Looking Homeward with the Life Course: Early Origins of Adulthood Dwelling Satisfaction?

• In Event: 1246 - The Long Arm of Childhood: Early life exposures and later life consequences

Abstract

The long-term influence of childhood economic and social exposures on diverse dimensions of adult health and well-being are well-known. Most childhood circumstances transpire in or near the home, yet research has largely neglected how early exposures shape people’s experience of place, particularly their affective attachments to residential context in adulthood. To help address this gap, we draw on retrospective longitudinal data from the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) study, to assess relationships between childhood social and economic origins and dwelling satisfaction among middle-age adults. Drawing on a life course framework, we test the potential mediating roles of adult social, economic, and mental health processes. Results indicate that early life emotional maltreatment and parental warmth have an enduring influence on people’s satisfaction with their adult home, but there is little indication that childhood economic conditions shape dwelling satisfaction. Analyses of average controlled direct effects suggest that the effects of parental warmth are largely unmediated by mental health, adult socioeconomic attainment, or supportive family relationships during adulthood. Taken together, our results suggest that parent-child bonds uniquely and durably cast a long shadow over how people experience their residential context decades later as adults.

Authors

• Markus H. Schafer, University of Toronto

• Matthew Andersson, Baylor University