Yu Wei-Hsin, Kuo Janet Chen-Lan
Department of Sociology, University of Maryland, 2112 Parren Mitchell Art-Sociology Building, College Park, MD, 20742-1315, USA.
Department of Sociology, National Taiwan University, Taipei City, Taiwan.
Demography. 2016 Oct;53(5):1283-1318. doi: 10.1007/s13524-016-0494-6.
Many single adult children in countries around the world live with their parents. Such coresidence has been thought to delay the transition to first marriage, although the exact reasons for the delay have not been sufficiently examined. Using panel data from Japan, we investigate whether changes in never-married adults' residential status lead to alterations in their marital aspirations, courtship behaviors, romantic opportunities, and perceived obstacles to marrying. Our estimation of fixed-effects models helps address potential bias caused by single individuals' selection into living in the parental home. The analysis indicates that living with parents is associated with a lower probability of forming romantic relationships, thereby decelerating the transition to first marriage. The never-married, however, do not desire marriage less, put less effort into finding romantic partners, or have fewer opportunities to meet potential partners when coresiding with parents. Overall, the findings suggest that living in the parental home increases never-married men's contentment with their immediate social environment, whereas it decreases women's psychological readiness to transition into adult roles, making both men and women less eager to settle into a romantic relationship.
世界各国许多单身成年子女与父母同住。这种共同居住被认为会推迟初婚的转变，尽管推迟的确切原因尚未得到充分研究。利用来自日本的面板数据，我们调查了未婚成年人居住状况的变化是否会导致他们的婚姻愿望、求爱行为、恋爱机会以及感知到的结婚障碍发生改变。我们对固定效应模型的估计有助于解决单身个体选择居住在父母家所导致的潜在偏差。分析表明，与父母同住会降低建立恋爱关系的可能性，从而减缓向初婚的转变。然而，未婚者在与父母同住时，对婚姻的渴望并不减少，寻找恋爱伴侣的努力也没有减少，遇到潜在伴侣的机会也没有减少。总体而言，研究结果表明，居住在父母家会增加未婚男性对其当前社会环境的满意度，而会降低女性向成年角色转变的心理准备程度，使男性和女性都不太渴望建立恋爱关系。
