Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.This study is a follow up from earlier survey work conducted in 1997, 'Individual and Household Strategies: A Decade of Change?' (held at the UK Data Archive under SN:4038). The aim of the earlier study was to further develop understanding of individual and household planning behaviour by collecting information on 200 individuals aged 20-29 (and their partners where they have one) living in Kirkcaldy district. As respondents to that study frequently suggested, the most telling changes in the local labour market had the greatest impact on those under the age of thirty. This was confirmed by the existing research literature on younger age groups. This points to rapid changes in their personal behaviour over the 1980s and 1990s such as 'delayed' marriage and childbearing, the growth of cohabitation and living away from home, the expanded numbers in further education, all in the context of an increasingly 'insecure' local labour market. The aim of the present study was therefore to extend understanding of people's planning behaviour by extending the research focus to look at a younger age group of people aged 20-29. This group was, for the reasons stated above, likely to show some marked differences in their planning behaviour from those older age groups involved in earlier work. In addition, there were also likely to be distinct differences in the familial and employment circumstances of young people in this age group, ranging from those completing their course in full-time further education, to others still living at home with parents, and to those in more or less settled relationships with partners or in single adult households with young children. The questions for the present study were intended to find out about young people's plans throughout their lives so far and the kind of financial and human resources needed to carry them through. Of special interest was how they respond to the...