68% youth are anxious to share relationship issues with their parents: Shaadi.com

With everyone practicing social distancing this year, we have been spending much more time with our families. The extreme circumstances of this year have made us value our relationships and brought out the importance of communication.

With most singles in India living at home with their parents, Shaadi Cares, a social initiative by Shaadi.com – India’s No.1 matchmaking service decided to understand the challenges faced by the youth by being stuck at home and the impact it could have on their mental health. The survey reflects the mindset of the youth today, when it comes to opening up to their parents and the flip side – what parents think about their relationship with their children.

The survey revealed 49% of the youth are not entirely comfortable sharing their feelings with their parents. And 68% of them struggle the most with talking about relationship issues. Importantly, 53% of them also feel that keeping things to themselves builds stress and anxiety. The study further revealed that generation gap was leading to a communication gap, with it being among the top 2 reasons that they are unable to have these conversations with their parents. Around 70% of the youth stated that they would like to talk about their feelings with their parents and have a more open relationship.

On the other hand, when we asked parents about their relationship, 92% parents said their children are completely free to have conversations with them. And while the youth felt there was a generation gap, 72% parents did not feel that the generation gap made it difficult to communicate with their kids. To deep dive and understand why relationship conversations are the hardest, the data revealed that 42% of the parents hadn’t been in a relationship before and hence might find it hard to empathize with their children.

Commenting on this, Adhish Zaveri, Director – Marketing, Shaadi.com said, “In India, the family is still the most important source of care & support for singles. Unfortunately, as we’ve seen in the study, the generation gap between parents and children often translates into a communication gap. Being able to talk about relationship matters freely can help alleviate anxiety and offer comfort. With our Shaadi Cares initiative, we’re urging parents to open-up to their children, so that they can too.