Adolescents Leaving Parental Home: Psychosocial Correlates and Implications for Conservation

Author(s):

An, Li; Mertig, Angela G.; Liu, Jianguo "Jack"

Journal or Book Title: Population and Environment

Keywords: leaving parental home; Structural Equations Modeling; giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca); conservation; Wolong Nature Reserve (China)

Volume/Issue: 24/5

Page Number(s): 415-444

Year Published: 2003

Abstract:

To disclose the interplay between psychosocial antecedents of adolescents’ decisions
to leave their parental home in an ecologically sensitive region, we used structural
equation modeling to analyze data from in-person interviews of members of
220 households in Wolong Nature Reserve for giant pandas (China). We further
divided our data into two sub-samples by gender to test the hypothesis that model
parameters differ for females and males. Our findings indicate that parental attitudes/
behavior, peer behavior, and perceived availability of material/non-material
resources play a critical role in adolescents’ home-leaving decisions. This study
demonstrates an important link between psychosocial factors and biodiversity conservation.

URL: Adolescents Leaving Parental Home: Psychosocial Correlates and Implications for Conservation

Type of Publication: Journal Article

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