Nesting elsewhere: Understanding Australian youths’ work and educational patterns and early partnering

Professor Peter Brandon is Broom Professor of Social Demography at Carleton College, USA.

This study investigated the effects of educational-work activity combinations on youths’ exits from parental homes to form romantic unions in separate households.

Forming a new household with a romantic partner would usually include assuming adult roles and responsibilities, including the maturity to sustain a romantic union.

The study finds that certain educational-work activity combinations are associated with delaying this particular type of transition, while other socio-economic predictors accelerate this type of transition. The study also finds that family structure matters to transitions into separate households formed by romantic unions.

The study utilized a rich source of Australian panel data and a competing risks framework, which incorporates other households living arrangements youth could chose rather than romantic unions. In the long-run, early decisions during the transition to adulthood about romantic relationships and living arrangements could affect youths’ economic mobility and well-being in later adulthood.