Ready for Launch, but to Where? An Examination of Locational Attainment during the Transition to Adulthood

Adam M. Lippert, Harvard University

The transition to adulthood involves many interlocking transitions that likely influence locational attainment such as moving from home, finishing school, beginning work, and starting families. While efforts have been made to identify how singular transitions matter for young adults’ locational outcomes, there have been no investigations into how sets of key life transitions are associated with upward, downward, or lateral locational attainments among adolescents entering adulthood. This study uses data from a national panel survey of adolescents and examines how sets of life transitions coincide with residential outcomes during the transition to adulthood. Findings show that (1) the effects of singular transitions on the odds of moving into, out of, or remaining in (non)poor neighborhoods often depend on the presence or absence of other transitions, and (2) important gender differences exist regarding both the clustering of life transitions and their association with locational outcomes during the transition to adulthood.