Looking homeward with the life course: Early origins of adult dwelling satisfaction?

Abstract

The long-term influence of childhood economic and social exposures on adult health and well-being is well-known. Most childhood circumstances transpire in or near the home, yet research has largely neglected how early exposures shape people's experience of their residential context in adulthood. To help address this gap, we use retrospective longitudinal data from the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) study. Drawing on a life course framework, we test the potential mediating roles of adult social, economic, and mental health processes. Results suggest that childhood parental warmth and maltreatment have an enduring influence on people's satisfaction with their adult home, while there is little indication that childhood economic conditions shape adult dwelling satisfaction. Analyses of average controlled direct effects suggest that the effects of childhood parental warmth are mediated slightly by adult socioeconomic attainment and psychological adjustment but especially by supportive family relationships during adulthood. This pattern is consistent with an attachment-based interpretation of the importance of childhood conditions for adult relationships as well as home satisfaction. Taken together, our results suggest that parent-child bonds cast a long shadow over how people experience their residential context decades later, through a diffuse, multifaceted set of intervening pathways.