Laundering Dependence: Cultural Contradictions of Parental Financial Support in Young Adulthood

• In Event: 30467 - Intensive Parenting Practices from Early Childhood to the Transition to Adulthood

Abstract

How do individuals navigate tensions between cultural ideals and seemingly contradictory practices? This study examines this theoretical puzzle through the case of parent/child financial relationships in young adulthood, drawing on paired interviews with a socioeconomically diverse sample of Black, White, and ethnic Chinese U.S. college graduates (aged 27-33) and their parents (N=145). I identify two types of “laundering strategies” families use to transform problematic parental transfers into more acceptable arrangements: (1) changing the form of support and (2) imposing limits on the amount. Across all three ethnoracial groups, these strategies primarily appear in the most affluent families, where greater parental resources create situations in which the amount of parental support perceived as “available” exceeds what is considered “appropriate” to give or receive. However, significant ethnoracial differences emerge regarding (1) which generation initiates the laundering strategies and (2) the meanings ascribed to them, revealing distinctive interpretations of “independence” across groups. The findings contribute to literatures in economic sociology, cultural sociology, and social stratification, revealing novel mechanisms through which families manage cultural contradictions to reproduce economic privilege across generations.

Author

• Elena G. Van Stee, University of Pennsylvania