Parental marital dissolution and the intergenerational transmission of homeownership

Abstract

Children of homeowners are more likely to enter homeownership than are children whose parents rent. We investigate whether this association is dependent on parental divorce, focusing on parental assistance as a conduit of intergenerational transmission. Event history analyses of data for England and Wales from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) show that the intergenerational transmission of homeownership is stronger for children of divorced parents compared with children of married parents. Such an effect may arise from two channels: (1) children of divorced parents are more in need of parental assistance due to socio-economic disadvantages associated with parental divorce; and (2) compared with married parents, divorced homeowning parents (mothers) rely more on housing wealth, rather than financial wealth, for assisting children. Findings support both explanations. Children of divorced parents are furthermore less likely to co-reside. We find limited evidence that when they do, co-residence is less conductive to homeownership compared with children from married parents.     

Money or space? Intergenerational transfers in a comparative perspective

Abstract

The provision of living space as well as financial transfers are important elements of functional solidarity between parents and adult children in contemporary European societies. However, prior research has revealed substantial discrepancies not only within but also between countries. Against this background, this paper investigates the relevance of money and space transfers and the connections between the two forms of support simultaneously using the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. The empirical results indicate that the needs of adult children as well as the opportunities of their parents are important determinants of support. Furthermore, parents in southern European countries with low levels of public family expenditures predominantly support their adult children by providing living space, whereas parents in northern European countries with more generous welfare states give direct financial support. Differences in country-specific transfer patterns can theoretically and empirically be traced back to welfare state support in general and national housing regimes and markets in particular.     

Home-ownership and family formation

In Western countries, home-ownership and family formation are closely connected. From most research on the transition to home-ownership, one gets the impression that the association between family formation and home-ownership is positive: family formation seems to speed up the process of acquiring a home in several countries. However, it has also been argued that there might be a negative association between home-ownership and family formation at the individual or household level, because the cost of home-ownership might compete with the cost of rearing children. And it has also been found that those countries in Europe with the highest levels of home-ownership are also those with the lowest fertility. The aim of this paper is to reconcile these seemingly contradicting findings on the association between home-ownership and family formation by developing a theoretical argument comprising both the micro level of individuals and households and the macro level of countries.     

Home-Ownership and Pensions: Negative Correlation,but No Trade-off

This paper qualifies the role of home-ownership as an income complement for the elderly by taking the institutional context into account. We argue that a strategy of asset-based welfare focused on the promotion of home-ownership is not universally applicable, but depends on how housing and pension provision are organised. Based on the extent of commodification in housing and pensions, we distinguish four types of institutional contexts. We argue that, since relying on housing wealth as a pension essentially boils down to a market-based approach to welfare provision, this strategy is more likely to occur when both housing and pensions are largely commodified, which is only the case in the liberal welfare states. The conclusion of a trade-off between the rate of home-ownership and spending on pensions often referred to in prior work is unlikely to hold universally when differences between housing and pension provision across contexts are taken into account.     

Homeownership, family and the gift effect: the case of Cyprus

Among the welfare pillars, family has been important relative to state or market in housing provision in Cyprus. In this respect Cyprus is similar to other southern European/Mediterranean countries, which are generally considered to have welfare systems characterised by the importance of family. Influence of family, described here by the term ‘familiocracy’, is reflected in what seems to be an extremely high rate of housing gifts in Cyprus, where parents provide their children with a gift of a dwelling when they get married. That this is a form of de-commodification in housing, is reflected in the fact that income and homeownership are not significantly related. Income and receipt of house as gift are also not significantly related. Gift-receiving households do have different consumption patterns from non-gift-receiving households however, but this is also shown to be related to familiocracy.     

‘You can’t put your roots down’: housing pathways,rental tenure and precarity in older age

Abstract

In light of housing affordability concerns, we examine older people’s experiences of renting within a context of enduring home-ownership norms and aspirations. Adapting Clapham’s housing pathways framework, we ask: How is rental tenure experienced by older people who have encountered precarity in their housing history? Drawing on interviews with 13 older tenants, we observe the uneasy relationship between tenure insecurity and housing quality, and tensions between choice and luck in experiences of renting in later life. Three pathways related to renting in older age were apparent: life-long renting; loss of homeownership through adversity; and deliberate decisions to transition to renting. We note that challenges encountered in current and previous housing situations lead to diverse narratives of precarity in later life. These precarious experiences can be exacerbated by intersecting uncertainties associated with health, financial and personal circumstances. Older tenants’ housing pathways and experiences illuminate ways in which precarity can disrupt opportunities for ageing well and ageing in place.     

Leaving home in the Netherlands: Timing and first housing

Successive birth cohorts have left the parentalhome at an accelerating pace in the earlypost-war decades in the Netherlands. A secondtrend, starting later but lasting longer, isthat people increasingly leave the parentalhome to live alone. Both trends have hadimplications for the housing market as theycontributed to the continuation of the housingshortage and generated a shift in the type ofaccommodation in which young adults start theirhousing career: an independent rented dwelling,shared accommodation, or home-ownership. Inthis contribution we set out to unravel boththe causes of the changing pattern ofhome-leaving between successive cohorts and therelation with the housing market entry insuccessive periods.The main hypothesis is that educationalexpansion was a major cause of the shift in themix of motives between cohorts, accounted forthe accelerating pace of home-leaving, and alsoaffected the type of housing market entry. Theempirical results support this hypothesis butalso show that the educational expansion doesnot provide a full explanation for eitherphenomenon. Union formation in particular isinvariably also determined by the employmentstatus of the male partner. Leaving home tolive alone, on the other hand, is lesssensitive to the individual income but isclearly stimulated by ample parental resources.In housing choice, the opportunity structureprovides an extra explanation. The wider accessto independent rental accommodation, forinstance, reduces the pent-up demand for sharedaccommodation that results from the educationalexpansion.     

Parents’ housing careers and support for adult children across Europe

Abstract

Housing careers have important consequences for individuals’ well-being. The present study focuses on the role of parents’ housing careers in affecting the way and extent to which they provide economic support to their adult children. By adopting a family life course perspective, it shows that while housing tenure has relatively little effect on parents’ transfer behaviour, mobility between different tenures can elicit or suppress intergenerational support; moreover, the quality of the house positively affects intergenerational co-residence. Support received to acquire a home along one’s life course has an important demonstration effect: those parents who have received their home as a gift or have received economic support for buying it are more prone to provide help to their adult children. The empirical results do not allow to identify macro-contextual conditions that shape the effect of parents’ housing careers on intergenerational support, but they show that the demonstration effect plays only a marginal role in Southern Europe.     

Why Parents Drive Children to School: Implications for Safe Routes to School Programs

Problem: Rates of walking and bicycling to school have declined sharply in recent decades, and federal and state governments have committed funds to reverse these trends. To increase rates of walking and biking to school will require understanding why many parents choose to drive their children to school and how well existing programs, like Safe Routes to School, work.

Purpose: We aimed to understand why many parents choose to drive their children even short distances to school, and what implications this has for programs to increase walking and biking to school.

Methods: We used data from a telephone survey to explore why parents drive their children to school.

Results and conclusions: We found that 75% of parents driving their children less than 2 miles to school said they did this for convenience and to save time. Nearly half of parents driving their children less than 2 miles did not allow their child to walk to school without adult supervision. Accompanying a child on a walk to school greatly increases the time the household devotes to such a trip. Few Safe Routes to School programs effectively address issues of parental convenience and time constraints.

Takeaway for practice: Safe Routes to School programs should take parental convenience and time constraints into account by providing ways children can walk to school supervised by someone other than the parent, such as by using walking school buses. To be effective, such programs need institutional support. Schools should take a multimodal approach to pupil transportation.

Research support: This research was funded by the Active Living Research program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the U.S. and California Departments of Transportation through the University of California Transportation Center.     

A comparison between occupants’ and inspectors’ reports on home dampness and their association with the health of children: The ALLHOME study

There is some discussion concerning the methodology to be used in order to obtain health-relevant information regarding moisture-related problems in homes (dampness). Occupants’ reports, inspectors’ observations and physical measurements are often used methods. In the current study, data on dwelling dampness and characteristics as reported by parents of 216 pre-school children (the cross-sectional questionnaire study ALLHOME-1) was compared with the information collected by non-professional dwelling inspectors in a nested case–control study (the ALLHOME-2 study). The study took place in the cities of Burgas and Sofia in Bulgaria. The inspectors reported less visible mould, but more damp stains and a mouldy odour than the parents. Exposure to dampness, as reported by parents, was significantly associated with airways, nose and/or skin symptoms (case status) among children, while no association was found between inspectors’ observations on dampness and children's health. Parental reports on housing characteristics such as type of house, residential situation, and type of flooring material matched with those identified by the inspectors and therefore can be used as a reliable source of information in studies on indoor environmental exposure and health. With regard to dampness, parental reports seem to be more health relevant than inspectors reports.     

Learning to Look After Ourselves

<正>We can always see many parents washing clothes for their children.I don' t think that is good for children.Children need to do something by themselves.But some parents hope their children can have more time to do their lessons.In fact,children must be given enough time to practice so that they can improve themselves as soon as possible.As we know,children are the future of our country.We should not only do our lessons well but also learn to look after ourselves.We should help our parents do housework as much as possible.     

Intergenerational support for autonomous living in a post-socialist housing market: homes,meanings and practices

Abstract

This paper explores housing trajectories of young adults and practices of intergenerational support in Romania drawing on narratives of a group of people aged 25–39 living (quasi-) autonomously in Bucharest, and those of kin that support them. It describes three housing arrangements in which family (parental) resources and property play an important role, and argues that in this context of high interdependence, unequal relationships develop between parents and adult children marked by professed entitlement on the part of children and controlling generosity on the part of parents. It shows how interdependent practices of homemaking and material support combine to shape housing trajectories and define the boundaries of ownership over homes that are shared, gifted or given in use within kin networks, sheltering young adults from the vagaries of the market.     

哈姆莱蓝色花园

设计理念 哈姆莱蓝色花园是为纪念Tammy Osnes而专门设计的，不仅为人们提供了一处可以缅怀失去生命的学生的悼念之所，同时也安抚了那些承受着丧子之痛的学生家长。花园内的每处设计．每个元素都旨在营造一种肃穆安详的气氛．为逝者家属及整个哈姆莱大学，甚至是所有失去亲人的人们提供一处寄托哀思的静谧之所。     

What can the urban designer do for children? Normative principles of child–friendly communities for responsive third places

This study explores the idea that all public urban places should be planned and designed keeping children in mind. Children from urban places are exposed to different types of urban and social problems. While many Western cities address the needs of children and young people, Egyptian cities overlook children’s needs and behaviours, especially in architectural terms. This study attempts to place Egyptian children at the centre of the urban agenda based on universal laws that secure children. The contribution provides procedures and design principles. A survey in Cairo was conducted through interviews with children and their parents. The results indicate that a child-friendly community can be created for positive social interaction between children, families and the built environment. The result also suggests that a third place will be the most appropriate area where a child-friendly community can be created. Such places are crucial for learning how children interact as they grow up because they are places where informal activities take place. The research concludes that for an improved built environment, it is important to focus on children’s lives in third places and what designers provide or hinder with normative design principles through the process of creating child-friendly cities.     

Parental tobacco and indoor secondhand smoking exposure and the risk of offspring under-five mortality in low- and middle-income countries

Children are vulnerable to exposure of secondhand smoking (SHS) which is a major preventable cause of disease and death. This study aimed to investigate the association between parental tobacco use or SHS exposure, respectively, and under-five mortality. Data were obtained from the nationally representative and population-based Demographic and Health Surveys in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) between 2000 and 2018. Cox proportional hazard regression models with complex survey design were conducted to examine the adjusted associations between parental smoking and SHS exposure and child under-five mortality. In the pooled analysis of parental smoking, 437 322 children were included. Compared with children whose parents are not smoking, those whose father or both parents smoked any form of tobacco had higher risks of mortality (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.08, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.03–1.13; HR = 1.18, 95% CI = 1.06–1.32, respectively). In addition, parental using smokeless tobacco, smoking tobacco, and using smokeless tobacco and smoking tobacco simultaneously was significantly associated with child under-five mortality (HR = 1.07, 95% CI = 1.01–1.12; HR = 1.12, 95%CI = 1.04–1.21; and HR = 1.17, 95%CI = 1.06–1.30, respectively). In the pooled analysis of SHS exposure, 605 442 children were included, and weekly and daily SHS exposure were significantly associated with child under-five mortality (HR = 1.11, 95% CI = 1.03–1.20, and HR = 1.10, 95% CI = 1.06–1.15, respectively). The results were robust in most stratification analyses and sensitivity analyses. Parental tobacco use and indoor SHS exposure were associated with increased risk of under-five mortality in LMICs. Comprehensive tobacco control programs should be considered by policymakers in LMICs to promote smoke-free environments for children.     

Passing it on: inheritance,coresidence and the influence of parental support on homeownership and housing pathways

Abstract

The family home is often the single most valuable asset, when it is passed down generations. In recent years, this pathway towards homeownership has become more complex. Young people are increasingly depending on their parents, both financially (deposit) and in-kind (guarantor, living rent-free at parental home), to acquire their first home. This paper contributes to this debate by investigating the influence of bequests and in-kind generational transfers on housing wealth pathways. Based on the British Household Panel Study, this paper shows that receiving an inheritance seems less relevant than other socio-demographic control variables. Still life-time renters are significantly missing out on inheritances. However, young people who are living with their parents are benefiting from this in-kind support in the long term and are able to purchase their first home earlier than independent mortgagers who are saving up for a deposit while renting. These results are discussed in the wider context of housing policy, welfare and generational support.     

Do high levels of home-ownership create unemployment? Introducing the missing link between housing tenure and unemployment

A large number of studies have demonstrated that the proportion of home-owners in a region tend to be positively associated with the unemployment levels in that region. In this paper, we introduce a missing piece of explaining this commonly found pattern. By analysing individual-level population register data on Sweden, we jointly examine the effects of micro- and macro-level home-ownership on individuals’ unemployment. The findings indicate that even though home-owners have a lower probability of being unemployed, there is a penalty for both renters and home-owners on unemployment in regions with high home-ownership rates. Differences in mobility patterns cannot explain this pattern. However, when labour market size is considered, the higher probability of unemployment in high home-owning regions is drastically reduced. This suggests that high home-ownership regions tend to coincide with small labour markets, affecting the job matching process negatively.     

Siblings,fairness and parental support for housing in the UK

Abstract

Financial support from parents has become critical to the capacity of many single young adults to attain and sustain independent housing in the United Kingdom. Utilising data from a qualitative study of early housing pathways, this paper applies Lüscher’s theory of ambivalence in a context previously unexplored via this framework, analysing how participants talked about competing claims between siblings for finite parental resources in support of independent living. Most expressed faith in the assumed fairness of parental behaviours in providing support whilst often constructing themselves as ‘more responsible’ or ‘more deserving’ than their siblings. Whilst parental support was routinely made available regardless of recipients’ current housing tenure, there was nonetheless a sense that support for owner occupation fell into a distinct category of assistance, reinforcing notions of tenure prejudice. Given ongoing dependency on family support, participants were largely resigned to these disparities, regarding them as integral to the ambivalent nature of inter- and intragenerational family relationships.     

The Irish sub-prime residential mortgage sector: international lessons for an emerging market

As the volume of mortgage credit has risen in tandem with house price inflation, the sub-prime home loan sector of the Irish market has begun to expand in order to meet demand from those not serviced by the mainstream financial service providers. This article examines the recent emergence of this form of mortgage credit in Ireland and draws comparisons with the USA, where this form of lending has long been a feature of the market but also where this sub-market has recently encountered very serious difficulties. It concludes that this is a rapidly expanding market and an opportunity for new private sector entrants. However, this paper highlights the favourable terms offered by the public sector and argues that their failure to price according to the risk profile of borrowers exposes the Exchequer to higher—and often unquantified—costs in pursuit of promoting home-ownership. It also concludes that the Irish public sector provision does not wholly comply with the generally accepted features of sub-prime lending with consequent very high rates of default. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the funders or the board of management of the Centre for Housing Research.     

Designing for an Earlier Age

While the need for suitable housing to accommodate burgeoning numbers of elderly citizens is undeniably great worldwide, Jayne Merkel puts the case that the necessity for affordable housing among young adults is arguably even greater, at least in the US and the UK, and particularly in New York, London and Los Angeles. The relationship between the demands of these two very different age groups is direct, since young people tend not to have children until they can find suitable housing. Forestalled childbearing means fewer members of later generations to financially support growing numbers of aged over time.¹ And young people without suitable housing tend to move back in with ageing parents or drain their financial resources.