When COVID-19 shuttered college campuses in March 2020, many—but not all—undergraduates sought refuge in their parents’ homes. Why did some students fall into this parental “safety net” while others did not? As three sociologists who have studied young adults’ relationships with their families, we suspected the answer would be more complex than need and availability alone would predict.

In a new study published in Socius, we analyzed survey data we collected from 750 undergraduates at two regional public universities in the United States to understand who moved home with their parents during the pandemic and who didn’t. We focused on whether students reported moving in with a parent because of the pandemic between March 2020 (when campus closed) and March 2021 (when we collected the survey).

Unsurprisingly, we found that students’ housing and financial needs influenced their decisions to return home. Students living in dorms, who were asked to leave the dormitories during the pandemic at the two universities we surveyed, were over three times as likely to move in with a parent compared to their off-campus peers (66% vs. 18%). For off-campus students, problems with their jobs such as being furloughed or laid off led to higher rates of moving to a parent’s home.

However, material needs weren’t the only factors in these decisions. Among students living off campus at the start of the pandemic, older students and those living with a romantic partner were less likely to move home with parents. The off-campus group included many students who would be considered non-traditional undergraduates: just over half (52%) were above the age of 24 and 38% were living with a romantic partner (including some who were married). Students who might be considered more “adult” by one or both measures were far less likely to move in with a parent, possibly because those students’ primary safety nets had shifted from their parents to their partners. Off-campus students living with siblings or extended family were also less likely to move home with their parents, which suggests that these relatives, like romantic partners, may have provided an alternative safety net.

On-campus students showed more similar rates of returning home across the different factors we analyzed, likely because their immediate housing needs took priority over other considerations. However, there was one notable exception: on-campus students who expressed negative feelings about asking their parents for money were more likely to move home.

At first glance, this may seem counterintuitive: if sharing housing is a form of help from parents, wouldn’t students reluctant to ask their parents for money also be reluctant to ask to move back home?

But this finding fits with our other research on family support in young adulthood. In interview projects examining young adults’ experiences with student loans, help from family after having a child, and understandings of financial (in)dependence, we found young adults viewed housing support as distinct from (and typically preferable to) direct financial help from their parents, often viewing it as less stigmatizing or imposing less of a burden. And those who were more reluctant to ask for money may also have found it more difficult to pay for the costs of independent housing once their dormitories closed. 

Given that students were surveyed a year after the initial campus closures, we may have also captured how the experience of living with their parents during the pandemic negatively influenced students’ feelings about asking parents for money. Students who moved in with a parent may have felt that asking for additional money would be too great of a burden on their families or would signal a failure to achieve adult independence (when that was already compromised). They may also have resented restrictions on their freedom they experienced in terms of rules in their parents’ homes during the pandemic and thus felt more reluctant to acknowledge needing help. Regardless of the direction of influence, the link between moving home and negative feelings about asking parents for money highlights the emotional tensions that so often characterize parental support at this life stage.

Overall, our study builds on past research describing social class divides in undergraduates’ reliance on parents during the pandemic by demonstrating how parents’ roles also change within families throughout young adulthood. The findings also highlight the role of other close relationships—romantic partners, siblings, and extended family members—as alternative sources of support for some undergraduates. And they offer a window into the tensions surrounding parental support during this transitional stage of life. Beyond increasing our understanding of the unprecedented historical event of the COVID-19 pandemic, the findings provide broader insight into the complicated social factors affecting whether young adults ask for help from their parents during times of need and uncertainty.

About the authors:

Elena G. van Stee is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and an Exchange Scholar at Harvard University. She’s also the Blog Editor for Contexts, the public-facing periodical of the American Sociological Association. Follow her @elenavanstee.

Arielle Kuperberg is Professor of Sociology at UNC Greensboro, incoming Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Chair of the Council on Contemporary Families. Follow her at @ATKuperberg.

Joan Maya Mazelis is Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice at Rutgers University-Camden and the author of Surviving Poverty: Creating Sustainable Ties Among the Poor. Follow her @JoanieMazelis.