Leaving Home in Denmark: A Multi-Destination Study Using Register Data

Isabella Carneiro, University of Southern Denmark
Lisbeth B. Knudsen, University of Southern Denmark
Jørgen Lauridsen, University of Southern Denmark

Most research on leaving home in the European context have been concerned with countries where the average age of leaving home is extremely high. Nordic countries, however, show quite distinct picture from other European countries, with a much younger age at departure. This paper looks into the parental home leaving process in Denmark and it observes how factors affecting the decision of young women to leave parental home interact differently given four risk-competing routes: leaving to live independently, leaving to enter a legal union, leaving to be in a consensual union and remaining in parental home. The source of data is the 'Fertility of Women and Couples Dataset,' which is register-based. A group of women, 13-17 is analyzed longitudinally from 1981 to 1994 and a multinomial logistic model is used to observe the effects of status at departure (e.g., work and educational status) in the choice of destination.