Residential Mobility as a Way of Life: Evidence of Intergenerational Similarities

Abstract

I examine how an individual's earlier experiences of residential mobility in his or her family of origin are associated with the experiences of residential mobility in adulthood. Twofamily-of-origin models are tested. The socialization model argues that children learn from their parents' mobility behaviors and replicate these behaviors in adulthood. The status-inheritance model argues that parent-adult child similarity in mobility behaviors is a result of parents and adult children sharing characteristics that are associated with mobility. Briefly, Ifind that those who moved more often as children and adolescents moved more often as adults and were more likely to move in response to several life course transitions. A good deal of parent-adult child similarity, though, is explained by the status-inheritance model. Key Words. parent-child similarity, residential mobility, socialization, status inheritance. America is a society of migration where a certain measure of mobility is required for members to obtain an education, raise families, find jobs, and realize personal goals (Gober, 1993). This viewpoint is not novel. Alexis de Tocqueville (1833-1966) noted the propensity of Americans toward high rates of internal migration. He linked high rates of mobility not to technological advances, but to values, attitudes, and the belief that economic advancement is made possible from hard work and the willingness to move in search of better opportunities. Residential mobility (hereafter mobility) is often prompted by some combination of education, employment, marital status, housing, and family characteristics and changes (Fielding, 1994; Gober, 1993; Long, 1988). When individuals make these life course decisions and subsequent mobility decisions, it is assumed that a cost-benefit analysis is undertaken that is sensitive to a mix of push-andpull factors and one's current characteristics, such as age, race, sex, tenure, presence of children, and income (DaVanzo, 1981; U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1995). These models do not presume that if we equalize individual characteristics (e.g., education, marital status) we would find certain adults who are more likely to move than other adults. How does this disparity arise? I argue that mobility tendencies and behaviors are formed earlier in life while residing and moving with one's family of origin. Residential mobility as a lifestyle is transmitted from parent to child, similar to how gender, political, and religious behaviors are transmitted. This research tests two family-of-origin-mobility models that explain why some individuals are more mobile in adulthood than other individuals. The first model draws from general socialization theory and argues that offspring who experience greater instances of family mobility will move more often in adulthood. As an extension of the socialization model, offspring with extensive backgrounds of family mobility will be more likely to move after any given life course transition, compared with offspring with less extensive backgrounds of family mobility. That is, the earlier mobility experiences of certain adult offspring predispose them to view mobility as a kind of general purpose strategy. The second model draws from status-inheritance theory and argues that the mobility of adult offspring is not a function of their earlier experiences of family mobility, but is a function of other family-oforigin variables that are transmitted from parent to child. These variables are associated with both family mobility and adult mobility. A national, longitudinal, and intergenerational data set is used where measures of children's family mobility come from four parental interviews between 1980-1992. Information about adult mobility behaviors of these children come from personal interviews in 1992 and 1997. This data set is well suited to the current research goals. The average age of the adult children was 23 years in 1992. So examining mobility behaviors between 1992-1997 is timely because most of these individuals will be making life course transitions that are often accompanied by a move. …