Parent-Child Proximity: Automatic Cognitions Matter.

Individuals' moving behavior (e.g., residential mobility) is an emerging topic in many scientific disciplines. One specific aspect is the distance between parents and their children (i.e., parent-child proximity). Although determinants and moderators of parent-child proximity can be manifold, we concentrated on the psychological concepts self-esteem and affect by assessing explicit (i.e., conscious) and implicit (i.e., automatic) aspects. Besides well-known correlates of moving behavior (e.g., education), we found that participants ( N = 1,765; cross-sectional design) with high positive explicit affect and low negative implicit affect moved further away from their parents' homes. Therefore, parent-child proximity may not be only based on fundamental sociocultural and socioeconomic needs (e.g., income, family bonds), but also on automatic psychological aspects, such as implicit affect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]