Moving back to “mamma”? Divorce, intergenerational co-residence and family solidarity in Sweden

Marco Albertini, Università di Bologna
Michael Gahler, Stockholm University
Juho Härkönen, Stockholm University

One of the most obvious consequences of divorce, the moving out from the formerly common household, has received only limited scholarly attention. The study focuses on a particular post-divorce residential move, the return to the parental home in Sweden, where intergenerational co-residence is uncommon and non-normative. It is asked whether family dissolution increases the likelihood of intergenerational co-residence and whether the strength of the effect depends on socioeconomic and geographical factors. The analysis of over a million individuals from Swedish population register data showed that even if living with parents is, in absolute terms, not a common intergenerational support strategy, its likelihood increases considerably after a family dissolution. Family dissolution increases the probability of living with one’s parents especially among men, those with low incomes, and those who lived close to their mother. The implications of the findings for the literature on patterns of intergenerational support across Europe are discussed.