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Parents and their adult children

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Advertising, movies and TV programs often portray parents as wanting their adult children to leave home. Despite some friction, however, many parents appreciate having their adult children live with them. The General Social Survey found that 32% of parents whose youngest child was aged 20 to 34 had at least one adult child still living with them in 2001.

A minority of parents with two or more adult children living at home expressed frustration. These parents were twice as likely as parents whose adult children had left home to be frustrated by how much time they had to devote to their children (8% versus 4%).

Despite these drawbacks, most of the parents are happy to have their adult children living with them. Fully 64% of parents with adult children aged 20 to 34 at home were ‘very satisfied’ with the amount of time they spent together, compared with 54% of parents whose children had moved out.

One-quarter of the parents living with an adult child had a ‘boomerang kid’—an adult child who had returned to the nest after living outside it for a time. Parents who were living with at least one boomerang kid were more likely than those whose adult children had never left home to express frustration over the amount of time they had to devote to their adult children.

Parents who lived in a large census metropolitan area, who owned a single-family home and who were born in Asia, South America or Europe were more likely to have at least one of their adult children living with them.