Does substance use play a role in gender differences in residential independence and returns to the parental home?

Young adults are co-residing with their parents at higher rates now than in the past, and recent research has explored the correlates of both leaving and subsequently returning to the parental home. Of relevance here, females tend to leave home earlier than their male counterparts, and research finds that drinking and drug use are also linked to residential transitions. This research note explores if substance use during adolescence and young adulthood plays a role in gender differences in home-leaving and home-returning. We find that marijuana use plays a role in both home-leaving and home-returning, with adolescent females who use marijuana the most at risk for early exits from home, and marijuana using males the most at risk for home-returning.

Social Outcomes of School Leavers With Cerebral Palsy Living in Victoria

Objective: In Australia, the National Disability Strategy provides a framework to guide actions and investment to achieve equity in social inclusion and economic participation for people with disability. We investigated the social outcomes of school leavers with cerebral palsy (CP) in Victoria, Australia and explored the determinants of desirable outcomes.Methods: We used the Victorian CP Register to invite all adults with CP aged 18–25 years (n = 649). On-line and/or paper-based surveys explored participation in education, employment, community activities, living situation, relationships and life satisfaction. Functional and health status data were collected. Social outcomes were summarized descriptively and compared between individuals with CP and non-disabled peers aged 18–25 years from the Household Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia dataset. Within the CP cohort we explored whether physical and mental health and level of functioning were associated with social outcomes. In addition, a descriptive comparison was undertaken between the social outcomes of the current CP cohort with that of a previously reported 2007 cohort.Results: Ninety participants (57% male; mean age 22.4 years (SD: 2.2) in 2020; 61.1% self-reported) provided data for analyses; response rate 16.9%. CP characteristics were similar between respondents and non-respondents. In comparison to similar aged peers, 79.8% had completed secondary school (compared to 83.2%); 32.6% (compared to 75.8%) were in paid work; 87.5% (compared to 48.2%) were living in their parental home; and 3.4% (compared to 31.6%) were married or partnered. Individuals with CP and higher levels of functional capacity and better physical health were more likely to undertake post-secondary education. Higher levels of functional capacity and physical health, as well as lower mental health status were associated with being employed.Conclusions: While foundational education completion rates were similar to non-disabled peers, significant gaps in social outcomes remain, including residence in the parental home and single status. While addressing these issues is challenging, substantial efforts are needed to reduce these disparities—work that needs to be done in collaboration with people with CP and their families.

Children First? Intra-Household Inequality in Reconstituted Couple Households

An increasing number of children are growing up in reconstituted households, formed by a couple and a non-common child. Reconstituted households tend to be poorer, which is associated with worse behavioural and developmental outcomes. Additionally, there is evidence that non-common children receive less economic support from their parents upon leaving the parental home. Using age-specific deprivation data collected in the 2014 European Survey on Income and Living Conditions this article compares the allocation of resources in reconstituted and intact couple households. It shows that indeed, children in reconstituted households are more likely to be deprived compared to those in intact households. However, it finds no evidence that reconstituted households are less likely to prioritise children. The findings hold across welfare regimes. Women are more likely to go without compared with men, although differences are small.

Patterns and Drivers of Emigration of the Turkish Second Generation in the Netherlands

Using unique longitudinal data from the Dutch population registers, this study investigates the patterns and drivers of emigration of the Turkish second generation born in the Netherlands between 1983 and 1992. Around 13% of the Turkish second generation in the research population emigrated during early adulthood, as compared to 6% of their peers without immigrant parents. Half of the Turkish second-generation emigrants who reported their destination country moved to Turkey, while the other half moved to other destinations, especially the Dutch neighbouring countries. Among the Turkish second generation, unemployment over the previous year was found to increase the likelihood of emigration for individuals with low or middle levels of education, whereas no support was found that higher educated individuals (either employed or unemployed) are more likely to emigrate. However, if high-skilled unemployed individuals of the Turkish second generation emigrated, they appeared more likely to select Turkey as their destination as compared to other (or unknown) destinations. International migration experiences during childhood, living at the parental home, and residing in neighbourhoods with a high share of co-ethnics were also associated with a higher chance of emigration to Turkey, whereas living in the Dutch border regions was associated with a higher chance of emigration to other destinations. Together, the findings indicate that the Turkish second generation has a higher chance to emigrate than their peers without immigrant parents, and that mechanisms specific to the second generation apply to the migration behaviour of this group.

Microsimulation of Household and Marital Transitions Leading to Childlessness Among Dutch Women Born Between 1971 and 2000

After reaching historically low levels among the women born in the early 1940s, childlessness has been increasing in most Western countries among women born in the 1950s and 1960s. This increase took place as patterns of transition to adulthood have become increasingly late, protracted, and complex. Yet, it is precisely those women who enter a first relationship late, spend more time as single, and experience union instability who more often remain childless. This suggests that levels of childlessness will continue to increase as younger cohorts complete their childbearing histories. In this study, we use microsimulation to project the household and union formation histories of cohorts of Dutch women born between 1971 and 2000. Results suggest that childlessness will actually decrease among cohorts born between 1971 and 1983 and then increase among those born between 1984 and 2000. The decrease occurs as pathways of household and union formation become later, more protracted, and more complex, but also as cohabiting women start to exhibit a higher propensity to become mothers. The increase, on the other hand, occurs as pathways become somewhat less protracted and complex, but also as the propensity of cohabiting women to become mothers returns to previous levels and as age at leaving the parental home strongly rises. Childlessness levels appear to increasingly depend on the childbearing decisions of cohabiting couples and on age at leaving the parental home.

Predictors of COVID testing among Australian youth: Insights from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children

Background Testing has played a crucial role in reducing the spread of COVID. Although COVID symptoms tend to be less severe in children and adolescents, a key concern is young peoples role in the transmission of the virus given their highly social lifestyles. In this study, we aimed to identify the predictors associated with COVID testing in Australian youth using data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). Methods We used the latest wave 9C1 of the LSAC, where data were collected from 16 to 21 year olds Australians via an online survey between October and December 2021. In total, 2291 Australian youths responded to the questions about COVID testing and COVID symptom severity. Data were stratified by living with/without parents, and bivariate and logistic regression analyses examined predictor variables (age, sex, country of birth, remoteness, education level, employment, relationship status, number of household members, living with parents, receiving the COVID financial supplement from government and index of relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage) and their distributions over the outcome variable COVID testing. Results Youths aged between 16 to 17 years were more likely to live at home than youths aged between 20 and 21 years. The strongest predictor of COVID testing was living in major cities (regardless of living with or without parents). The changed household composition was significantly associated with COVID testing among the youths living in the parental home. While among the respondents living without their parents, living with multiple household members and low or no cohesion among household members was associated with higher rates of COVID testing. Conclusion Our study revealed young people have been very good at getting tested for COVID. To further incentivise testing in this age group, we should consider providing this age group with continued financial and social support while awaiting the outcome of the test and during any isolation.

Evolution of family systems and resultant socio-economic structures

Families form the basis of society, and anthropologists have observed and characterised a wide range of family systems. This study developed a multi-level evolutionary model of pre-industrial agricultural societies to simulate the evolution of family systems and determine how each of them adapts to environmental conditions and forms a characteristic socio-economic structure. In the model, competing societies evolve, which themselves comprise multiple evolving families that grow through family labour. Each family has two strategy parameters: the time children leave the parental home and the distribution of inheritance among siblings. The evolution of these parameters demonstrates that four basic family systems emerge; families can become either nuclear or extended, and have either an equal or strongly biased inheritance distribution. Nuclear families in which children leave the parental home upon marriage emerge where land resources are sufficient, whereas extended families in which children staying at the parental home emerge where land resources are limited. Equal inheritance emerges where the amount of wealth required for a family to survive is large, whereas strongly biased inheritance emerges where the required wealth is small. Furthermore, the frequency of polygyny is low in the present model of agricultural societies, whereas it increases for the model of labour-extensive subsistence patterns other than agricultural societies. Analyses on the wealth distribution of families demonstrate a higher level of poverty among people in extended families, and that the accumulation of wealth is accelerated in families with strongly biased inheritance. By comparing wealth distributions in the model with historical data, family systems are associated with characteristic economic structures and then, modern social ideologies. Empirical data analyses using the cross-cultural ethnographic database verify the theoretical relationship between the environmental conditions, family systems, and socio-economic structures discussed in the model. The theoretical studies made possible by this simple constructive model, as presented here, will integrate the understandings of family systems in evolutionary anthropology, demography, and socioeconomic histories.