IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jfamec/v39y2018i2d10.1007_s10834-017-9558-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Should Parents Financially Support their Adult Children? Normative Views in Australia

Author

Listed:
  • Deirdre Drake

    (Edith Cowan University)

  • Justine Dandy

    (Edith Cowan University)

  • Jennifer M. I. Loh

    (Edith Cowan University)

  • David Preece

    (Edith Cowan University)

Abstract

Social welfare policies generally assume that parents remain responsible for adult children. Recent social changes in industrialized nations, however, have rendered family obligation norms more complex. We examined 300 Australians’ norms concerning parents’ obligations to support adult children financially. Utilizing a quasi-experimental design, we investigated the extent to which respondents agreed that parents should support adult children, and the influence of situational factors. More respondents were in favor of assisting adult children than against, but there was no consensus as to what parents should do. Respondents generally agreed on factors that should be considered, then attempted to balance parental responsibility norms with adult independence norms. Parental help was more strongly endorsed when need was considered legitimate, and when the adult child was younger. Implications for Australian social policy are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Deirdre Drake & Justine Dandy & Jennifer M. I. Loh & David Preece, 2018. "Should Parents Financially Support their Adult Children? Normative Views in Australia," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 39(2), pages 348-359, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jfamec:v:39:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1007_s10834-017-9558-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s10834-017-9558-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10834-017-9558-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10834-017-9558-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elizabeth Fussell & Anne H. Gauthier & Ann Evans, 2007. "Heterogeneity in the Transition to Adulthood: The Cases of Australia, Canada, and the United States," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 23(3), pages 389-414, October.
    2. Susan Brown & Wendy Manning, 2009. "Family boundary ambiguity and the measurement of family structure: the significance of cohabitation," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 46(1), pages 85-101, February.
    3. J. Jill Suitor & Karl Pillemer & Jori Sechrist, 2006. "Within-Family Differences in Mothers' Support to Adult Children," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 61(1), pages 10-17.
    4. Karen L. Fingerman & Lindsay M. Pitzer & Wai Chan & Kira Birditt & Melissa M. Franks & Steven Zarit, 2010. "Who Gets What and Why? Help Middle-Aged Adults Provide to Parents and Grown Children," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 66(1), pages 87-98.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Heather H. Kelley & Ashley B. LeBaron & E. Jeffrey Hill, 2021. "Family Matters: Decade Review from Journal of Family and Economic Issues," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 20-33, July.
    2. Maude Pugliese & Céline Le Bourdais & Shelley Clark, 2021. "Credit Card Debt and the Provision of Financial Support to Kin in the US," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 42(4), pages 616-632, December.
    3. Jan E. Mutchler & Nidya Velasco Roldán, 2023. "Economic Resources Shaping Grandparent Responsibility Within Three-Generation Households," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 461-472, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Laura Tach, 2012. "Family Complexity, Childbearing, and Parenting Stress: A Comparison of Mothers' and Fathers' Experiences," Working Papers 1425, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    2. repec:pri:crcwel:wp10-03-ff is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Dianxi Wang & Yufeng Zhao, 2021. "A potential new pattern of pathway to adulthood is emerging in China," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 44(42), pages 1023-1056.
    4. Lang-Wen Wendy Huang, 2013. "The Transition Tempo and Life Course Orientation of Young Adults in Taiwan," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 646(1), pages 69-85, March.
    5. María Martín-Lagos López, 2014. "The Type of Support that Adult Children Solicit from Their Mothers in European Welfare Systems," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(1), pages 209-233, May.
    6. Linus Andersson, 2020. "Oh half-brother, where art thou? The boundaries of full- and half-sibling interaction," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 43(16), pages 431-460.
    7. Kristin Turney & Marcia J. Carlson, 2010. "Multi-partnered Fertility and Mental Health among Fragile Families," Working Papers 1218, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    8. David Pelletier & Simona Bignami-Van Assche & Anaïs Simard-Gendron, 2020. "Measuring Life Course Complexity with Dynamic Sequence Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 152(3), pages 1127-1151, December.
    9. Asnat Dor & Hana Hallifa-Yunnis, 2016. "Prolonged Coresidence: Difficulties and Benefits of Israeli Arab Emerging Adults Who Live with Their Parents," International Journal of Social Science Studies, Redfame publishing, vol. 4(12), pages 47-55, December.
    10. Alessandra Giuliani & Sebastian Mengel & Courtney Paisley & Nicole Perkins & Ingrid Flink & Oliver Oliveros & Mariana Wongtschowski, 2017. "Realities, Perceptions, Challenges and Aspirations of Rural Youth in Dryland Agriculture in the Midelt Province, Morocco," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-23, May.
    11. repec:pri:crcwel:wp12-15-ff is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Andrew Cherlin, 2017. "Introduction to the Special Collection on Separation, Divorce, Repartnering, and Remarriage around the World," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 37(38), pages 1275-1296.
    13. Laura Tach, 2015. "Social Mobility in an Era of Family Instability and Complexity," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 657(1), pages 83-96, January.
    14. Corinne Reczek & Russell Spiker & Hui Liu & Robert Crosnoe, 2016. "Family Structure and Child Health: Does the Sex Composition of Parents Matter?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(5), pages 1605-1630, October.
    15. Alice Goisis, 2023. "Maternal Age at First Birth and Parental Support: Evidence From the UK Millennium Cohort Study," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(5), pages 1-33, October.
    16. Cuccaro-Alamin, Stephanie & Eastman, Andrea Lane & Foust, Regan & McCroskey, Jacquelyn & Nghiem, Huy Tran & Putnam-Hornstein, Emily, 2021. "Strategies for constructing household and family units with linked administrative records," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    17. Dilmaghani, Maryam & Dean, Jason, 2020. "Sexual orientation and homeownership in Canada," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    18. Kelly Stamper Balistreri, 2018. "Family Structure and Child Food Insecurity: Evidence from the Current Population Survey," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 138(3), pages 1171-1185, August.
    19. Paula Fomby & Joshua A. Goode & Stefanie Mollborn, 2016. "Family Complexity, Siblings, and Children’s Aggressive Behavior at School Entry," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(1), pages 1-26, February.
    20. Amy Farmer & Andrew Horowitz, 2015. "Strategic non-marital cohabitation: theory and empirical implications," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 28(1), pages 219-237, January.
    21. Judith A. Seltzer, 2019. "Family Change and Changing Family Demography," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(2), pages 405-426, April.
    22. A. S. Santos & J. McGarrigle & C. Barros & I. Albert & E. Murdock, 2024. "Ambivalence and transnational intergenerational solidarity: the perspective of highly educated Portuguese women emigrant daughters," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jfamec:v:39:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1007_s10834-017-9558-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.