Geographical mobility of adult children towards their parents

Francesca Michielin, University van Amsterdam
Clara H. Mulder, University of Amsterdam

Proximity of family members is beneficial to providing care and maintaining regular face-to-face contact between them. Living close (or moving closer) to their parents is particularly appealing for those adults who have young children, since the grandparents can easily meet their grandchildren and provide childcare services when necessary. However, in the geographical mobility of adults, there are many other potential triggers for moving, related for example to the wish of improving the housing quality or to the labour-market career, which could push young adults to increase the distance from their parents. The aim of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the role of parental residential locations in decisions concerning geographical mobility (both residential mobility and migration). Using data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (NKPS) and multinomial logit models, we analyze the influence of the presence and age of children and the occurrence of childbirth on the probability of moving on the one hand, and on the direction of moves (whether or not towards the parents) on the other. We expect the probability of having moved recently as well as the direction of the move to vary according to the living arrangement of the adult, his or her health conditions, and the proximity to parents at the beginning of the considered period of time. We hypothesize that living closer to the parents or having young children is associated to a smaller probability of moving. If a move occurs, we expect it would more likely be directed towards the parents if the distance towards the parents is great or in the presence of grandchildren.