"Boomerang Kids" and Midlife Parental Marital Satisfaction

Abstract

BOOMERANG KIDS AND MIDLIFE PARENTAL MARITAL SATISFACTION* Barbara A. Mitchell and Ellen M. Gee** This study examines determinants of midlife marital satisfaction in 172 families with kids. The principal factors being considered include characteristics of leaving home and returning home that may influence parental marital satisfaction. Key findings suggest that child variables--particularly number of returns home and reason for initial homeleaving--are important determinants. The results are discussed in terms of professional interventions with small proportion of couples that are negatively affected by coresidence. Over past few decades, considerable changes have occurred in family life course, changes involving likelihood, timing, and sequencing of family transitions. We have, for example, witnessed significant increases in age at (first) marriage, a growing incidence of cohabitation, declines in number of births, and increases in likelihood of divorce. These changes, which have been welldocumented, point to a trend of nonfamilial living arrangements for larger portions of life course, a pattern first identified 20 years ago by Kobrin (1976) in a seminal article documenting the rise of primary individual. However, a countertrend has been observed in recent research on that part of transition to adulthood involving establishment of residence away from parental home. Adult children are remaining at home until older ages, in concert with recent increases in age at (first) marriage and a propensity for homeleaving just prior to marriage (e.g., Boyd & Pryor, 1989; DaVanzo & Goldscheider, 1990; Gee, Mitchell, & Wister, in press; Goldscheider & Goldscheider, 1994; Ravanera, Rajulton, & Burch, 1995). Also, children are more likely to return after first (and subsequent) departure from parental home (Weinick, 1995). Although this pattern is relatively common, it is not normative (Treas & Bengston, 1987), and it has affected family life course of both children and parents. Children have been characterized as a generation on hold (Cote & Allahar, 1994), and middle-generation adults face an empty that is less predictable and may be of shorter duration than they expected. Research on adult child-parent coresidence has examined its determinants (e.g., DaVanzo & Goldscheider, 1990; Gee et al., in press; Lewis, Volk, & Duncan, 1989; Mitchell & Gee, 1996; Speare & Avery, 1993), tending to focus on characteristics of children, such as age, sex, marital status, personal in come, and ambivalence about capacity to take on adult roles (e.g., DaVanzo & Goldscheider, 1990; Grigsby & McGowan, 1986, Schnaiberg & Goldenberg, 1989). Other research has investigated parent-child relationship(s) and flow of assistance during coresidence (e.g., Boss, Pearce-McCall, & Greenberg, 1987; Kuiack, Norris, & Tindale, 1994; Mancini & Blieszner, 1989; Shehan & Dwyer, 1984; Speare & Avery, 1993). However, with exception of two small studies conducted by Clemens and Axelson (1985), no research to date has focused upon midlife parental marital relationship in families with coresident boomerang adult children. Nevertheless, idea that coresident adult children have a negative impact on family well-being as a whole is rapidly becoming accepted as a social fact by media, general public, and some social scientists (Umberson & Gove, 1989). How-to books on coping with adult children at home (e.g., Okimoto & Stegall, 1987) are available, community support groups dealing with family problems associated with extended coresidence have sprung up, and media regularly highlight family difficulties experienced when adult children return home. Although implication is that cluttered nest children create major problems in family functioning, research is in its infancy and results are often contradictory. …