Different Perspectives on the Boomerang: How Adult Daughters and their Parents Experience the Move Back Home

Though the phenomenon of young adults moving in with their parents is not a new one, it is one that has certainly become more common in recent decades. A new life stage of 'emerging adulthood' has become the norm, in which young adults delay marriage and career jobs in order to pursue other goals. This stage is, in part, marked by fluidity in residence. Yet even as a growing number of 'boomerang kids' move back in with their parents, there is a gap in the research regarding this phenomenon's effect on various parts of the family system. This study set out to address this gap by comparing separate interviews from young adult boomerangs and their parents. Findings suggest a disparity between parental and young adult opinions on a variety of topics, most notably: expected household responsibility, parent/child closeness, loss of autonomy, and appreciation. However, similarities emerged regarding the parental home as a safe haven, the arrangement as providing financial security, and the fact that all adult children reported being ready to move out. Ideally, the findings presented here will help illuminate both the similarities and disparities in the experiences of parents and their young adult children who return after launch, in order to increase empathy and promote a healthy family system.