Semiautonomy and Leaving Home in Early Adulthood

Abstract

Studies of leaving home in early adulthood have been inconsistent in whether semiautonomous, nonhousehold-based living arrangements such as dormitories, barracks, and other group quarters are included as 'away from home.' This study uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 to track the living arrangements sequences of young adults in order to clarify how semiautonomy should best be treated. We examine how many experience it and when; how it is associated with other roles early in adulthood; how its treatment affects the measurement of age at leaving home; and what consequences the experience of semiautonomy has for living arrangements in later years. We find that semiautonomy is intermediate in many ways between living with parents and maintaining a separate household