Conference Agenda

Using retrospective data from ISTAT Multipurpose Survey on Families and Social Subjects (2009 and 2016) and event history analyses, we examine the relationship between family background and home-leaving in Italy, where departure ages have been increasing over time. We focus on how parental social-class influence the timing and destinations (cohabitation, marriage, or autonomy) across three cohorts of women and men born between 1939 and 1998. The general delay in home-leaving has narrowed parental social class differences among women. However, for men, this delay is concentrated in higher social classes, leading to a widening class gap. Over time, parental social class differences in home-leaving destinations, particularly living with parents, marriage, and autonomy, have generally levelled out. Daughters from higher socioeconomic backgrounds increasingly leave home for education, while cohabitation remains uncommon. Similar trends are observed among men, though sons of agricultural workers have become less likely to stay with their parents and more likely to leave for marriage or autonomy. The findings emphasize the ongoing influence of parental social class on home-leaving destinations, highlighting its continued role in shaping the transition to adulthood in Italy.

Economic independence from parents is increasingly delayed in the United States. This delay has implications for the timing and sequencing of other life transitions such as employment and marriage, and for inequalities in the support young adults receive. In this study, we leverage the Panel Study of Income Dynamics’ Transition to Adulthood Supplement on 1,081 young adults aged 18–28. Using sequence analysis, we examine how financial and co-residential support are embedded within the transition to adulthood. We study heterogeneity in support trajectories between and within families, and disentangle the temporal order of transition to adulthood milestones. In line with existing theory on intergenerational transfers, parental economic support serves as both as an investment in young adults’ educational and economic pursuits and as a safeguard for struggling children. However, we also find evidence of more traditional, gendered pathways to economic independence linked to marriage: marriage facilitates economic independence and, for young men especially, achieving economic independence is an important precursor to marriage.

Mental health (MH) has worsened over time, particularly among adolescents, making it a pressing public health concern. Understanding the potential long-term consequences of psychological distress during adolescence on the shape of individuals' life course is essential.

Using data from the 1970 British Cohort Study, we explore to what extent psychological distress is associated with the timing and quantum of key milestones of the transition into adulthood. Specifically, the study investigates the association between MH during adolescence, as measured by the Malaise score at age 16, and various life outcomes by age 30 including, union and fertility history, educational attainment, and the experience of unstable working careers. Our analysis controls for socio-economic characteristics, early life background, cognitive ability, and behavioural issues in childhood.

For men and women, we find strong associations between MH in adolescence and family and work trajectories in early adulthood. Among women, adolescents with psychological distress experienced accelerated union formation and earlier parenthood, as well as an increasing risk of unemployment. Among men, we found a lower likelihood of parenthood among those with poor mental health in adolescence. Socio-economic background did not moderate the relationship between adolescent MH and future life trajectories.

CONTEXT.

From the early 2000s to 2016, the median age of the first sexual intercourse remained about the same. However, subsequent generations have experienced major events that are likely to have altered their behaviour, such as the successive Covid-19 lockdowns of 2020-2021, or the #MeToo movement.

AIMS.

This communication looks at the age at first intercourse for young people aged 18 to 29 in France, as well as the context in which this event occurred and at the socio-demographic characteristics associated with these timelines.

DATA.

To do so, we use a recent survey on the affective and sexual lives of young people conducted in France in 2023 (ENVIE survey). Over 10,000 men and women aged between 18 and 29 were interviewed over the phone from a representative sample of the French population.

RESULTS.

The results show that median age at first sexual intercourse has increased for the youngest generations. Logistic regression models highlight that the behaviors are still marked by individual characteristics such as gender, religion, family environment during childhood, race and immigration. However, the parents' social class seems to have little influence on the age at first intercourse

Italy is among the European countries where the delay in the transition to adulthood is more pronounced. Intentions are determinants of behaviour among rational individuals. This study examines the extent to which young adults leave the parental family according to the intention they expressed 3 years before. To this aim we perform an integration at the individual level between survey data and 2 registers containing information on the economic resources (income) and the realization of a change in living arrangement.

We perform descriptive analysis on intentions. We then run a logistic regression analysis on the probability to leave the parental home within 3-years to understand the factors that most affect the realization of the intentions. We focus mainly on the effects of the intentions to (or not to) leave and the household economic condition and control for several individual, family and geographical characteristics.

Preliminary results show a gradient on the realization of the intentions to leave increasing with the age of the individuals, higher for women, in the Northern areas, for those in families with higher disposable income. We discuss about limitation and potentials of studies based on the integration of multiple official data sources.