How parent-child financial exchange influences adult children\u27s Depressive Symptoms

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\u27s 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 related 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 findings 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\u27s depressive symptoms. The quality of communication with mother has influences on adult children\u27s depressive symptoms. Further research should pay attention to two perspectives: 1) relationship with other family members 2) small sums of financial supports