Co-resident graduates and parents

For both graduates and parents, a return home can appear as a backward step running counter to expectations of advance into full adulthood. Previous quantitative work has also suggested that it might not be co-residence per se that affects the levels of satisfaction of parent and child. Rather, the adult child's problems, especially continued economic dependence, were found to be associated with parental dissatisfaction. Concern about achieving autonomy and independence is sharpened for parents and co-resident graduates, and brings with it the possibility of heightened day-to-day tensions. Parents were aware of their adult children's dissatisfaction or unhappiness, but were also concerned about the implications of the return of children's own lives. Jobs, or more precisely the lack of "graduate jobs", were often fundamental to how graduates felt about themselves and to how anxious the parent felt about the young adult child's future. Expectations were a crucial determinant of the degree of satisfaction or anxiety expressed by graduates and parents.