Social housing and transitions to adulthood

Dylan Kneale, University of London
Wendy Sigle-Rushton, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Living in social housing as a child has been consistently linked to a wide range of indicators of disadvantage during adulthood, but there also is evidence that the relationships have changed over time. Focusing on transitions from school and the parental home and into employment, partnership and parenthood, we examine differences in the timing of transitions to adulthood by the type of housing status at age 16. We hypothesise that differences in the timing of important transitions might help explain the significant link between childhood social housing and negative adult outcomes by setting in place pathways to disadvantage. Preliminary analyses show no significant differences in home leaving by housing status at age 16 but significantly faster transitions into partnerships and parenthood. Cross cohort comparisons suggest that the transition to adulthood for owner occupiers became more protracted over time while for those in social housing there was less change.