Leaving the Parental Home in Thailand: Evidence from the Family and Youth Survey

Jittinee Juntarodjana, Mahidol University
Arnstein Aassve, University of Leicester

Leaving the parental home is one of the essential events in young peoples’ life course. The process of leaving home in Thailand is particularly interesting, not only because of its traditional and specific peculiarities, but also because very few studies have actually addressed this issue thoroughly. This study aims to investigate the patterns of leaving home and factors associated with this process. We use Kaplan-Meier estimates and discrete-time logistic regression models to analyze retrospective event histories from the 1994 Family and Youth Survey of Thailand. Results show a substantial proportion of youth leaves home at an early age. It also shows a slight gender difference in the patterns of leaving home. Living with other relatives is the predominant destination, while living at the work place is the second choice after leaving home. Full-time work is strongly associated with timing of leaving home. The findings from this study show that the process of leaving home has important policy implication. In particular, policy makers should consider more carefully the age structure in which young people leave home.