Adult Children’s Chronic Health Conditions and Intergenerational Financial Transfers Between Parents and Early Midlife Adult Children: Variation Across Sons and Daughters

As our population ages, adult children and parents will experience greater overlap across their lives, offering more opportunities to engage in intergenerational financial transfers. Intergenerational transfers benefit both generations. They may be especially crucial as parents encounter challenges associated with aging, and as adult children grapple with their own health problems. We used the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health data to explore whether an adult child’s chronic health conditions in young adulthood were associated with financial transfers between early midlife adult children and their parents, factoring in differences between sons and daughters. More specifically, we examined the dynamics of upward, downward, and mutual financial transfers among adult children reporting no chronic conditions, one chronic condition, two chronic conditions (multimorbidity), or three or more chronic conditions (severe multimorbidity). Our results indicate adult children with severe multimorbidity were more likely than adult children without chronic health conditions to receive downward financial transfers from their parents. Moreover, adult children with multimorbidity were more likely than adult children without chronic health conditions to engage in mutual financial transfers. Regarding gender of the adult child, we found among children reporting one chronic condition, sons were less likely to engage in downward, upward, and mutual transfers with parents relative to daughters. This research advances our understanding of how an adult child’s chronic health conditions shape dynamics of financial transfers with parents.