Models of leaving home: patterns and trends in Sweden, 1830-1959

In this study, we examine the development of age at leaving the parental household in Sweden between the years 1830-1959. We utilize individual-level longitudinal data from two geographically and socioeconomically different regions: the county of Scania in the very south of Sweden, and Vasterbotten to the north. We use descriptive and multivariate analyses to investigate how determinants, such as age at marriage and socioeconomic status, affected the age at leaving the parental household over time and between different subgroups, such as sex and rural-urban setting. We show that the age at leaving the parental household was initially low but increased strongly during industrialization but fell again during the interwar period and onwards. Regional and subgroup differences in age at leaving the parental household were small throughout the investigated period, indicating that the development was general in nature. Therefore, we argue that our results indicate that different models governed the structures and norms of home leaving during our investigated period. More specifically, a pre-industrial model gradually shifted into an industrial model, with the latter one becoming dominant in the 1920s. In the pre-industrial model, leaving home was shaped by the life-cycle service system. In the industrial model, age at marriage instead became a main determinant of home leaving.