LONDON, March 9 — The current trend of adult children moving back home to mum and dad’s could be causing a decline in parents’ quality of life, according to UK research out this week.

Dubbed the “boomerang generation,” the number of young adults moving back to the parental home has increased in recent years due to the rising cost of housing, financial insecurity, and job insecurity.

Data from the UK’s Office for National Statistics suggests that about a quarter of young adults are now living with their parents across the country — the highest number since records began in 1996 — with the trend also growing across Europe.

Although previous studies have analysed the effects of adult children living with their parents, the new research is the first to examine the effect on parents’ well-being when children move out and then back again, in what researchers call boomerang moves.

Carried out by the London School of Economics and Political Science, the new study looked at a total sample of 37,000 parents in 17 European countries.

Participants were aged between 50 and 75, with the researchers setting a maximum age for participants in order to reduce the chance that a child’s reason for returning home was to look after aging parents.

The team assessed parents’ quality of life using a scale which measures “feelings of control, autonomy, pleasure and self-realisation in everyday life.” The scale ranges from 12 to 48, with the higher scores indicating a better quality of life.

From the 1,070 parents who had their children return home, the results showed that this return was associated with a decrease of 0.8 points on the scale on average; a substantial amount similar to developing an age-related disability, such as difficulties with walking or getting dressed.

The team also found that whatever the reason for the return home, there was still a significant decline in parents’ well-being.

However, it appeared to be only the “boomerang” children that had a negative impact on parent’s well-being, with the team finding no effect on quality of life when other children still lived at home.

“The findings show that returning home was correlated with a decline in parent’s quality of life when there were no other children in the parental home. Parents enjoy their independence when their children leave the home, and refilling an empty nest may be regarded as a violation of this life course stage,” commented Dr Marco Tosi and Dr Emily Grundy, who carried out the study.

“When children leave the parental home, marital relationships improve and parents find a new equilibrium. They enjoy this stage in life, finding new hobbies and activities. When adult children move back, it is a violation of that equilibrium,” added Dr Tosi.

The results can be found published online in the journal Social Science & Medicine. — AFP-Relaxnews