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While women across generations are eager to provide financial support to family members, they're placing a stronger emphasis on self-reliance, according to a new MetLife Mature Market Institute study released Thursday.
One tendency that appears to be universal among the women surveyed -- almost eight in 10 respondents across all three generations -- is the desire to give more financially to children or grandchildren, according to Metlife's new study entitled Women's Views on Family Obligations: A Metlife Survey of Intergenerational Findings of Baby Boomers and Generations X and Y.
Similarly, across generations, women strongly agree that they need to prepare for retirement to avoid depending on family members later in life. An estimated 89 percent of baby boomers; 88 percent of Gen Xers and 84 percent of Gen Yers indicated that sentiment.
Most women in the survey supported giving small gifts to children and focusing more on enjoying retirement -- 73 percent of baby
boomers, 69 percent of Gen Xers and 54 percent of Gen Yers agreed with that idea.
Baby boomers place a strong focus on self-reliance and are more likely to report that they are financially secure than the other generations (60 percent vs. 47 percent of Gen Xers and 50 percent of Gen Yers).
Approximately half the women feel they have a strong or absolute responsibility to provide financial support for their children's education; however Gen Yers were significantly more likely to feel that way, with 57 percent indicating yes compared to 51 percent of Gen Xers and 45 percent of baby boomers.
The strong desire to help children financially doesn't necessarily
extend to the grandparent-grandchild relationship. Only 8 percent of
baby boomer women feel a responsibility to support a grandchild's
education. However, the feeling of responsibility for grandchildren's
education is on the rise, with 15 percent of Gen Yers and 13 percent of
Gen Xers indicating that providing support for grandchildren's education
is a responsibility.
As women get older, they say they've contributed significantly to their children and that the time has come to focus on their own needs for both enjoyment and independence. And those respondents' emphasis on self-reliance extends to their reluctance to accept financial help from their children. In times of financial difficulty, an equal percentage of women across all generations would give financial help to parents and/or in-laws, but 45 percent of baby boomers say they wouldn't accept financial help from their adult children, even if they needed it.
"What's apparent from this study is that having a plan for independence is important for family financial security, especially for women as they age; many clearly don't want to rely on their families," said Sandra Timmermann, director of the MetLife Mature Market Institute.
An analysis of MetLife's interviews data, indicated that "obligation" and "responsibility" are part of how generations feel about caring for each other, but aren't the overriding reasons. "The desire to help, financially and non-financially, comes from a feeling of caring and love," Timmermann said.
MetlLife's study findings were culled from an online survey of 2,123
Americans ages 21 to 65 conducted from June 29 to July 20, 2011.
Respondents were selected from among Harris Interactive's online
research panel. To qualify, respondents had to have household incomes of
at least $40,000 ($30,000 if Gen Y).
Boomers and members of Gen X were required to have a dependent -- either
a spouse or a child; Gen Yers did not necessarily have dependents. The
data were weighted by age, gender, education and race/ethnicity to best
reflect this target population. In addition, a total of seven interviews
were conducted with members of three generations of particular families
to add depth to the findings from the survey.
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