Proximity of adult children to their elderly parents in the Netherlands

1. The third International Population Geography Conference Liverpool, 19-21 June 2006 Proximity of adult children to their elderly parents in the Netherlands Francesca Michielin & Clara H. Mulder University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands)

2. The outline of the presentation 1. The idea of the paper 2. Theoretical background 3. The model and data 4. Results 5. Discussion

3. 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?

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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)

10. Results: probability living independently

11. Results: probability living independently

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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)

16. 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?)

17. The end! Thank you for your attention... And now it’s time for questions and suggestions!