Traditionally, children have lived in their parents homes until they were married and ready to start their own families. Leaving Home before Marriage explores a step that young American adults are increasingly taking setting up a household alone or with housemates. Frances K. Goldscheider and Calvin Goldscheider analyze this profound change as it figures in the plans of young people and their parents and in the decisions they eventually make about their living arrangements. The Goldscheiders find that gender attitudes, ethnic and religious values, and generational relationships shape...

Is the American family a thing of the past? Almost anyone can tell a story that illustrates how dramatically things have changed in the past decades. Nonmarriage, childlessness and divorce are commonplace. Most children leave their parents' home and live for increasing periods before marriage as independent adults. But there are also signs of strengths. Some parents play more equal roles, both financially and in coping with household tasks. In this revealing new study, Frances Goldscheider and Linda Waite discuss cogently the question of whether we are headed for no families, or new families....

Examines the reasons why children ultimately leave home to live on their own and how the pattern has changed throughout the 20th century.

This book examines the reasons why children ultimately leave home to live on their own and how the pattern has changed throughout the 20th century. The authors make use of data from the National Survey of Families and Households to: construct patterns for when children leave home; and establish the most important criteria for leaving home amongst different groups in the United States - men, women, blacks, hispanics, whites, and different religious groups and social classes.