Mama's Boy: Still Living at Home

Research into the transition toward adulthood has clearly highlighted the big differences that exist between European countries when it comes to the average age at which youngsters flee the parental household. What's less studied are the social norms on the age limit beyond which it's considered unacceptable to keep staying with mom and dad. This is the focus of the research study conducted at the Bocconi Dondena Center by Arnstein Aassve, Bruno Arpino and Francesco Billari (Age norms on leaving home: Multilevel evidence from the European Social Survey, Dondena Working Paper 32; www.dondena.unibocconi.it/wp32).
The study looks at 25 European countries (European Social Survey, round 3), and unfortunately Italy is missing from the sample, although we can expect a pattern similar to other Mediterranean countries.
The interviewees were asked. "After what age you would say that a person is too old to keep living with his/her parents?". Results vary widely among European countries. On one side we have the countries of Southern Europe (Cyprus, Portugal and Spain) with average values declared in excess of 30 years of age. On the opposite end, we find Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland) and formerly Soviet states (Russia and Ukraine), with mean values comprised between 24 and 26.5 years of age.
Interviewees, instead of stating an age limit, could also give the answer "You're never too old to live with your parents." If you add the people who declared an age limit of no less than 30 years with those saying there's no limit, you obtain the percentage value of those who could be considered tolerant of "Mama's boys"(they are mostly males). In this ranking, Portugal comes on top, since 85% of Portuguese are tolerant with young people prolonging their stay at home indefinitely. In Denmark, by contrast, 74% of people think it's unacceptable to remain in your parents' home beyond 30 years of age. The results show that cultural differences, as measured for instance by religiosity, explain differences among regions and countries in terms of social norms. In more religious areas traditional values tend to prevail and this means stronger family bonds, and thus higher acceptance of children staying home past thirty.

Institutional factors also play an important role. The lack of jobs, difficulty in getting credit and lower educational attainments increase the tolerance toward postponing departure from the parental nest. From this analysis, it can be deduced that factors which limit the options that young people have in building their own future beyond parental walls also influence opinions about acceptance of a prolungation of a period of dependency. A self-reinforcing spiral thus exists between cultural factors, institutional conditions and social norms that strengthen certain attitudes over others. This analysis partly exonerates the so-called big babies (bamboccioni), because after all, as Dario Fo says in the incipit of Il Paese dei mezaràt, "It all depends where you are born".