Citation
Li, Pinding (2016). How parent-child financial exchange influences adult children's depressive symptoms.
Abstract
This thesis examines how family relationships and financial exchange influence the depressive symptoms of adult children. In contemporary U.S. society, adult children face challenges that may influence their depressive symptoms. Compared with their older parents, contemporary adult children have limited financial and social resources to overcome crises in their lives. If adult children cannot solve these problems, their financial stress will increase their depressive symptoms. This research proposes that adult children’s unemployment and the parent-children financial relationship influence the depressive symptoms of adult children. The data for the research comes from Add Health, a longitudinal study of a nationality representative sample of adolescent to adult health. The sample for this research consists of respondents aged 25-34. The thesis uses several indicators to analyze the effects of parent-child financial and social relationships. Key independent variables include unemployment, financial exchange, and social relationship. The dependent variable is a commonly used measure of depressive symptoms (CES-D). This thesis uses regression and descriptive statistics to analyze five hypotheses. The results show three findings. Firstly, unemployment is associated with higher depressive symptoms. Secondly, both financial supports from parents and to parents are associated with higher depressive symptoms. Finally, social supports from parents have multiple influences on adult children’s depressive symptoms. Better communication with mothers is associated with higher depressive symptoms. Further research should pay attention to two perspectives: 1) relationship with other family members 2) small sums of financial supports.
URL
http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6021&context=etdKeyword(s)
family crisis theory
Reference Type
Thesis/Dissertation
Book Title
Sociology
Author(s)
Li, Pinding
Year Published
2016
Volume Number
M.S.
Publisher
Iowa State University
Reference ID
9109
