A statistical analysis of the factors influencing youths’ transition to independent living: a case study of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

This study presents a discussion on socio-demographic and economic factors that influence the decision of youth to leave parental homes into residential independence in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Youth are delaying taking what is commonly regarded as the first step into an independent adult life-moving out parents’ home. This new delayed schedule for attaining independence has left parents especially from middle and lower income families overburdened as they struggle to support these youths in terms of school, housing, health insurance and financially throughout the extended period instead of parents saving for retirement or meeting their own needs. Although the departure of youth from parental home is an important life-cycle event, few studies have been concluded on parental home leaving in developing countries making it timely to map this research landscape towards that direction. The main objective of this study was to examine the factors that influence youths’ transition to independent living in Dar es Salaam region. The study was a cross-sectional study because it involved collecting data on youths aged 18-35 years at a specific point in time. Quantitative data was collected using semi-structured questionnaire from 339 youths aged 18-35 years. Using IBM SPSS Statistics 20.0 and Stata 13 software, logistic regression was applied to the data in order to predict how the socio-demographic and economic factors influenced the dependent variable: leaving parental homes. It was seen from the study that 184 of the total 339 respondents equivalent to more than half (54.30%) were still living at home with their parents and 42% of them accounted for being in school. Youth aged 18-23 years recorded the highest proportion (86.2%) of those still living at home. As for sex, 61.9% of female youth were living at home as compared to 46% of males. Marital status was also seen to significantly affect leaving parental home as none of youth who were married was recorded to still live at home. A larger number of youths who had attained (or in process) college and university education were seen to be living with parents/youth still being at home, reason being they still needed instrumental support and care. As for economic characteristics, employment played a crucial role in youth leaving parental homes recording over 62.4% of youth who were employed living independently although type of job did not have a significant association with leaving home. P-value>0.05). Majority of youth coming from households with higher incomes offered a more comfortable lifestyle, which was attractive. Majority of youth had the notion that parents financial obligation to their children should end right after getting employment. Conversely, soaring costs of living was found to be the biggest challenge facing youth who had already transitioned to independent living. The study therefore pointed out the need for government and institutions that support youth to design and implement effective programmes that will support these on their path to adulthood in order to encourage youth to be independent from their parents.