How does your home reflect your personality? Taking away the photographs and the personal identifiers, what in your home reflects how you like to live, your attitude, your mood, your personality?

Recent graduates, espcially men,are increasingly returning to live with their parents after graduating­- Kathryn Borg

If you rent, how do you reflect your personality on a furnished home? By reflecting yourself, you make your home welcome and a safe and secure place to return to each day. The difference is between a faceless hotel room and a place where you feel good, cosy and more importantly relaxed. How, too, do you reflect your personality on a home which you share with your parents?

More and more adult children are choosing to remain at home with their parents for economical reasons. The economic crisis has affected family life in many ways, one of which is the lack of opportunity, funds and loans for 20-somethings to go out and invest in a new property or even a rented home of their own.

For example, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in the UK says that many young adults in their mid-20s and early 30s, especially men, are increasingly postponing the transition to full adulthood by living in the parental nest.

One in three ‘adult-kids’ who have not left home say they cannot afford to get a toehold in the property ladder by either renting or buying. Many, however, are staying through choice; they are being termed as kippers – kids in parents’ pockets.

In comparison to European ‘kid-adults’, those in the UK have always tended to leave home earlier. However, latest ONS figures show that 25 per cent of men aged 25 to 29 now live at home.

This is double the proportion of women in their late 20s (13 per cent) who still live at home. Could that be because women are ‘home makers’ and like to inflict a personality on the home around them?

The statisticians show also that among those who have left the family nest there has been a shift from their moving in with a partner to living alone or sharing with others.

The demographers say the reasons behind the change vary according to social class, and that the past 20 years since 1988 have seen changes in the opportunities and constraints faced by young people in their transition to independent living.

On the one hand, the massive expansion in higher education has seen the number of undergraduate students triple in the UK since 1970, from 414,000 to 1.27 million (figures in the UK). On the other hand, the collapse of the youth labour market during the 1980s has been followed by a continuation of high unemployment rates despite periods of relative economic buoyancy.

“The recent recession has been accompanied by a sharp increase in unemployment rates among young adults,” says an article by Ann Berrington, Julie Stone and Jane Falkingham of Southampton University, published in the latest edition of Population Trends.

The authors say recent graduates, especially men, are increasingly returning to live with their parents after graduating. The demographers call this group the “boomerang children”.

Their numbers are being swelled by the increasing levels of student debt they have accumulated by the time they finish their studies. And those with few educational qualifications are increasingly facing long periods of unemployment and cannot afford to leave home.

One of the advantages of having your own home, be it rented or purchased accommodation, is that you can learn to project your personality onto your surroundings. This could be looked upon as a development in growing up. It helps us ‘find ourselves’, discover our tastes, beliefs, and the substance of our real, true personality.

It may not seem important in the growing-up process, but to plan, design and purchase items for your own home helps everyone’s development. It shows who you are.

The lack of being able to develop this area of your life, as well as postponing marriage and family life, is almost like missing out on an education.

Even when the young adults do finally leave the nest, the 20 and 30-somethings are still postponing the moment of settling down with a significant other. This is borne out by the fact that the average age for forming a stable partnership and having children is rising among more affluent young adults.

The report notes: “Over the past 20 years there has been a move away from living in a new family (especially a couple) and a move towards living outside a family (either alone or sharing with others).

These changes mean that “many more advantaged young adults appear not ready to settle down during their 20s and are likely to return to the parental home before setting off once more”.

The social scientists add: “For this latter group of ‘emergent adults’, living with a parent may often be the preferred option until partnership or family formation.

What can we learn from these statistics? There is no doubt that putting your mark on your surroundings helps you become a different person. If you have to stay at home with parents, live in furnished rented accommodation or share with someone else, you can still make changes to give your home your personal mark.

Look around you and consider how you can make those changes today, then sit back and feel your personality fill your living space.