Historical Trends in Parental Financial Support of Young Adults

Patrick Wightman, University of Michigan
Megan Patrick, University of Michigan
Robert Schoeni, University of Michigan
John Schulenberg, University of Michigan

Relative to 30 years ago, young adults are taking longer to complete school, begin careers, get married and have children. Moreover, the number of pathways describing the ordering of these events has greatly proliferated. These trends are well-documented. In contrast, very little is known regarding parental financial support provided to their post-adolescent, pre-adulthood children over this period. This is largely because information on these kinds of intra-family transfers in large-scale, nationally-representative datasets is either not collected or, where available, restricted to specific and/or recent cohorts. Using data from the national Monitoring the Future (MTF) study we are able to address this topic. Preliminary analysis shows increases in the number of young adults receiving support, as well as the level and duration of support. Furthermore, the cohort-sequential, longitudinal design of the MTF allows us to examine how these patterns vary with the demographic and economic changes in the transition to adulthood.