Getting on their bikes: teenagers leaving home in Scotland in the 1980s

New restrictions on the payment of income support and housing benefit
to young people are likely to affect their ability to leave the family home.
Yet little is known about the sorts of young people who leave home and
the likely effects of the changes. This paper uses nationally representative
data to look at the characteristics of Scottish teenagers who have left
home, the reasons they gave for leaving home and the sorts of problems
they faced on leaving. We also examine the labour market experiences of
teenage leavers, and compare their experiences with young people who
remained in the family home.