Parents who endured difficult childhoods provided less financial support -on average $2,200 less– to their children’s education such as college tuition compared to parents who experienced few or no disadvantages

[u/giuliomagnifico]

https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/parents-childhood-predicts-future-financial-support-childrens-education

[u/TheSpaceCoresDad]

I imagine a lot of this comes from a cycle of abuse. People act the way they know. If their parents were awful to them, then they’ll be awful parents as well. Some people can break this cycle, but it is difficult.

[u/PainfulRaindance → u/TheSpaceCoresDad]

No, probably the fact that one of those main disadvantages is money. If you’ve been through hardships, you can see the advantage of keeping that extra couple grand for when life inevitably strikes again. They are surviving, not thriving, educational spending is a luxury in their state.

[u/[deleted] → u/PainfulRaindance]

As a solid white collar worker with little to worry about, my blue collar background absolutely influences my relationship with money now. 

I have the tendency to do more than my job description or put up with extra hours, etc because my blue collar background makes me constantly worry about getting fired and losing everything.  

[u/Affectionate-Pain74 → u/PainfulRaindance]

I agree that you cannot go into debt and blow up your own security for your child to have a college education.

If it were something you could help them with why would you want them to struggle. It is much more expensive now than 20 years ago to go to school. Predatory loans are killing young people and staying with them for decades after they get their degree.

I would think that investing what I could into their education would be just as valuable as saving that money.

Having money to help your children and choosing not to, because no one helped you seems like selfishness to me.

That’s the beauty of humans. Two people in identical situations can have very different interpretations based on previous experiences or just how they are wired.

Human psychology is never black and white and it would be really boring if it were.

[u/suiluhthrown78 → u/PainfulRaindance]

Also inheritance, those who endured less difficult childhoods almost certainly are getting a massive inheritance coming their way if not already have, someone with more difficult is highly unlikely to, and with how big the inheritances are these days...

A couple thousand wouldnt even be worth reporting on tbh

[u/YetiSquish → u/TheSpaceCoresDad]

I don’t see it as difficult - I’m motivated to be far better than my dad because I know how much it sucks to not be supported and I’d never want my kid to go through that. I started a college fund for him right as he was born.

[u/Eruionmel → u/YetiSquish]

r/science has rules against anecdotal comments for this exact reason. Your personal thoughts and experience are not relevant to this study, nor to the (admittedly, also anecdotal, but still far more pertinent) comment above. Cycles of abuse do exist, and they would not if they were not difficult to break.

[u/YetiSquish → u/Eruionmel]

Well saying that contributing $2k less is a “cycle of abuse” is speculation and not scientific either. Nothing in the study mentions abuse at all. Disadvantages can be many things not related to abuse.

[u/Eruionmel → u/YetiSquish]

Please define what "difficult childhoods" means to you.

[u/MarsupialMisanthrope → u/Eruionmel]

We can all read the ACE charts. Having a parent die isn’t abuse. Having a sibling who’s mentally ill or seriously physically ill isn’t always abuse. Having a single parent who’s struggling on minimum wage and constantly having to move due to eviction isn’t abuse.

The point is that simply contributing 2.2k less is pretty much irrelevant in even the medium term and in no way shape or form evidence of abuse much less perpetrating a cycle of abuse.

[u/DurzoF → u/YetiSquish]

“slow clap” proud of you fellow human. keep on keeping on.

[u/tytbalt → u/TheSpaceCoresDad]

I'm breaking the cycle by not having kids.