LEAVING PARENTAL HOMES IN CANADA - EFFECTS OF FAMILY-STRUCTURE, GENDER, AND CULTURE

The General Social Survey 1990 of Canada gathered information on home-leaving of respondents and of their children (adopted, step, or natural). This study examines the effects of gender, family structure, and culture on the timing of children's home-leaving. Ail children aged 15 and over are selected for the analysis presented in this paper. The proportional hazards model is applied to the data, after taking extra effort in identifying as many covariates as possible at the time of the event (home-leaving of children). Respondents' marital status assumes special significance not only among family structure variables but also among all the predictor variables. For example, the two categories ''cohabiting parent'' and ''widowed parent'' have the largest (absolute) estimates for the models considered. The study also supports the hypothesis that stepchildren leave home earlier than children who live with natural parents. Similarly, parental nativity or ethnicity (signifying cultural differences) is also shown to be a very important predictor. The study also documents important gender and cohort differences.