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Adult Children and Parents Talking More Often
New survey finds the
communications revolution drawing families closer
 Feb.
23, 2006 How often do senior citizens hear from their children? A
growing number of American adults either see or talk to a parent
(usually, it's mom) every day. More than four in ten (42%) make this
daily contact, while in 1989 a Gallup survey said only 32 percent did
so. The new report is from the Pew Research Center and looks at the
nature of family ties and frequency of family contact.
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This increase in regular daily contact is one of
many findings in the Pew survey that highlight the strength and
resilience of family bonds in the face of sweeping changes over the past
several decades in family structures and living arrangements.
The Pew survey finds that in an era of declining
cost and growing ease of phone communication:
● Family members are staying in ever more
frequent touch. Some 73% report that on an average day they speak with a
family member who doesn't live in their house.
● Family remains the greatest source of
satisfaction in people's lives. Fully 72% say they are "very satisfied"
with their family life, compared with 32% who say they are very
satisfied with their household income, 42% with their standard of living
and 63% with their housing situation.
● Most parents and adult children live within an
hour's drive of one another. Sixty-five percent of respondents in the
Pew survey who have a living parent say they live within an hour's drive
of that parent.
● When people have personal problems, family is
the first place they turn for advice. Asked whom they turn to (other
than a spouse) when they have a serious personal problem, 45% of
respondents named a family member. Some 22% named a friend, neighbor or
co-worker.
● Senior citizens (age 65 and over) are the least
happy by a small margin - with their family lives, but it is actually
surprising they do not reflect greater dissatisfaction, considering that
many have lost their spouse and many live in less than perfect
environments. Those saying they are satisfied (very or somewhat) with
their family lives by age group are 18-29 = 92%, 30-49 = 92%, 50-64 =
89% and 65 and older = 87%.
|
Whos More Satisfied with Family Life? |
|
|
Satisfied |
Dissatisfied |
|
|
|
Very |
Somewhat |
Somewhat |
Very |
No answer |
|
|
% |
% |
% |
% |
% |
|
Family Life
Satisfaction |
|
All
adults |
72 |
19 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
|
Men |
73 |
18 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
|
Women |
71 |
19 |
5 |
3 |
2 |
|
Age |
|
18-29 |
73 |
19 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
|
30-49 |
73 |
19 |
4 |
4 |
* |
|
50-64 |
72 |
17 |
6 |
3 |
2 |
|
65+ |
70 |
17 |
4 |
3 |
6 |
|
Race and Ethnicity |
|
White* |
74 |
17 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
|
Black |
68 |
21 |
6 |
3 |
2 |
|
Hispanic** |
70 |
20 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
|
Income |
|
Under
$30,000 |
62 |
22 |
7 |
6 |
3 |
|
$30,000-$49,999 |
71 |
19 |
5 |
4 |
1 |
|
$50,000-$99,999 |
78 |
16 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
|
$100,000+ |
79 |
17 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
|
Parenting Status |
|
Have
children under 18 |
75 |
17 |
4 |
3 |
1 |
|
Have
adult children only |
73 |
17 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
|
No
children |
67 |
23 |
4 |
4 |
2 |
|
Marital and
Parenting Status |
|
Married |
82 |
14 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
|
With children under 18 |
82 |
13 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
|
With adult children only |
82 |
13 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
|
No children |
81 |
16 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
|
Not married |
61 |
24 |
7 |
5 |
3 |
|
With
children under 18 |
59 |
25 |
8 |
7 |
1 |
|
With
adult children only |
59 |
22 |
7 |
5 |
7 |
|
No
children |
63 |
25 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
|
*White includes
only non-Hispanic whites.
**Hispanics are
of any race. Interviews conducted in English and Spanish. |
Other highlights
Emails have added a bit to the daily diet of
family contact.
Emailing has also opened up a new way for family
members to stay in touch; some 24% of adults with a living parent say
that they at least occasionally exchange emails with a parent, and 30%
of parents with an independent adult child say they at least
occasionally exchange emails with a child.
However, the practice of sending family emails on a
daily basis is rare just 3% of adults with parents report exchanging
emails with them every day, while another 10% say they email their
parents weekly.
Moreover, most people who email family members
daily also either see or talk to family members daily. As a result, when
emails are added to the overall mix of daily family communication, the
percentage of adults and their parents who are in daily contact rise
only marginally to 43%, from 42%.
Mom is still the family anchor; dad is doing a
bit better.
When it comes to family communication, mom is still
the undisputed champ.
Among those adults who have both parents living,
61% say they have the most contact with their mother, while just 18% say
they have the most contact with their father.
But dad is closing the gap a bit in at least some
measures of family ties.
Asked whether their relationship with each of their
parents is close or distant, 87% in the Pew survey say they are
close to their mother while 74% say they are close to their father. In
the 1989 Gallup survey, the mom-dad gap was wider: 90% reported being
close to mom while just 69% reported being close to dad.
 Whos
in your family?
Most adults (90%) have at least one brother or
sister; nearly seven-in-ten (68%) have one or more parents still living;
and about one-in-three have a living grandparent.
Not suprisingly, as adults grow older, they grow
less likely to have living relatives of this kind. Nearly three-quarters
(73%) of adults have had children and 27% have not.
Here, again predictably, the impact of age works in
the opposite direction as adults grow older, they are more likley to
have children. About three-in-ten (32%) adults have grandchildren. A
majority of adults ages 50 and older have grandchildren the figures
are 56% among those 50 to 64 and 82% among those 65 and older.
Marrriage enhances family satisfaction.
When it comes to satisfaction with family life,
there are no significant differences between men and women; or between
younger adults and older adults; or between different racial and ethnic
groups. And, there are only modest differences by income groups.
However, significant differences surface when it
comes to marital status. Married people are more satisfied with family
life (82%) than are the unmarried (61%). Once marital status is taken
into account, there are no significant differences in family life
satisfaction among those who do and do not have children.
Fully 81% of those who are married with no children
are very satisfied with family life; so too are 82% of those married
with children.
Among the unmarried, 59% of those with children are
very satisfied with family life while 63% of those without children are
very satisfied with family life.
The Pew telephone survey of a nationally
representative, randomly selected sample of 3,014 adults was conducted
from Oct. 5 through Nov. 6, 2005.
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the complete report
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