The implications of family complexity for leaving and returning to the parental home (Ref:251207, RIP-RAP-25-02)

Project Title:

The implications of family complexity for leaving and returning to the parental home

Project Supervisor:

Professor Ann Berrington, a.berrington@soton.ac.uk.

Institution:

Centre for Population Change: Connecting Generations (CPC:CG), School of Economic, Social and Political Sciences, University of Southampton

Placement Period:

Placement to start between 5 January and 13 March 2026; available full-time for 3 months or part-time for 6 months. Placement involves some in-person meetings, otherwise can be remote or hybrid.

How to Apply:

Send a CV and covering email to Professor Ann Berrington copied to scdtp@soton.ac.uk outlining their interest in the position and highlighting relevant expertise and experience.

Deadline to Apply:

7th December 2025

Placement Details:

Project description

Transitions to residential independence have become protracted and increasingly reversible in the UK with significant increases in the percentage of young adults living with their parents in their late twenties and early thirties. This research examines how the experience of family complexity, such as parental separation, repartnering,  living with half- and step-siblings, in adolescence is associated with patterns and reasons for leaving and returning to live with parents.  The work will use prospective data from the Next Steps cohort who are now aged 34. The work involves analytic work on the dataset and co-authoring a CPC working paper and further dissemination.

RAP work to be undertaken

1. Familiarisation with the Next Steps data using questionnaires, code-books and dataset, specifically the measures of parental SES, family circumstances in adolescence, the questions at age 25 & 32 on the timing of leaving and returning to the parental home, and questions on reasons for intergenerational coresidence. The project team has already worked on the data, cleaning it, and deriving key variables. The RA will read and summarise key texts on the substantive topic. RA and supervisor will agree on research questions.
2. Undertake some cross-tabulations to understand relationships between the exposures and outcomes. With the supervisor’s assistance the RA will develop an analytical framework in order to conduct binary and multinomial logistic regressions of the timing and reasons for leaving and returning home.
3. Undertake regression modelling of relationships between family complexity and adolescence and different patterns of transition to residential independence by age 32.
4. Help write a CPC working paper based on the results which may then be considered for submission to a journal for publication. The RA will also be supported in the dissemination of this work e.g. through talking to stakeholders, giving an academic presentation, or writing a CPC Policy Brief.

Anticipated benefits for the student

• The RA will become part of an existing team of researchers within the CPC:CG research centre working on the project “Transitions to adulthood and the buffering effect of intergenerational support”.
• You will gain experience in how to use complex, longitudinal data where issues such as sample design, attrition and item non-response need to be accounted for.
• You will benefit from participating in the weekly brown bag lunchtime informal research group meetings where PhD, postdocs and faculty discuss their ongoing work, interesting papers and provide feedback on each others work.
• You will also be able to participate in the CPC:CG ECR network, where there are talks and discussions e.g. on how to apply for your first fellowship.

Anticipated benefits for host

• The team will gain insights for policy from the rich data within the Next Steps survey.
• We are keen to learn new perspectives and skills from highly motivated researchers, and have a tradition of welcoming visiting PhD and postdocs to our centre.

Required skills, knowledge and experience

• Experience of STATA / R (essential)
• Previous experience of using and good understanding of multivariable regression and Specifically of using logistic regression models (essential)
• Excellent spoken and written English with proven track record in ability to write up results, e.g. as PhD chapter, journal article (essential)
• Interest in substantive topic area (desireable)
• Previous analysis of large scale longitudinal data e.g. from UK Birth Cohorts or Understanding Society (desireable)

Funds provided by the host

CPC:CG will pay up to £200 travel expenses for the RA to attend meetings in Southampton, present their work in academic seminars, or to relevant stakeholders.

Supervised by Professor Ann Berrington at Centre for Population Change: Connecting Generations (CPC:CG), School of Economic, Social and Political Sciences, University of Southampton. Contact a.berrington@soton.ac.uk

(Ref:251207, RIP-RAP-25-02)
 

Latest Blog posts from our Cohort: