Frank Furstenberg
There is a lot of talk these days in the popular press about the apparent unwillingness of young adults to cut the apron strings and leave home. The story line favored by many commentators is that the current generation has been so indulged by their parents that they are becoming dependent on a family welfare system where they feel entitled to remain at home and draw allowances from their parents indefinitely. And their parents, in turn, are incapable of giving them the gentle shove they so badly need to go out on their own.
Curiously enough, there is simply no evidence to substantiate the claim that young people in their late teens or twenties are more likely to remain at home today than they did in the past once we account for their marital status. Over the past several decades, the marriage rates of 18–34 year olds have been falling, mainly because youth are delaying marriage longer than they did a generation or two ago, not eschewing it. Because single people have always been far more likely to live with their parents than their married counterparts, more young adults are living at home today. Yet, even given that, young adults are still far less likely to live with their parents today than in the past. Using historical information from the decennial census, authors of a recent report in the American Sociological Review report that the proportion of young people aged 20–29 are about half as likely to live with their parents today than they were in the post-war period of the 1940s and 1950s. So the proportion of single youth who remain at home has been dropping at the same time that more young adults are single, creating the appearance that young adults have a greater taste for living with their parents.
Evidence is mounting that young adults are not remaining single so that they can mooch off their parents. They are deferring marriage because these days it takes much longer to acquire the requisite schooling and job experience to obtain a well paid job. And most say that they are unwilling to enter marriage without having a career and stable employment. That’s not such a bad thing.
In the meantime, many do look to their family for help during the transition to adulthood. Of course, they would be less likely to do so if government support for education were still at the level it was in the 1950s and 1960s, if housing costs had not risen to unparalleled highs, and if well paying jobs were more readily available to young people. As a result of these rising costs and demands, parents are increasingly called on to help out, offering room and board, help with tuition, or other supplements to help launch their offspring. Contrary to popular images, young adults are also doing their fair share. The overwhelming majority are working, often at low-paying jobs, or they are in school full-time. Many are juggling jobs and education to help pay for school.
Perhaps the public ought to lend more of a hand. But tell that to taxpayers who are reluctant to provide more money for educational grants, health insurance, or housing subsidies for young adults. Short of giving more tangible assistance to young adults and their families, it is time to stop berating young adults for not growing up faster or criticizing their parents for helping them through a more difficult transition to adulthood. Instead, we should take solace in the fact that the family is alive and well in America today.
Frank Furstenberg, Zellerbach Family Chair of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, heads the MacArthur Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood and is co-editor of On the Frontier of Adulthood (University of Chicago Press, 2005).
Terrific. Now we have those who live in ivory towers making excuses for the overgrown baby problem that is steadily spiraling out of control. As if this "up and coming" generation faces such a harsher world than all those who came before them. How pathetic and weak. The bottom line here is SELFISHNESS, either on the overgrown baby's part or the enabling parent(s) or both. Don't think that somehow this trend is benefiting the overgrown baby. To the contrary, it is actually retarding them.
ReplyDeleteThe effects of this trend on middle class communities is devastating, Here in Los Angeles, the lazy, overgrown babies who are incapable of mowing their parents postage stamp lawn are doing their best to drive down the quality of life here even further by congesting our neighborhoods with more cars than can fit in front of their parents modest home, attempting to take away their neighbors parking, having all their overgrown baby friends visiting late on work nights, setting a very poor example for neighborhood children and just causing general aggravation for the rest of us who grew up, moved out, and made our own way in this world. Watching overgrown babies who actually have left the nest due to their parents signing a home loan for them is very revealing. These individuals are almost always very anti-social and all thumbs at any sort of home maintenance/improvement. They can't punch their way out of a paper bag. Again though, the humor wears off quickly when the realization hits home that the nice house that was bought for them quickly degenerates into a fixer in training thereby negatively impacting everyone else’s property values. There is absolutely nothing that is admirable, upstanding, or desirable that comes from an overgrown baby. So, be a real man for once in your useless life and GROW UP AND LEAVE THE %&@# NEST ALREADY YOU LOSERS!!
Clearly this anonymous comment was left by an ignorant and arrogant person. For if this person had researched the issue they would have considered the changes in the labour market in the last few decades, how this affects the requirments in education, the changes in education post 1970, the lack of financial support recieved from the govt, the higher living costs, higher house prices, higher university loans, and the socialisation of young people today that promotes the heterogeneity that is so apparent today. These are but just a few of the issues young people are subjected to. The transition process into aduthood has changed from the outdated process that past generations experienced as a result of the changes in society. Get with the times or at the very least research the topic in question!
ReplyDeleteI am a 25 year old female and I live at home. I have a well paying job, and I contribute my wages to anything the house or my family needs. Why havent i moved out? I enjoy my parents company, in fact I'm so used to it, why would I give that up to spend time in an apartment alone, with no one but the phone sitting next to me. In a world where people are loosing their battle to technology, our interpersonal relationships are mostly help through the internet as opposed to face to face contact. That being said, Once you move out have an apartment of your own, pay your bills, would this make me a better citizen?
ReplyDeleteWhat about Cultural reasons for staying at home? Looking after one's aging parents or providing support? All of the above comes to play. Maybe I did fail to launch, and yes maybe I am not living my life to the fullest by being alone right now, but my debt my duty is above all to help my parents in any way, whether that be financially, or anything else for that matter.
I would like to look further into the process of leaving the parental home, in a life course perspective (i.e. link with other events/transitions), looking also at returns to parental home and analyzing different paths. I am interested in differences across cohorts, (and possibly across countries too).
ReplyDeleteI would appreciate suggestions on which dataset would be a good source for that.