- The Federal Reserve study, “Recent Changes in U.S. Family Finances,” provides
information about the composition of debt held by young adults and the degree
to which households headed by young adults are experiencing financial distress.
The charts reproduce information from this study. Young adults hold a number
of different types of debt, though home-related debt represents the biggest
share of total liabilities.
-
Parents spending more time and money
-
Parents provide, on average, $38,000 in material assistance for their
child between age 18 and 24. [Schoeni
chapter brief]
-
Youth who receive financial help from parents, whether living with
them or not, receive, on average, $3,400 a year. Those who are living
with their parents receive between $4,500 and $5,000 a year. [Schoeni
chapter brief]
- Since the 1970s, there has been a 50% increase in the number of young
adults in their 20s living at home, which alone has led to a 13% increase
in parental shared housing costs. [Schoeni
chapter brief]
- Children in the top one-fourth of income categories receive at least
70% more in material assistance than do children in the bottom one-fourth.
This occurs even though higher-income youth are only 10–15% more
likely to attend college than low-income youth. Both low-income and high-income
parents spend almost identical amounts of time helping their children,
at 3,864 and 3,869 hours, per year, respectively. [Schoeni
chapter brief]
- Although slightly more than half of men and nearly two-thirds of women
had left their parents’ home by age 22, 16% of both returned home
at some point before age 35 [Mouw
chapter brief]
SOURCE: Unless otherwise noted, all data from On the Frontier of Adulthood:
Theory, Research, and Public Policy, edited by Richard Settersten,
Jr., Frank Furstenberg, Jr., and Ruben Rumbaut. frontiers.htm.
Names in parenthesis indicate chapter author,
and accompanying policy brief based on the book.
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