New in Socius!

COVID-19 campus closures in March 2020 led many—but not all—college students to move back in with their parents. Why did some students return home while others did not?

I’ve spent much of the past four years researching an answer to this question. In a new study published in Socius, my collaborators Arielle Kuperberg and Joan Maya Mazelis and I set out to understand the pandemic housing decisions of college students attending two regional U.S. public universities. This study builds on my previous research on social class divides in undergraduates' expectations for parental support during the pandemic, shedding light on how parents’ roles also varied between students in different life stages and with different constellations of other close social ties. 

Our study highlights the complex ways in which parent-child relationships evolve during the transition to adulthood, shaping young adults’ decisions to seek support during periods of need and uncertainty. As we argue in the article, understanding the safety nets that undergraduates relied on during the pandemic can provide valuable insight into how expectations for parents’ roles change over time and how they influence young adults’ responses to crises.

Read the article (open access!) here.

Read a related essay for the Contexts Blog here.