One impact of the Great Recession has been to elongate the transition from child to adulthood, as students and post-graduates take longer to become economically independent. A new study in the Journal of Marriage and Family assesses the risk the ‘bank of mom and dad’ poses to the child-parent bond.
75% of sampled 18-28 years olds reported that a parent had provided financial support in the past year, with most young adults receiving more than $1000. While this support was not found to impact a child’s self-esteem, symptoms of depression were found to increase in the 24 – 31 age groups; especially for children who received support while working full time or after moving in with a partner.
Encouragingly for parents, the study also revealed that financial support can reassure a child that their parents are there for them during the difficult transition into adulthood. The child-parent bond was found to be strengthened across the age groups and only increased in line with regularity and amounts given.
“It shouldn’t be too surprising that as the world changes, the way we parent and invest in our children’s futures changes too,” said Professor Monica Fitzpatrick Johnson. “I am less concerned about a small risk of undermining the well-being of those young adults who do get financial support than I am about the futures of those young adults who do not get support, either from family or social institutions.”
