Proximity of adult children to their elderly parents in the Netherlands

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Proximity of adult children to their
elderly parents in the Netherlands
The third International Population Geography
Conference Liverpool, 19-21 June 2006
Francesca Michielin Clara H. Mulder University
of Amsterdam (the Netherlands)
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The outline of the presentation
1. The idea of the paper
2. Theoretical background
3. The model and data
4. Results
5. Discussion
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The idea
Geographical proximity between family
members is important
linked to the intensity and shape of contacts
with family members
Q1 Which are the factors affecting coresidence?
Q2 Which are the factors affecting proximity?
In particular is there any influence of family
characteristics and family members location?
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The starting point
In residential decisions two forcesPush
Pull factors factors
Location specific capital
- Personal independence- Educational
attainment- Working position-
- Knowledge of facilities available in loco-
Closeness to working place-

• Desire of living close to family members

• Presence of family members

In residential decisions family has an important
role, both influencing location (distance from
family members) and relocation decisions
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Theoretical background coresidence
Leaving parental home

• Factors linked to the desire of independence
• Factors linked to triggers of leaving parental
  home

• Factors related to family characteristics
  (divorce of parents, ethnicity,
  migration)
• Factors related to composition of the family
  (being the only child,
  having siblings living with the parents)

• Factors related to health situation of the
  parents
• Factors related to economic needs of the parents
  and children

Returning to parental home or hosting parents
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Theoretical background distance (1)
Education and socioeconomic status
Longer distance is likely to be associated with
higher education and higher socioeconomic status

• Attending high education might be a trigger for
  long distance move
• Higher educated people are more likely to move
  to increase the return on
  their human capital
• Specialized labor market less widespread,
  restricted to few big cities
• Living home for attending high education might
  have more independent attitudes
  (selection mechanism)

Higher distance is likely to be associated with
higher level of urbanization of current location
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Theoretical background distance (2)
Other life course events
Other life course events might trigger a long
distance move
Marriage (gender differences)
but being in a certain state might hamper
following moves
Being married, with children, owning a house
Effect is however likely to depend on the stage
in the life course those events are experienced
Early marriage, early parenthood, early ownership
are likely to be associated with smaller distances
Early living parental home is likely to be
associated with longer distances
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Theoretical background distance (3)
Influence of family members
Family solidarity, family responsibilities,
support!
Shorter distance is likely to be associated with
1) higher degree of support
needed from family members
Economic characteristics of the parents, health
situation, grandchild
2) higher expectations of parents and feeling of
obligations
Being the only child, number of siblings, having
a younger sister, gender, location of other
siblings
3) higher support received from the family in the
past
Economic support from parents to children
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Data and methods
NKPS
Representative sample of Dutch population
Many geographical information
For our study we selected people living in the
Netherlands with at least a parent alive and
living in the Netherlands
Coresidence
Distance
Sample age 18-50
Sample age 18-50
age 25-50 age 30-50
Linear model
Logit model
Probability living independently
Ln(distance)
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Results probability living independently
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Results probability living independently
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Results distance between parents and children
General characteristics
No gender differences
Age curvilinear effect, lower ages and higher
ages longer distances
Being born in a foreign country smaller distances
Economic characteristics
Higher educational level, higher economic status
? longer distances
Higher level of urbanization current location ?
longer distances
Household characteristics events
Married show slightly longer distances than
singles
Having children no differences in distances
Early ownership, job, early job ? shorter
distances early lph ? longer distances
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Results distance between parents and children
Parental characteristics
Higher educational level ? longer distances
No differences by parental age
Financial help
Whether financial help directed to own a house or
involves big amount of money ? shorter distances
Characteristics of family of origin
Having no siblings ? shorter distances
The higher the number of siblings ? longer
distances (marginally sign)
Having a younger sister ? longer distances
Having siblings living close to the parents ?
shorter distances
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Conclusion/1

• Coresidence between parents and children mainly
  driven by needs of children since mainly
  associated with living parental home

• Importance of characteristics of the family
  (being the only child, having a sibling living
  with parents)

• Even when we analyse coresidence for older age
  groups, children characteristics important

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Conclusion/2

• Importance of education and working
  opportunities the higher the performances, the
  longer the distances

• Importance of siblings structure children with
  no siblings live closer to their parents than
  others children having siblings living close to
  parents live closer to parents themselves

• Importance of economic help (when exclusively
  for house or involving anyway a big amount of
  money)

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Conclusion/3
However

• Importance of parental characteristics might be
  underestimated because here we followed the point
  of view of the children!

• Other aspects could be better explored for
  instance, we could focus on married couples and
  analyze proximity to parents and parents-in-law

or consider how proximity changes during time
(which are factors affecting geographical
convergence and divergence?)
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