Empty Nest Syndrome - Not-so-empty Nest

Not-so-empty Nest

In the last decade, there has been an increase in the Boomerang Generation that is, individuals who return to their family home as adults and live with their parents (Cohen, DeVault, and Strong, 2011). Factors such as the high unemployment rate in the United States and smaller job markets have been used to explain the surge in the boomerang generation and Census data from 2008 showed that as many as 20 million 18- to 34-year-olds, 34% of that age group, were living at home with their parents. This is compared to the 15% of men and 8% of women in that same age range from a decade earlier (Cohen et al., 2011).

Parents and adult-child cohabitation has been shown to increase conflict:

Almost half reported serious conflict with their children. For parents, the most frequently mentioned problems were the hours of their children's coming and going and their failure to share in cleaning and maintaining the house. Most wanted their children to be "up, gone, and on their own"" (Cohen et al., 2011).