Growing Up in Uncertain Times: Privilege, Disadvantage and Parent-Child Relations during the Extended Transition to Adulthood

• In Event: 171 - Thematic Session. Children's Work and Children's Play during Hard Times

Abstract

A primary expectation of parents in the contemporary United States is to prepare their children for achievement and independence. Parents do so by investing in their children’s human and cultural capital development, trying to ensure that their children succeed in increasingly competitive educational institutions and uncertain labor markets. During the past few decades, as the transition to adulthood has become increasingly varied and prolonged (Settersten et al. 2005), many parents have continued to support their children into young adulthood. Extended reliance on parents is common with three-quarters of young people in their early twenties receiving financial support from their parents, and nearly 60% of those in this age group living with their parents (Hill and Holzer 2007; Wightman, Schoeni and Robinson 2012). In fact, one recent study found that the early adult years, along with the pre-school years, are the two periods in which parents spend the most money on their children today (Kornrich and Furstenberg 2013). This paper draws on both survey data and interviews with young people and parents to explore the circumstances and rationales around continued parental support to young adults, and its effects on young people’s attainment and on family relationships. Findings suggest that parents act as “scaffolding” to help their children achieve goals, and “safety nets” to help them through hard times and to keep them from falling too far behind. Attention is paid to the relevance of social class, race, and immigrant generation, as well as situations in which young adult children assist their parents. Furthermore, the paper discusses the implications of continued parental support during the transition to adulthood for the intergenerational transmission of privilege and disadvantage.

Author

• Teresa Toguchi Swartz, University of Minnesota