What Gen Y Is Not Getting From Their Parents
Despite their reputation as being coddled, the majority of Gen Y are not getting any financial help from their parents. A new survey has found that 69 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 29 receive little financial support from their parents.
Financial assistance from parents was most common among young adults, between the ages of 18 and 21, but even then only 28 percent said they received some sort of financial assistance from their parents. As those adults got older, assistance continued to drop. Just 13 percent of adults ages 22-25 and 6 percent of adults ages 26-29 received help from their parents.
"Financial independence is among the most important criteria for adulthood, from the perspective of emerging adults," said Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, a psychology professor at Clark University in Massachusetts who conducted the research. "They prefer not to rely on their parents, because doing so often comes with strings attached."
Not only are young adults declining to rely on their parents for financial assistance, they are willing to face struggles on their own if necessary. The research found that 75 percent of young adults would rather live independently of their parents even if it is a struggle to do so financially.
"Our research shows that parental support of emerging adult children diminishes as these children age into their 20s and also tends to focus on one-time expenses, such as furniture or a car repair, rather than ongoing assistance — although we have seen that keeping grown-up kids on a cell phone plan tends to be the last remnant of parental support," said Arnett.
The research was based on the responses of 1,029 interviews of young adults between the ages of 18 and 29.
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