Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Most Parents Paying to Help Young Adults

A new study finds that more than 60% of today's young adults have received financial help from their parents. Among the 62% of young adults getting parents' help, the average amount was $12,185, says lead author Patrick Wightman of the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

Children who parents said were cheerful, self-reliant and got along well with others before age 12 were more likely to receive financial gifts or loans as young adults, Wightman says. And in families with more than one child, "if they perceive one of those kids to have a better attitude or to be more self-reliant, that kid has higher odds of receiving this type of support," he says.

The analysis is based on more than 2,000 interviews with 1,368 people ages 19-22 and their parents in 2005, 2007 and 2009.

About 42% of parents help adult children pay their bills, 35% help with college tuition, 23% help with vehicle expenses, and 22% help with rent away from home, researchers found.

Source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/wellness/story/2012-04-27/Boomer-parents-provide-financial-help/54707250/1

More Parents Happy to Keep Kids in Nest

According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, 31 percent said young adults shouldn’t have to be on their own until age 25 or older. In a 1993 Newsweek study, 80 percent of parents pegged that age at 22.

Researchers say the new study is evidence that attitudes are catching up to new norms of adulthood, shaped both by a merciless economy and cultural forces that have been shifting for decades.

“It takes longer to become financially independent these days. Parents are adapting to a new reality,” said Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, who researches the path to adulthood at Clark University’s psychology department in Worcester, Mass. He has led an effort to recognize “emerging adulthood” –– age 18 through the 20s –– as a life stage between adolescence and adulthood, characterized by instability, exploration and often financial help from parents. More parents today wind up supporting their children even into their 30s, he said.

“It’s a bit jarring to them,” said Arnett, who is writing a book for parents of emerging adults. “On the other hand, most of them are willing to provide it and provide it without doing so grudgingly. They see it as necessary to their kids’ success.”

Arnett said that cultural changes since as early as the 1960s have led young adults to delay milestones such as marriage and buying a home. Parents have fewer children and higher incomes than in the past, so they can afford to help, and young people are willing to try more jobs while looking for the right one.

Help from parents can take many forms, such as chipping in for rent, opening the door to move back home or covering health and car insurance. The cellphone plan is often the last tie to be severed, Arnett said.

Source: Columbus Dispatch
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/02/25/more-parents-happy-to-keep-kids-in-nest.html

Children Psychologically Damaged When Parents Fight Over Money

A study published in the Journal of Research on Adolescence confirms what many American children are likely feeling these days: When parents bicker over money, it seriously damages the kid’s well-being.

Depression is a given, along with falling into the black hole of substance abuse, aggression, and other amorphous “problem behaviors,” especially among teens.

And the issues don’t end there—among the parents who said they were dealing with “money-related chronic stress,” the relationships with their offspring were the most fraught with tension, and sadly, the least intimate of all the parents surveyed.

It comes as little surprise that the recession is doing a number on children’s well-being. A culmination of factors, ranging from foreclosures to unemployment and deep-seated resentment (and money lies) are putting family bonds on ever-thin ice.

Source: Financial Post
http://business.financialpost.com/2012/01/31/a-new-study-shows-how-children-are-psychologically-damaged-when-parents-fight-over-money/

Black Friday Backlash as Stores Add to Thanksgiving Hours

As stores up the ante with earlier holiday hours that creep into Thanksgiving night, Black Friday is turning into Black Thursday, and some shoppers and employees aren't happy about it.

Toys R Us said Monday that it will open at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving, an hour earlier than last year and the earliest of any retailer so far this year. Walmart will open at 10 p.m., two hours ahead of last year's midnight opening. Other stores, including Target, Macy's, Best Buy and Kohl's, will open at midnight.

Anthony Hardwick, a cart attendant at a Target in Omaha, started a campaign to protest the decision to open at midnight, four hours earlier than last year. His petition, on Change.org, calls for Target to push its opening to 5 a.m. Friday. The petition had 62,000 signatures as of late Monday.

"With the midnight open, you're going to cut into a lot of people's family time because you have to rest up if you're going to be working overnight," says Hardwick, 29. He says he'll be in bed by 2 or 3 p.m on Thanksgiving.

ConsumerSearch.com found in a recent survey of 1,003 people that 87% felt retailers should stay closed on Thanksgiving. "There's definitely a family spirit around Thanksgiving that people don't really want to see adulterated," says Christine Frietchen, editor-in-chief of the site.

Source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/story/2011-11-14/black-friday-backlash/51205118/1

Canadian Boomerang: 51% of Young Adults Live with Parents

You may know members of Generation Boomerang.

They’re 20 to 29 years old and still living at home — or they had to ‘boomerang’ home due to money, job or personal problems.

The global trend — probed in Sharon Bartlett’s documentary premiering Thursday on CBC — shows 51 per cent of young Canadian adults still live with their parents.

“It’s global. We went to Italy where 70 percent are living at home,” said the filmmaker who made Generation Boomerang, and other docs, with Maria LeRose.

“It’s a new life stage, in the same way society accepted adolescence,” Bartlett said. “It’s here for the long haul, and won’t go away when the economy gets better. Some youths are quite comfortable being at home — in many cultures it’s the norm.”

Source: bclocalnews
http://www.bclocalnews.com/entertainment/133495083.html

Average Student Loan Dept Tops $25,000

Students are graduating from college with an ever-increasing amount of student loan debt, a study from a nonprofit education group shows.

Two-thirds of all students who graduated college last year owed money for loans, and those that did held an average loan debt of $25,250, according to data from the nonprofit Institute for College Access and Success. That represents a 5% increase over the average student loan debt in 2009.

The average student loan debt shot up by 5% in 2010 and is now approaching the $30,000 mark in several states.

As bad as that may sound, the actual average debt per student might be even higher, as the report factors in only data from four-year public and private nonprofit colleges and not from for-profit institutions, which often have higher tuition costs.

The Street
http://www.thestreet.com/story/11301888/1/average-student-loan-debt-tops-25000.html

Cost of Raising a Child Skyrockets

Forget designer strollers and organic baby formula, just providing a child with the basics has become more than most parents can afford.

The cost of raising a child from birth to age 18 for a middle-income, two-parent family averaged $226,920 last year (not including college), according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That's up nearly 40% -- or more than $60,000 -- from 10 years ago. Just one year of spending on a child can cost up to $13,830 in 2010, compared to $9,860 a decade ago.

"Everything is more expensive and each family makes its own set of trade-offs," said Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute in New York. "Many parents are working longer hours, or another job, and they are giving up time at home. It's a complete catch-22."

From buying groceries to paying for gas, every major expense associated with raising a child has climbed significantly over the past decade, said Mark Lino, a senior economist at the USDA.

The battered economy has also taken a toll, of course. Many employers scaled back or even did away with medical coverage in recent years, leaving many families to cover that bill, said Lino. At the same time, costs for doctors visits, medications and other health services also climbed. As a result, health care costs for families with children rose 58% over the decade, he said.

Source: CNN Money
money.cnn.com/2011/09/21/pf/cost_raising_child/index.htm

U.S. Child Poverty Rate Hits 20%

There has been a "significant decline" in economic well-being for low-income children and families over the past decade as the official child poverty rate grew by 18 percent and poverty levels for families with children increased in 38 states, according to a new study.

Economic and housing difficulties are the main culprits, reports the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a private charitable organization that focuses on disadvantaged children.

“The recent recession has wiped out many of the economic gains for children that occurred in the late 1990s,” said Laura Speer, associate director for policy reform and data at the Casey Foundation, as the report was released Wednesday. “Nearly 8 million children lived with at least one parent who was actively seeking employment but was unemployed in 2010. This is double the number in 2007, just three years earlier.”

“The news about the number of children who were affected by foreclosure in the United States is also very troubling because these economic challenges greatly hinder the well-being of families and the nation,” said Ms. Speer.

In the United States as a whole, nearly 15 million children (20 percent) live in poverty. A broader definition of economic straits – $43,512 a year, or twice the federal poverty line for a family of four, “a minimum needed for most families to make ends meet,” as Speer puts it – includes 31 million children, or 42 percent of the total.

Source: Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2011/0817/Report-Child-poverty-rate-hits-20-percent-in-US-as-families-struggle

Outlook on Back-To-School Spending

A new study from American Express reports that while parents say they will not scrimp on what kids need to start the school year, it won't be painless: They'll cut back on restaurant spending, entertaining, and their own clothing.

The average family of four expects to spend $800 on back-to-school shopping. But 67% say they will make financial trade-offs to cover it, including dining out less (53%), spending less on entertainment (39%), and buying less clothes for themselves (37%).

Clothing is expected to be the largest expense, at $290, with another $110 for shoes and $100 for school supplies. (Many parents say they are forking over more for these, as schools cut back on what they provide to kids.) But braces (at about $2,000) and new computers and laptops ($830) are also on many parents' minds.

Unlike last year, the survey also shows a slight uptick in spending on designer clothes, with 68% of parents planning to buy big-brand sneakers, 66% buying designer jeans, and 53% buying high-end shoes.

Another change this year -- and a sign that parents are a little less cost-focused -- is that significantly less (24%) parents say they will shop at outlet or discount stores. Some 38% plan to head to department stores. Plenty will shop online as well, with 31% saying they do so because of coupons and deals and 21% to avoid the hassles.

Source: Marketing Daily
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=154955

Teen Girls Hold Power Over Family Spending

It may not be news to parents of teenage girls but researchers confirmed it yesterday: no-one can stop their 16-year-old daughter from deciding how the family spends its money.

The willpower and determination of teenage girls gives them a big say in how a family’s spending money goes on everything from food and meals out to mobile phones and, of course, clothes.

Teenage boys do not show up at all in the analysis that tried to trace the influence of young people on household spending.

Children who reach the age of 21 and live at home have less say over the family budget. Parents appear to be more resistant to their bargaining power the older they get – even though they may have a job and be bringing in their share of income.

The findings on the irresistible spending power of teenage girls were calculated from the United Kingdom's Office for National Statistics records of family spending during the 80s and 90s.

Researchers examined how much money went on services and leisure goods in different kinds of homes. They checked spending on food, restaurant meals, alcohol, tobacco, services, leisure, heating, transport, clothes and sports and entertainment equipment in 2,745 British families.

They found: ‘Teenage girls in the UK typically play an active role in family decisions about the allocation of household resources. But older children, those over the age of 21, who are still living with their parents, appear to have no say over household decisions.’

Source: Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2009307/What-wants-gets-How-teenage-daughter-dictates-family-spending.html