Question:
Discuss about the Relationship Between The Children And Their Parents.
One of the most elemental relationships in the society can be considered the relationship between the children and their parents. Despite of love, care and a sense of responsibility, a significant part of the relationship between the children and their parents, is founded on the concept of dependence. It has to be mentioned in this context that, the children depend on their parents for a myriad of resources, for food, shelter, clothing, mostly all the basic necessities of life. However, as the children grow up to be adult human beings, the dependence factor of the relationship is slowly but steadily reduced. In most cases the parents cease from supporting their children with financial resources as they move through their early adulthood. However, the question in this regard can be whether the lack of financial support imparts a detrimental effect on the lives of the adult children and whether the parents should continue to support their children financially even after they are past the legal age of adulthood (Fingerman et al., 2012).
According to a vast majority of research scientists, the importance of familial ties is much more influential than the romantic ties in human life. It has to be mentioned that familial ties are not just multidimensional but are also multidirectional. And for the same purpose the extent of relationship ties on the children and parents have been studied very extensively. However, it has to be mentioned as well, that the extent of responsibility and the extent as the familial ties of the adult children towards their parents have been studied more extensively while the counterpart have not been studied as extensively yet. However, the financial support provided to the children by their parents serves to be one of the most fundamental pillars of their life. Hence when that support is suddenly pulled from their lives, the support system and psychology of the children suffers significantly (Kirkpatrick Johnson, 2013).
On the other hand the conventional ideologies in the society dictate that the adult children are ought to provide financial assistance to their parents. However, according to the most of the research analysts and critiques, there is a fundamental law in this societal preconceived notion. There are many instances where the children despite being in the years of early adulthood cannot afford to take financial responsibility of their parents and therefore, such predestined societal expectations complicate the scenario significantly where the extra load responsibilities may potentially affect the relationship status and psychological inclinations in the children towards their parents (Chevalier et al., 2013). If we examine the statistics of the role familial relationships play in the Australian context, it can be stated that when people felt their financial resources to be dwindling and their own earnings are not sufficient to keep them afloat, the support from the family helps in elevating the stress and overcoming the challenges that low financial strength imposes on day to day life. in such situations, financial support from the parents to their adult children have been proved to be one of the most supportive factors in the lives of the adults and contributes significantly on maintaining the lifestyle standards of the children (Wightman et al,, 2013).
One of the most important elements that have the maximal impact on the issue under consideration is the fact that parental obligation for providing financial support to the children is slowly diminished as the children become adults. However, many of the authors have indicated this preconceived societal notion to be wrong and rather detrimental to the psychological wellbeing of the children. According to Daatland, Herlofson & Lima, (2011), withdrawing parental financial support in the young adulthood can facilitate many hardships in the lives of the children. It has to be understood that most of the young adults pursue higher education in this phase of life, and parental financial support provides the massive chunk of financial stability in their life. On a similar note, Padilla-Walker, Nelson & Carroll, 2012, argued this phase of early adulthood to be a semi-independent phase in their lives when they still are trying to get enough educational qualifications that will enable them to be completely financially independent. If parental financial support is withdrawn in that stage, the children have been seen to discontinue pursuing higher education and the lifestyle standard of the children is compromised. And often these children are found to move astray towards the darker side of life.
Elaborating on this issue a bit more, it can be considered that in most cases where when children earn according to the basic lifestyle standards in the adulthood, they delve to the darker side of the society, whether trying to make more money by improper means or decide to quit trying. A vast proportion of the young adult suicide rates can be linked to the fact that they could not afford to financially support themselves on their own and without getting any support, delve towards suicidal tendencies. Along with that, tendencies towards recreational drugs can also be associated with the inability of young adults to support themselves financially (Hamilton, 2013).
Now, another important issue to the fact is that young adult children receive differential extent of support depending on the socio-economic status of the family that they belong to. Studies have revealed that children from upper class or middle class families receive higher financial support than the support that children of lower or working class families get. According to the studies by Beijersbergen et al., (2012), most of the children who do not receive financial support in the early adulthood belong to families that lack financial stability. The pressure of maintaining financial stability is seen to force the children to leave their education abruptly.
Hence, based on the information that is available in the published journal it can be interpreted that the impact of parental financial support is extremely important for the overall wellbeing of the young adult children. However it has to be understood there is a significant gap in the literature, and one of the most important sectors in this idea can be the fact that the previous research studies have only focussed on the need for parental financial support and how it is imperative for the wellbeing of children (Hartnett et al., 2013). However, there is significant detrimental impact of extended financial support from parents on the financial independence of the children. Excessive parental support can lead to children not feeling the need for financial independence and their dependency can continue to increase. In such scenarios it is very important to standardize parental financial support to their children, so that an age bar can be identified beyond which the children can be hoped to attain financial stability and parental financial support can be withdrawn without potentially causing any harm to the well being of the children (Leonard, 2013).
Along with that, changes in parental perception are another key issue that has not been explored in previous researches. As the extent of support depends on the perception of the parents regarding the need for financial support on the lives of their children, this research study will attempt to explore whether children ought to provide financial support to parents during financial difficulty or parents needs to provide financial support to children during financial difficulty.
The main intention of this research was to explore people’s insight regarding the norm of extending support to family members during financial crisis. Research on this topic came from the explanation of filial obligations and parental obligations in family norms. Filial obligation was related to responsibility of children to provide financial help to parents during financial difficulties whereas parental obligations was defined as the parents duty to extend financial support to their children when they face financial issues in life (Daatland, Herlofson & Lima, 2011). The research question for the study was related to these two obligations as it aimed to explore whether people favour filial obligations or parental obligations in times of financial difficulties. The main expectation from the survey results was to gain useful information regarding support for filial or parental obligations and the character of filial norms or parental norms in different age groups and gender. The t-test of the participant’s response mainly revealed that participants were more in favour of children providing support to parents financially rather than parents supporting children financially. However, the most critical aspect of this response is to determine the relationship between age of participants and their response to the research question. Analysing this aspect of the result was critical because there are some people who feel that parental support and attention is important for children till adolescence whereas other people feel that parents are responsible for children even when they reach adulthood (Jones, 2014).
The statistical analysis of the results in the context of examining the relationship between age of participants and their response to survey questionnaire revealed a positive relationship between age and level of disagreement that children should support parents financially. This implies that with increase in age, participants gave less agreement to the fact that children should support parents financially. On the contrary, increase in age was linked with greater support for parental obligations for supporting their children financially. This is indeed a significant opinion, however it also points out to the inconsistency in research outcome. For instance, the overall response favours that children should support their parents financially, however there is a need to identify why increase in age of participants is associated with less agreement for children supporting their parents financially. This means that there must be a link to cultural factors, family background and economic background of the participants that might be changing the opinion of participants with age. For instance, some adult children might be financially dependent on their parents due to low esteem and issues of depression and social anxiety in their life (Cohen, Mannarino & Deblinger, 2016). On the other hand, parents with a strong financial background may not rely on financial support and they might have inculcated the same values to their children that everyone needs to be independent. Level of affection might also be a factor that encourages parents to support children financially all the time (Neal & Hammer, 2017).
The strength of the research procedure is that questions were tactically designed to analyse the factors that affect response of participants in relation to the research question. For instance, question 13 and 21 focused on evaluating the rationale behind supporting parental or filial obligation and the options provided to participants included history of relationship between parent and children, level of affection between parent and child, importance of fostering independence and the financial circumstances of the adult. According to conventional view, all parents who bring a child into existence are obligated to care for their child at times. This view about parental obligations is given in studies mainly in the context of rearing the child and caring for them during their upbringing (Swartz & O’Brien, 2016). However, there is lack of insight regarding how the role may reverse once their child grows into a financially independent and mature adult. The main significant of this research is that survey with participants between age group of 18 to 77 years has clarified whether the role of parents has reversed or not. The relationship between parental obligation to their adult children and vice versa in different contexts have been tactically explored by the survey questionnaire 13 and 21. In this context, the highest response was found in the level of affection between parents followed by parent’s financials circumstances. This is also consistent with Schwarz et al., (2005) opinion that parent-child relationship is characterized by emotional bond and frequent contact. Hence, support given to parents has links with norms and values of child and the quality of relationship between parent-child.
The survey was successful in finding out whether filial obligation or parental obligation is favoured by participants. In addition, exploring the outcome related to the relationship of the response with age of participants was an effective step as it helped to explore the transition from foster care to emerging adulthood and the quality of intimate relationship between parent-child. The relationship between less agreement for children supporting parents with increasing age is also understood from Kirkpatrick Johnson, (2013) study as it discussed about the diversifying transition to adulthood and longer time taken by young people to achieve financial independence. In this context, the positive relation between age and disagreement with children obligation to provide financial support to parents is justified. In addition, young generation today remain in semi-independent state for a longer time due to high investment in higher education and job training. For this reason, seeking financial assistance from parents for a longer age is justified.
The benefits of conducting research in the area of filial obligation and parental obligation is that it has helped to explore the changes in parent-child relationship, perception of family values and perception of independence with time and cultural context. The participants’ response has favoured that children should financially support their parents and this is reflective that relationship bond and family values favour such response. The role of parenting has been found critical in inculcating family values and family support in young children. For instance, Chen, Wu, & (2016) has discussed that filial piety is a culture specific concept where emotional and material support offered to children is embedded in the sociocultural context of family interdependence. Positive correlation exists between filial piety and reduced parent-child conflict. Hence, from the psychological point of view, this outcome may help psychologist to address conflicting issues in parent-child relationship and counsel both depressed children and parents regarding improving their relationship in life. This is because they can understand the psychological dynamics behind the children’s actions for providing financial support to their parents and vice versa.
In terms of methodological challenges in conducting the research, it can be said that difference in age group of participants increased the analytical work for the study. This is because all data needed to precisely analyse with respect to age. One limitation is that four people did not reveal their age However, in a sample of 284 adults, it may have negligible effects. Another limitation of this study is that health issues of parents or their children were not included in survey questionnaire. This might have affected the response of participants because research has showed that children with mental illness or depression are likely to require more financial support from parents (Hazel et al., 2014). Hence, future research should focus on this area to enhance the transferability of the research. Another limitation is that the study cannot be replicated in other countries because in countries in Asia and Africa, adults are expected to financially support their aging parents and research done in these countries would have given contrasting results. Despite this limitation, finding will also contribute to important implications for informing parenting practice. This is because developmental outcomes of children is affected by the parenting support given to them in their early years of life. Reciprocal filial piety will develop positive development outcomes and values in children and parents may be educated about the importance of effective parenting in developing supportive norm and family values in their children. This is likely to foster positive parent-child relationship
References
Beijersbergen, M. D., Juffer, F., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., & van IJzendoorn, M. H. (2012). Remaining or becoming secure: Parental sensitive support predicts attachment continuity from infancy to adolescence in a longitudinal adoption study. Developmental psychology, 48(5), 1277.
Chen, W. W., Wu, C. W., & Yeh, K. H. (2016). How parenting and filial piety influence happiness, parent–child relationships and quality of family life in Taiwanese adult children. Journal of Family Studies, 22(1), 80-96.
Chevalier, A., Harmon, C., O’Sullivan, V., & Walker, I. (2013). The impact of parental income and education on the schooling of their children. IZA Journal of Labor Economics, 2(1), 8.
Cohen, J. A., Mannarino, A. P., & Deblinger, E. (2016). Treating trauma and traumatic grief in children and adolescents. Guilford Publications.
Daatland, S. O., Herlofson, K., & Lima, I. A. (2011). Balancing generations: on the strength and character of family norms in the West and East of Europe. Ageing & Society, 31(7), 1159-1179.
Fingerman, K. L., Cheng, Y. P., Wesselmann, E. D., Zarit, S., Furstenberg, F., & Birditt, K. S. (2012). Helicopter parents and landing pad kids: Intense parental support of grown children. Journal of Marriage and Family, 74(4), 880-896.
Hamilton, L. T. (2013). More is more or more is less? Parental financial investments during college. American Sociological Review, 78(1), 70-95.
Hartnett, C. S., Furstenberg, F. F., Birditt, K. S., & Fingerman, K. L. (2013). Parental support during young adulthood: Why does assistance decline with age?. Journal of family issues, 34(7), 975-1007.
Hazel, N. A., Oppenheimer, C. W., Technow, J. R., Young, J. F., & Hankin, B. L. (2014). Parent relationship quality buffers against the effect of peer stressors on depressive symptoms from middle childhood to adolescence. Developmental psychology, 50(8), 2115.
Johnson, M. D., & Galambos, N. L. (2014). Paths to intimate relationship quality from parent–adolescent relations and mental health. Journal of Marriage and Family, 76(1), 145-160.
Jones, L. P. (2014). The role of social support in the transition from foster care to emerging adulthood. Journal of Family Social Work, 17(1), 81-96.
Kirkpatrick Johnson, M. (2013). Parental financial assistance and young adults’ relationships
Leonard, J. (2013). Maximizing college readiness for all through parental support. School Community Journal, 23(1), 183.’
Neal, M. B., & Hammer, L. B. (2017). Working couples caring for children and aging parents: Effects on work and well-being. Psychology Press.
Padilla-Walker, L. M., Nelson, L. J., & Carroll, J. S. (2012). Affording emerging adulthood: Parental financial assistance of their college-aged children. Journal of Adult Development, 19(1), 50-58.
Schwarz, B., Trommsdorff, G., Albert, I., & Mayer, B. (2005). Adult parent–child relationships: Relationship quality, support, and reciprocity. Applied Psychology, 54(3), 396-417.
Swartz, T. T., & O’Brien, K. B. (2016). Intergenerational support during the transition to adulthood. Routledge Handbook of Youth and Young Adulthood, 205.
Wightman, P. D., Patrick, M., Schoeni, R. F., & Schulenberg, J. E. (2013). Historical trends in parental financial support of young adults. Population Studies Center Research Report, (13-801).
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