Finish high school, work and travel in Australia, move far away
from your parents to study to live the great freedom and make the
friends of a lifetime. This is commonly seen as the mantra among
German students.
But reality looks quite different. While especially women
studying arts, veterinary medicine or nutrition sciences show high
rates of mobility, it is male engineers that top off the stay home
ranking. More than 2/3 of all German students stay in the same
region they went to school in. Some federal states like Bavaria
(79,4%) have especially high stay-home rates.
Hotel Mama is healthier
Is this unwise? Maybe not. Research by Usem, a French health
insurer, shows that this might in fact be a smart strategy.
Particularly students that continue living with their parents after
high school tend to have a healthier lifestyle. Hotel Mama proves
to be a health spa.
Usem inquired with 8.500 students how much alcohol, cigarettes
and other drugs they consume. Data indicated that 1 out of 3
students sharing a flat with peers would consume extraordinary
amounts of alcohol. An individual consumes extraordinary amounts of
alcohol if he/she drinks at least three glasses of beer/wine twice
a week or more than seven glasses per month.
Among students living with their parents, only 1 out of 6
students admitted to drinking at such levels. If a headache and
other symptoms of becoming sick set in, 2/3 of these stay homers
would go straight to the doctor. For students living in shared
flats this is only the case for 50% of the people.