Family Structure and Sibling Effects on Timing of Nest Leaving

Leaving the parental home to start an independent household is considered an important life event in the transition to adulthood. This life event is characterized by diversity in timing. Existing literature indicate that one factor influencing this diversity in age of nest leaving is family structure. In this paper, we add this literature by exploring the effects of siblings. We study the correlation between sibling position and timing of nest leaving. In addition, we examine whether individual household formation vary by gender of both the individual at risk and nest leaving and siblings.

The analyses are based on data from public registry data. We apply a dynamic life course perspective and OLS regression modelling to trace patterns of independent household formation using a sample of Norwegian women and men born between 1956 and 1996 (N=721,827 for women and N=850 783 for men) during the period between 1994 and 2014 when these individuals were between the ages of 16 and 38 years.

Preliminary findings suggest that individual household formation among Norwegian young adults correlates with characteristics of family structure and siblings: leaving the nest and forming an independent household increase if they share the nest with siblings. However, we find no effect of sibling position or gender.