When adult children move back in with their parents, it causes a lot of cultural anxiety. We call them moochers or spongers. We say they’ve failed to launch.
But a recent working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research should put these fears to rest. Grant M. Seiter, Mary J. Lopez and Sita Slavov looked at how adults aged 51 to 69 fare when their adult kids return home. Remarkably, it finds there’s no impact on a parent’s wealth.
The main reason is that most of the moves back home are short-term, often the result of an unexpected shock, such as losing a job or getting divorced. The adult kids move out again when they get back on their feet.
