Failure to kvetch: StatsCan says parents mostly okay with adult kids at home

With the Sarah Jessica Parker-Matthew McConaughey rom-com Failure to Launch at number two in the box office, Statistics Canada has made a timely release of a 2001 study about parents living with at least one adult child at home. (People magazine says McConaughey is the Sexiest Man Alive, but, like most of their picks, he does nothing for me).

Some excerpts from StatsCan’s summary of the study:

The majority of parents living with at least one adult child at home expressed no sign of frustration about their living arrangements, according to a new study published today in Canadian Social Trends. But that does not mean there was perfect harmony in all these households.

Most parents agree that having children has made them happier people, and co-residence does not modify that opinion. On the contrary, parents living with at least one of their adult children were more likely to be very satisfied with the time they spent with their children.

However, the study did find that having children at home increased the frequency with which the parents report having arguments with their spouse over subjects such as money, chores and responsibilities, and the children.

Cultural factors were also associated with co-residence of parents and their adult children. Parents born in Asia and South or Central America were more likely to co-reside with their adult children than those born in Canada. This was especially the case for parents who had immigrated to Canada recently. For example, the probability that an Asian-born parent who came to Canada between 1980 and 2001 lived with at least one adult child was 82%.

Finally, parents who themselves had left home at a younger age were less likely to live with their adult children. Parents who left their own parents' house in their teens or early 20s may have provided an example for their own children or, alternatively, could have encouraged their children to leave home earlier.