Parental Financial Support and the Transition to Marriage for Young Adults in South Korea

Abstract

Despite the importance of familial aspects for young adults getting married, most previous studies have not focused on the role played by downward transfers (i.e., parental financial support) in marriage. We therefore investigate how downward transfers are associated with young adults getting married in South Korea. We also examine whether these associations vary by gender and employment status among young adults. We use a sample of unmarried young adults older than 18 at baseline from the 2007–2016 waves of the Youth Panel (YP), a nationally representative longitudinal survey of 15-to 29-year-old young adults. We find that those who receive financial support from their parents are less likely to enter marriage and, further, we find that those receiving financial help from parents are much less likely to get married when they are men and unemployed.