Linked lives in changing times: A life course analysis of young adults' prolonged co-residence with parents

Growing numbers of young adults are living with their parents well into their late twenties and thirties in the UK. These trends have intensified following the 2007/08 Global Financial Crisis, and are situated amidst wider conditions of austerity, unaffordable housing, and deteriorating employment prospects that have disproportionately constrained the opportunities of young people across Europe. In this context, parental support has become increasingly relevant in cushioning and facilitating young people’s transitions to adulthood – and their housing and home-leaving pathways in particular. However, in times of rising inequality, very little is known about the lived experiences and family dynamics lying beneath these broader housing trends. This thesis intervenes through a qualitative study of parental co-residence with thirty-two young adults aged 20–36 and thirteen parents in Leeds and Bradford (West Yorkshire, England). The two-generation approach is particularly novel and reflects a more diverse set of social class, socio-economic, and cultural circumstances than has typically been captured in existing UK studies. Drawing on in-depth interviews, the research explores the subjective and normative dimensions of parental co-residence through a life course perspective that foregrounds the interconnections between individual trajectories, historical context, and ‘linked’ family lives. The study demonstrates the importance of an inter-generational lens on youth transitions, illuminating how wider structural conditions are unevenly buffered and navigated within the parental home and through intimate relations and classed practices of family support. Across the sample, parental co-residence is shown to be characterised by highly unequal opportunities, constraints, and family resources patterning young people’s trajectories over time. Through the subjective accounts of young adults and their parents, this thesis illustrates persisting intra-generational inequalities that are deepening within enduring housing and economic ‘crises’. Amidst young people’s increasing dependency, the findings powerfully reveal the cross-generational transmission of (dis)advantage in life chances and opportunities for independence and autonomy.