Parents with adult children still living at home are typically spending £1,200 a year more to keep their household running than those whose offspring have flown the nest, a report suggests.

Research by the Centre for the Modern Family, a think tank set up by Scottish Widows, looked at the strain that the boomerang generation of young people who cannot afford to leave home are having on their parents.

The Meet the Full Nesters report found that parents with a "full nest" of grown-up children report that their household spending is around £460 per month, which is £100 a month more than "empty nesters", adding up to an extra £1,200 a year.

Around 2.7 million households in the UK are estimated to have adult children still living in the home they grew up in.

Parents with a full nest were found to be more likely to say they were pouring less money into their savings, raiding their savings accounts, shopping at cheaper supermarkets, using "value" brands, spending on credit cards, going overdrawn, working extra hours and even selling off valuables in order to get by.

Almost half (44%) of full nesters surveyed said that their current focus is on providing for their family, compared with less than one quarter (23%) of empty nesters.

One third (32%) of full nesters do not expect they will ever get the financial help they have given to their children back.

Full nest parents' inability to focus on their plans for later life was also a cause for concern, with 24% of full nesters surveyed saying they wished they could concentrate more on preparing for their own future.