Add Health Researcher, Dr. Anna Manzoni, at North Carolina State University used Add Health data to conduct research on parental financial support and living arrangements for young adults interviewed at Wave IV. Manzoni was interested in how young adults become independent of their parents.
She looked at data on 6,471 respondents between the ages of 18 and 32 who participated in the Add Health study. She found that 41.4% of the participants who were between the ages of 25 and 32 still relied on financial support from their parents.
Additionally, respondents who attended four-year colleges and those from higher socioeconomic backgrounds were much more likely to be partially independent in their early 20’s.
While those from higher socioeconomic background tended to be more partially independent on their parents, individuals who attended college were more likely to become financially independent by their late 20’s and early 30’s.
Results from this study also suggest that full or partial independence may lead youth from lower socioeconomic backgrounds into renewed dependence on their parents later in life.
For more information on living arrangements in young adulthood for our Wave IV respondents, please see our Research Brief on this topic.
Scholarly source:
Manzoni, A. Intergenerational Financial Transfers and Young Adults’ Transitions In and Out of the Parental Home Social Currents 2329496515616822, first published on November 26, 2015 doi:10.1177/2329496515616822 Available here