As parents watch their young adult children navigate the transition to adulthood, they’re feeling more proud and hopeful than disappointed or worried.
And they’re highly invested in how life turns out for their kids. Most parents of young adults (71%) say their children’s successes and failures reflect on the job they’ve done as parents. This is especially true of upper-income parents.
A pair of new surveys from Pew Research Center finds the lives of parents and their young adult children (ages 18 to 34) are closely knit together through emotional and financial ties.
Most parents of young adults (71%) say their children’s successes and failures reflect on the job they’ve done as parents.
Parents are very involved in their young adult children’s lives. Majorities say they text (73%) or talk on the phone (54%) with a young adult child at least a few times a week. About six-in-ten (59%) say they’ve helped their children financially in the past year.
Most young adults are fine with their parents’ level of involvement in their lives: 69% say their parents are about as involved in their day-to-day lives as they’d like them to be. About one-in-five (22%) say their parents aren’t involved enough, while only 9% say their parents are too involved. Majorities of young adults say they turn to their parents for advice at least sometimes on their jobs, finances and even their physical health.
Moms are in more frequent contact with their young adult children than dads are. And mothers are more likely than fathers to tell their children to turn to them for advice extremely or very often.
In many cases, mothers stand out as particularly connected with their young adult children. Moms are in more frequent contact with their young adult children than dads are. And mothers are more likely than fathers to tell their children to turn to them for advice extremely or very often. In addition, young adults are more likely to say they can be their true selves all or most of the time with their moms than to say the same about their dads. Moms and daughters are especially closely connected, with many relying on each other for emotional support.
Fewer than half of young adults ages 18 to 34 (45%) say they’re completely financially independent from their parents, although this differs widely by age. Among those who are not financially independent, most (75%) say they think they’ll eventually get there. And parents are similarly optimistic about this.
One-in-four parents (25%) say they track their young adult child’s location with GPS apps, even if only rarely. Most of the tracking is being done of 18- to 24-year-olds. Among parents answering about a child in this age range, 42% say they track their location. In addition, parents are more likely to say they track their daughters than their sons (31% vs. 21%).
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