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3 DOMESTIC CIRCUMSTANCES

This chapter discusses the domestic circumstances of respondents. It begins by examining the number of respondents who had a child or children at the time of the survey and then explores the association between main activity, qualifications and parental social class and having children or not. Living arrangements are then discussed followed, lastly, by leaving the parental home.

3.1 Children

By 2006, 12% of the cohort (16% of females and 7% of males) reported that they had one or more children, an increase of four percentage points in the proportion with children since the previous sweep. The percentage of those with children is similar to the comparator cohort of 23/24 year olds in 2004, 11% of whom had one or more child. Amongst respondents with children, 95% said their child/children lived with them. All the women who had children were living with them, compared with 81% of men who were living with their children - note however the relatively small bases on which these percentages are based (see Table 3-1).

Table 3-1 Respondents who had children by gender

Those who were in full-time education (either in higher education or other forms of education) at the time of the survey were the least likely to have children (5%). Not surprisingly, the majority of respondents who were looking after the home or family (95%) also had children. 6% of those in the 'other' category had children (this category included those who had taken a year out, were travelling or doing voluntary work).

Table 3-2 Children by main activity

There was a clear relationship between the likelihood of respondents having children and the stage at which they left school. Around a fifth (22%) of those who had left school at the end of the first term of S5 or earlier had become parents by the Spring of 2006.

Table 3-3 Children by stage of leaving school

Similarly, those who had no formal educational qualifications or whose highest educational attainment were standard grades (26%) were more likely to have had children by age 23/24 compared with those who had achieved a higher level of education. For example, 3% of those with an ordinary degree and 1% of those with a higher degree had children when surveyed in this sweep.

[Table not shown]

In previous cohorts parental social class was a predictor of young people having a child, with the likelihood increasing along the class spectrum from professional to unskilled. However, in this sweep the strength of this relationship appears to be weakening. Whilst results clearly show that respondents whose parents belonged to the professional classes were least likely to have children (4%), and those with parents from unskilled backgrounds were most likely to have children (15%), there is no clear pattern between those from intermediate to partly skilled backgrounds, with skilled manual just as likely to have a child as unskilled (both 15%). This continues the trend seen in the last sweep of this cohort and suggests that parental social class is becoming less of a predictor of having children as cohorts get older.

Table 3-4 Children by social class of respondent's parents

3.2 Living arrangements

At the time of the survey, just over half (54%) of all respondents said they were living with their parent(s), a drop of 12 percentage points since this cohort was last surveyed in 2004. Young men were more likely than young women to still be living with their parents (62% compared with 46% of women). Young women were more likely than young men to be living with their 'partner only' (21% compared with 10%).

Over half (56%) of respondents who had children were living with their partner and child and just under a quarter (24%) were living on their own with their child. Only 15% of those with children were living with their parents compared with 59% of those without children.

Table 3-5 Living arrangements by gender and children

Just under half (48%) of young people who were still in some form of full-time education were living with their parents. However, a higher percentage (54%) of those in full time employment or on a GTP were also still living in the parental home. Those whose main activity was part-time work or who were out of work were the most likely to be living with parents (62% and 67% respectively). There was an increase in the proportion of those in the category 'looking after home/family' living in single parent households compared with the last sweep of this cohort (44% compared with 26%).

Table 3-6 Living arrangements by activity status

Around half of respondents (45%) lived in accommodation owned by their parents or the people they lived with and 20% owned their accommodation. In the previous sweep these figures were 57% and 9% respectively, indicating that people are moving out of the parental home and buying their own property. In the current survey a third (33%) lived in rented accommodation, 1% lived in university halls of residence and the remaining 2% were living in other types of accommodation. These proportions have changed little from the last sweep of this cohort.

[Table not shown]

3.3 Leaving the parental home

Six in ten respondents (61%) said that they had moved away from their parental home on at least one occasion even though they may have moved back at a later date. (Note that students who lived away from their parental home during term time but returned during non-term times were instructed to answer no to this question). Females were significantly more likely than males to have left home at some point (67% compared with 55%).

Four-fifths of respondents had first left their parental home before October 2004. There was very little variation by gender in the date at which respondents had left home.

Table 3-7 When moved from parental home by gender

Around two thirds (68%) said that, since leaving secondary school, they had moved house to attend an education/training course, 19% had moved to take up a new job, 9% because of an existing job, and 3% to look for work. Females were more likely than males to leave home to attend an education/training course (76% compared with 61%). However males were more likely than females to leave because of an existing or new job or to look for work (39% compared with 24%).

[Table not shown]

3.4 Key points

• The proportion of respondents with children increased compared with the previous sweep of the same cohort (4% to 12%).
• There was a clear relationship between the likelihood of having children at age 23/24 and the related factors of stage of leaving school and level of educational attainment. The longer respondents remained in education and the higher their level of educational attainment, the less likely they were to have children.
• Although parental class is still a predictor of young people having children at age 23/24, it is becoming less pronounced as the cohort gets older.
• At age 23/24 a smaller proportion of young people were living in the parental home compared with the previous sweep of this cohort.
• Young men were more likely to live with their parents than young women and were less likely to live with a partner.
• Young people who were most likely to be living with parents were those who were out of work or in part time employment.
• Females were more likely to move house to attend education or training whilst males were more likely to move because of an existing job, to find work or to take up a new job.

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