Residential Mobility after Parental Separation: Which Children Move, Move Frequently, and Move Away from Nonresident Parents?

Maaike Hornstra , University of Amsterdam & Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI-KNAW)/University of Groningen,

Both residential mobility and family instability are childhood experiences that have been shown to have the potential to disrupt child development. Zooming in on the link between these experiences, the aim of this study is twofold. First, we describe the residential trajectories of children after parental separation, not only in the occurrence of residential change but also in the change in geographical distance to nonresident parents. Second, we test which factors make some children more likely to experience specific residential changes. The general idea is that certain factors make certain children from more likely to move and move further away from their nonresident parent after family instability. The focus is on two themes of determinants: socioeconomic factors (e.g., parental education, income, homeownership) and kinship factors (e.g., parental conflict, parental remarriage, and parental involvement in childhood). This allows us to grasp if exposure to more disruptive patterns is stratified, with some facing patterns of accumulative instability.

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 Presented in Session P1. Fertility, Family, Life Course