SDT-2013-01-30-SG-00-01With an aging population and a generation of young adults struggling to attain financial independence, the burdens and responsibilities of middle-aged Americans are increasing. Nearly half (47%) of adults in their 40s and 50s have a parent age 65 or older and are either raising a immature child or financially supporting a grown child (historic period eighteen or older). And about 1-in-seven eye-aged adults (15%) is providing financial support to both an aging parent and a kid.

SDT-2013-01-30-SG-00-02While the share of middle-aged adults living in the then-called sandwich generation has increased merely marginally in recent years, the financial burdens associated with caring for multiple generations of family unit members are mounting. The increased force per unit area is coming primarily from grown children rather than crumbling parents.

According to a new nationwide Pew Research Middle survey, roughly half (48%) of adults ages 40 to 59 have provided some financial support to at least one grown child in the past year, with 27% providing the primary back up. These shares are upward significantly from 2005. By contrast, about one-in-v heart-aged adults (21%) have provided fiscal support to a parent age 65 or older in the by year, basically unchanged from 2005. The new survey was conducted Nov. 28-Dec. 5, 2012 amidst 2,511 adults nationwide.

Looking just at adults in their 40s and 50s who have at to the lowest degree 1 kid age 18 or older, fully 73% have provided at least some financial help in the past year to at to the lowest degree ane such child. Many are supporting children who are all the same in school, but a significant share say they are doing so for other reasons. Past contrast, among adults that age who accept a parent age 65 or older, just 32% provided financial help to a parent in the past twelvemonth.

While heart-aged adults are devoting more resource to their grown children these days, the survey finds that the public places more value on support for aging parents than on support for grown children. Among all adults, 75% say adults have a responsibleness to provide fiscal assistance to an elderly parent who is in need; only 52% say parents have a similar responsibility to support a grown child.

One probable caption for the increase in the prevalence of parents providing fiscal assistance to grown children is that the Great Recession and sluggish recovery have taken a disproportionate toll on immature adults. In 2010, the share of young adults who were employed was the everyman information technology had been since the regime started collecting these data in 1948. Moreover, from 2007 to 2011 those young adults who were employed total time experienced a greater drop in average weekly earnings than whatsoever other historic period group.1

A Contour of the Sandwich Generation

Adults who are part of the sandwich generation—that is, those who have a living parent age 65 or older and are either raising a child under age xviii or supporting a grown child—are pulled in many directions.2 Not only do many provide care and financial support to their parents and their children, just about four-in-x (38%) say both their grown children and their parents rely on them for emotional back up.

Who is the sandwich generation? Its members are mostly middle-aged: 71% of this group is ages 40 to 59. An boosted nineteen% are younger than twoscore and x% are age threescore or older. Men and women are equally probable to be members of the sandwich generation. Hispanics are more probable than whites or blacks to be in this situation. Three-in-ten Hispanic adults (31%) have a parent historic period 65 or older and a dependent child. This compares with 24% of whites and 21% of blacks.

SDT-2013-01-30-SG-00-03More affluent adults, those with annual household incomes of $100,000 or more, are more likely than less affluent adults to be in the sandwich generation. Among those with incomes of $100,000 or more, 43% have a living parent age 65 or older and a dependent child. This compares with 25% of those making between $xxx,000 and $100,000 a year and only 17% of those making less than $30,000.

Married adults are more than likely than single adults to be sandwiched between their parents and their children: 36% of those who are married fall into the sandwich generation, compared with thirteen% of those who are single. Age is a gene hither likewise, since young adults are both less probable to exist married and less likely to take a parent age 65 or older.

Presumably life in the sandwich generation could be a flake stressful. Having an aging parent while still raising or supporting one's own children presents sure challenges not faced by other adults—caregiving and fiscal and emotional support to proper name merely a few. Still, the survey suggests that adults in the sandwich generation are only as happy with their lives overall every bit are other adults. Some 31% say they are very happy with their lives, and an additional 52% say they are pretty happy. Happiness rates are nearly the same amid adults who are not part of the sandwich generation: 28% are very happy, and 51% are pretty happy.

Sandwich-generation adults are somewhat more likely than other adults to say they are often pressed for time. Amongst those with a parent historic period 65 or older and a dependent child, 31% say they always experience rushed fifty-fifty to practise the things they have to do. Amongst other adults, the share saying they are always rushed is smaller (23%).

SDT-2013-01-30-SG-00-04For members of the sandwich generation who not only have an aging parent only have besides provided financial assistance to a parent, the strain of supporting multiple family members can take an impact on financial well-being.iii Survey respondents were asked to describe their household'due south fiscal state of affairs. Among those who are providing fiscal support to an aging parent and supporting a child of any age, 28% say they live comfortably, xxx% say they take plenty to meet their basic expenses with a little left over for extras, 30% say they are just able to meet their basic expenses and 11% say they don't have enough to see fifty-fifty basic expenses. By contrast, 41% of adults who are sandwiched between children and crumbling parents, merely not providing financial support to an aging parent, say they live comfortably.

Family Responsibilities

SDT-2013-01-30-SG-00-05When survey respondents were asked if adult children accept a responsibleness to provide financial assistance to an elderly parent in need, fully 75% say yeah, they do. Merely 23% say this is not an adult child's responsibleness. By dissimilarity, only about half of all respondents (52%) say parents have a responsibleness to provide financial aid to a grown child if he or she needs it. Some 44% say parents do not have a responsibleness to do this.

When information technology comes to providing financial back up to an aging parent in need, there is strong back up across most major demographic groups. Notwithstanding, there are meaning differences across age groups. Adults under historic period xl are the most likely to say an adult kid has a responsibility to support an elderly parent in need. Eight-in-x in this age group (81%) say this is a responsibility, compared with 75% of middle-aged adults and 68% of those ages 60 or older. Adults who are already providing financial support to an crumbling parent are no more likely than those who are not currently doing this to say this is responsibility.

On the question of whether parents accept a responsibility to support their grown children, personal experience does seem to matter. Parents whose children are younger than 18 are less likely than those who have a kid age eighteen or older to say that it is a parent'southward responsibility to provide financial support to a grown child who needs it (46% vs. 56%). And those parents who are providing main financial support to a grown kid are among the most likely to say this is a parent's responsibleness (64%).

Fiscal Back up for Crumbling Parents and Grown Children

SDT-2013-01-30-SG-00-06While most adults believe there is a responsibility to provide for an elderly parent in fiscal need, about one-in-4 adults (23%) have actually washed this in the past year. Amid those who accept at least ane living parent age 65 or older, roughly one-3rd (32%) say they have given their parent or parents financial back up in the past year. And for near, this is more than just a short-term delivery. About seven-in-x (72%) of those who have given financial assist to an aging parent say the money was for ongoing expenses.

Similar shares of middle-aged, younger and older adults say they have provided some financial back up to their crumbling parents in the by year. Information technology is worth noting that many parents age 65 or older may not exist in need of fiscal assistance, and so there is not necessarily a disconnect betwixt the share maxim adult children take a responsibility to provide for an crumbling parent who is in need and the share who accept provided this blazon of support.

Overall, Americans are more probable to be providing financial support to a grown child than they are to an crumbling parent. Among all adults, 30% say they have given some type of financial support to a grown child in the past year. Amidst those who have a grown kid, more than six-in-x (63%) accept done this.

Here the burden falls much more than heavily on adults who are centre-anile than on their younger or older counterparts. Among adults ages 40 to 59 with at least i grown child, 73% say they accept provided financial support in the past year. Amidst those ages 60 and older with a grown child, only most half (49%) say they accept given that child financial support. Very few of those under historic period xl have a grown child.

Of those middle-aged parents who are providing fiscal assistance to a grown child, more than one-half say they are providing the primary support, while virtually 4-in-ten (43%) say they are not providing primary support just take given some financial back up in the by 12 months. Some 62% of the parents providing primary support say they are doing so considering their kid is enrolled in school. Notwithstanding, more than one tertiary (36%) say they are doing this for some other reason.

The focus in this report is on the fiscal flows from center-aged adults to their aging parents and their grown children. Of course, money also flows from parents who are 65 or older to their eye-anile children. While the new Pew Enquiry survey did not explore these financial transfers, previous surveys have found that a significant share of older adults provide financial help to their grown children. A Pew Research survey conducted in Sept. 2011 found that amidst adults 65 and older with at least 1 grown child age 25 or older, 44% said they had given financial support to a grown child in the past year.4

Beyond Finances: Providing Care and Emotional Support

While some crumbling parents demand financial support, others may likewise need help with twenty-four hour period-to-day living. Among all adults with at least one parent age 65 or older, 30% say their parent or parents need help to handle their affairs or care for themselves; 69% say their parents tin handle this on their ain.

Middle-aged adults are the nigh likely to have a parent age 65 or older (68% say they exercise). And of that grouping, 28% say their parent needs some help. Amongst those younger than forty, only eighteen% accept a parent historic period 65 or older; xx% of those ages sixty and older have a parent in that age group. But for those in their 60s and across who do all the same have a living parent, the likelihood that the parent will need caregiving is relatively high. Fully half of adults age 60 or older with a living parent say the parent needs help with twenty-four hours-to-solar day living.

When aging adults demand assistance handling their affairs or caring for themselves, family members often assistance out. Among those with a parent age 65 or older who needs this type of aid, 31% say they provide most of this help, and an additional 48% say they provide at to the lowest degree some of the assist.

In addition to helping their crumbling parents with day-to-twenty-four hour period living, many adults report that their parents rely on them for emotional support. Among all adults with a living parent age 65 or older, 35% say that their parent or parents frequently rely on them for emotional back up, and 33% say their parents sometimes rely on them for emotional support. One-in-five say their parents hardly ever rely on them in this way, and ten% say they never do.

SDT-2013-01-30-SG-00-07Even among those who say their parents practice not need help treatment their affairs or caring for themselves, 61% say their parents rely on them for emotional support at least sometimes. For those whose parents do need aid with daily living, fully 84% report that their parents rely on them for emotional back up at least some of the time.

Not surprisingly, the older the parent, the more likely he or she is to require emotional back up. Among adults with a parent age eighty or older, 75% say their parents turn to them for emotional support ofttimes or sometimes. This compares with 64% among those who accept a parent ages 65 to 79.

Emotional support also flows from parents to grown children, even children who are financially contained. Overall, 33% of parents with at least one kid age xviii or older say their grown kid or children depend on them oft for emotional support. An additional 42% say their grown children sometimes rely on them for emotional support.

When it comes to grown children, there is a link betwixt fiscal and emotional back up. Among parents who say they are providing principal financial support to their grown kid or children, 43% say their children frequently rely on them for emotional support and 45% say they sometimes do. By comparison, only 24% of those who say they do not provide whatsoever financial support to their grown children say their children often rely on them for emotional back up, and 39% say their children sometimes rely on them for this type of support.

Boomers Moving Out of the Sandwich Generation

SDT-2013-01-30-SG-00-08Today members of the Babe Boomer generation and Generation X are represented in the "sandwich generation." But the residual has shifted significantly. When the Pew Research Center explored this topic in 2005, Babe Boomers made upwardly the majority of the sandwich generation. They were more than twice equally likely as members of the next generation—Generation 10—to have a parent age 65 or older and be supporting a child (45% vs. twenty%). Since 2005, many Baby Boomers have anile out of the sandwich generation, and today adults who are part of Generation X are more likely than Baby Boomers to find themselves in this situation: 42% of Gen Xers have parent age 65 or older and a dependent child, compared with 33% of Boomers.5

This report will focus largely on adults ages forty to 59, loosely defined equally "center aged." While this group may non share a generational label, many of its members do have a shared set of experiences, challenges and responsibilities given the unique position they inhabit, sandwiched between their children and their aging parents.

Centre-anile adults who make up the core of the sandwich generation are living out these challenges and, in the process, perhaps ushering in a new set of family dynamics. Most middle-aged parents with grown children say their human relationship with their children is different from the human relationship they had with their ain parents at a comparable historic period. Half say the human relationship is closer, while 12% say it'south less close and 37% say the relationship is about the aforementioned. Older adults (those ages 60 and older) are less probable than centre-aged parents to say they take a closer relationship with their grown children than they had with their own parents (44%), and they are more likely to say the relationship is about the same (45%).

The remainder of this report volition look at the basic building blocks of intergenerational relationships in more particular. The first section will await at attitudes about financial responsibilities and the reality of financial transfers. The second section volition expect at caregiving for older adults. How many older adults need assist with day-to-day living, and who is providing that care? The third section will look at emotional ties beyond generations and explore the extent to which aging parents rely on their children and grown children rely on their parents for emotional support.

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