Class inequalities in youth emancipation across generations: evidence for Spain
Keywords:
Leaving home, Youth, Social classes, Life course studiesAbstract
This paper analyses the change in class differences in the process of youth emancipation in Spain over the last 50 years. It uses data from study 3233 by the Spanish Center for Sociological Research (CIS), which compiles the experiences of transition to adulthood of different Spanish generations, and survival models. Results show how, while in the mid XXth century, lower-class youngsters left home significantly earlier than their upper-class counterparts, this difference has currently disappeared. Some results even indicate that the current trend is the opposite: young people from upper class origins leave home earlier. Among the causes of this change are new emancipation models, or the increasing importance of access to housing in this life course process.
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