Examining the life course sequence of intending to move and moving

There is now a substantial body of research that examines the process of making decisions about moving. The questions of interest in that work and in this study using U.S. data are, first, how do life course changes get translated into intentions to move and, second, to what extent are intentions realised or unrealised. This study extends previous work by considering a longer interval in the planning process and by examining how life cycle changes create intentions, which in turn are translated, or not, into actual moves. We study the antecedents of the expressed intention to move and the outcomes that follow the expressed intention to move. We test the process of forming intentions and moving in the context of life course events and changes. We find that the subset of variables that create the intention to move vary subtly from the variables that create moves, though the triggering effects of family composition change are critical dimensions of both creating intentions and fulfilling those intentions by moving.