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Moving out from the childhood home is an essential transition in most young people's lives. Based on the concept of 'belonging', this article explores how young people obtain a sense of belonging to a new place after leaving their childhood homes. The article explores the heterogeneous processes involved in the process of coming to belong to a new place. The article is based on a longitudinal interview study involving 36 Danish young people, whom we have followed for 12 months in their process of leaving home. In the interviews, the young people talk about their feelings and thoughts in relation to this transition. The initial period, in which young people establish themselves in a new place is often characterised by feelings of insecurity. The article shows how young people act upon these feelings and in doing so create a sense of belonging to a new place through heterogeneous affective, material, relational and spatial processes linked to self-construction. The article thereby nuances the concept of belonging and argues that the establishment of belonging to a new place is a multidimensional performative process of 'holding oneself in place'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops a nuanced understanding of the role of parents when young people move away from home. The moving processes of young people have grown more temporary and reversible, and parents are increasingly expected to be involved in the lives of their children after they move away from home. This points to changes in the notions of parenthood, which have been described as 'involved parenting'. Building on qualitative interviews with 36 Danish young people and their parents, the article contributes to differentiating this involved parenting by presenting a typology of parents' practical and emotional involvement in the moving processes of young people, and the consequences thereof on the young people's experiences of leaving home. The article identifies three principles for parents' involvement in the moving processes of young people: 'The bulging heart', 'The soft nudge', and 'The slammed door'. Whereas the first two principles relate to parents deeply involved in their children's moving process, the third relates to parents who are far more distant. Despite the pervasive criticism of 'curling parents' who are overly involved in the lives of their children, the article shows that leaving home is particularly difficult for young people of distant parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]