns, individual factors (e.g., emerging adults’ attachment representations or their progress in the domains of love and work), and parenting strategies that essentially keep the child emotionally and physically in close proximity are also influential. The review reveals that leaving home is an important developmental task for both emerging adult children and their parents and illustrates how linked their lives are.