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The Case for Delayed Adulthood
NY TIMES ^ | 9/19/14 | Laurence Steinberg

Posted on 09/22/2014 4:52:54 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper

ONE of the most notable demographic trends of the last two decades has been the delayed entry of young people into adulthood. According to a large-scale national study conducted since the late 1970s, it has taken longer for each successive generation to finish school, establish financial independence, marry and have children. Today’s 25-year-olds, compared with their parents’ generation at the same age, are twice as likely to still be students, only half as likely to be married and 50 percent more likely to be receiving financial assistance from their parents.

People tend to react to this trend in one of two ways, either castigating today’s young people for their idleness or acknowledging delayed adulthood as a rational, if regrettable, response to a variety of social changes, like poor job prospects. Either way, postponing the settled, responsible patterns of adulthood is seen as a bad thing.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: adulthood; immaturity; juveniles
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Perpetual childhood is NOT a good thing.
1 posted on 09/22/2014 4:52:54 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
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To: SoFloFreeper
Perpetual childhood is NOT a good thing.

Indeed it is not - but perpetual and delayed are not exactly the same thing. While I'm sure this NYT liberal and I would not agree on much- and a lot of these delayed adults will never get there - I would say this: if people are living a lot longer, it would only be logical that some stage development would skew by a few years.

2 posted on 09/22/2014 4:56:31 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (www.FireKarlRove.com NOW)
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To: SoFloFreeper

If 60 is the new 40 then 35 must be the new 15!


3 posted on 09/22/2014 4:58:23 AM PDT by equaviator (There's nothing like the universe to bring you down to earth.)
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To: SoFloFreeper

the longer people delay taking responsibility for themselves, the more likely they are to look outside themselves when dealing with a situation.

children look to parents ... adult children look to govt

this is part of the plan by those pushing big govt.

why else would people still be on their parents insurance until 26


4 posted on 09/22/2014 5:00:43 AM PDT by sten (fighting tyranny never goes out of style)
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To: SoFloFreeper

A case for delaying.adulthood... This follows an article this weekend about wanting to die at 75... If the progressives bring these two ideas together, they can almost do away with humanity altogether.


5 posted on 09/22/2014 5:01:23 AM PDT by Rummyfan (Iraq: it's not about Iraq anymore, it's about the USA!)
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To: SoFloFreeper

All of American society and with the help of the MSM is geared to the very young.

Keeping people in the status of a prolonged incubation certainly is good for the MSM, the Government, the politicians, and of course for advertisers.

Just look at the products and services which sponsor the MSM and also listen to the language across the board in the delivery of ‘news’, in advertising, in ‘entertainment’, etc.

If you are in the least educated or mature it is certainly offensively stupid.


6 posted on 09/22/2014 5:02:03 AM PDT by SMARTY ("When you blame others, you give up your power to change." Robert Anthony)
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To: SoFloFreeper

Sounds like some drivel a kid living in their parents basement would write to justify their being a bum and a mooch.


7 posted on 09/22/2014 5:02:47 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
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To: SoFloFreeper

Maybe it’s an entirely rational return to multi-generational households of the past due to rising costs and diminished prospects of employment. Three or four people working part time might bring in enough to keep the mortgage company, taxman, electric utility and insurance company at bay with enough left over to eat. Maybe a child with a job of any kind contributing to household expenses is necessary to hold it all together, in other words.


8 posted on 09/22/2014 5:02:58 AM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: SMARTY
I think the media is making a mistake constantly marketing everything to the young.

I think the rise of mass media just coincidentally happened to occur at the exact same time as the baby boom. Which made it seem as if marketing to the youth was a good plan. But as the baby boomers age, media is still pushing it wares on the youth, which is now a mistake since the big bulge in the population is much older.

9 posted on 09/22/2014 5:07:04 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
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To: Rummyfan

That’s basically the plan for the elites to slowly kill everyone else off as they are replaced by machines.

Convince people to not reproduce and eliminate themselves


10 posted on 09/22/2014 5:07:09 AM PDT by varyouga
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To: SoFloFreeper

I had my first apartment when I was 17.

Never in a million years did it occur to me to go to mommy/daddy for anything after that (much less go to them to castigate college instructors/potential employers, etc.).

These are the grandkids of boomers so this is on Gen Y and millenials.


11 posted on 09/22/2014 5:08:54 AM PDT by freedumb2003 (AGW "Scientific method:" Draw your lines first, then plot your points)
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To: C. Edmund Wright
I am beginning to wonder if today's kids are just smarter then we were. If a kid gets a job, goes to school locally and lives with mom & dad, they save money for themselves and their parents. Plus, they have all the luxuries of home.

When I was 19 I could not wait to get out of the house. It was not easy and I struggled for years. That's my trip.

Also in the old days was it not the general practice that women stayed with their parents until they were married? Seems prior to 1960's that was largely true.

I think kids do need to get out there and embrace adulthood, but like you said people are living longer.

12 posted on 09/22/2014 5:10:16 AM PDT by defconw (Both parties have clearly lost their minds!)
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To: SMARTY
The problem (or A problem with this) is that our bodies are not following along.

While we may be living basically as children all the way up to our 30’s (the total life expectancy in the middle ages) our bodies are maturing earlier and earlier sexually. It is not uncommon for girls to start puberty as young as 8 or 9 now!

If these “kids” don't mentally mature until 28 or 29... that means they are expected to wait 20 YEARS to satisfy the urges they started to experience at 8 -9 !

13 posted on 09/22/2014 5:11:44 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
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To: TexasFreeper2009

I am a little sick of the sophomoric dialogue, guttural humor and complete absence of logic in everything that is made for/by the MSM.


14 posted on 09/22/2014 5:11:44 AM PDT by SMARTY ("When you blame others, you give up your power to change." Robert Anthony)
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To: TexasFreeper2009

From a marketing standpoint, people don’t really like getting reminded too much of being old, so even products and services specifically for the aged tend to be marketed giving an appearance of much more active, younger and healthier people than reality. Generally speaking, you don’t go past peoples’ notions of ideal self, how they see themselves regardless of age, which tends to be late 30’s to early 40’s at most.


15 posted on 09/22/2014 5:14:35 AM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: defconw

Your comments are great, and it points to the fact that this is a complicated issue. Certainly there are those perpetual children who get one meaningless degree after another and hang out at Starbucks and never ever get around to adulthood. You know, the Occupy Wall Street types.

On the other hand, just a few generations ago, living at home was considered normal and healthy - aka - The Waltons. For that era, that was standard. Back then, it was the economy that encouraged a lot of that...as it is today.


16 posted on 09/22/2014 5:16:17 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (www.FireKarlRove.com NOW)
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To: sten

The other side of the coin is that MANY parents do not want to let go of their kids. As a result, they have no problem with them living at home will into their twenties. It also helps feed the illusion that they themselves are not getting older. It does tug at the heartstrings when your kids no longer need you, but its far more healthy in the long run.
Personally, I urged both my kids to get out on their own.


17 posted on 09/22/2014 5:17:38 AM PDT by rbg81
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To: TexasFreeper2009

That’s an interesting point about our bodies and puberty - but to counter that - people are living much longer now.


18 posted on 09/22/2014 5:17:43 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (www.FireKarlRove.com NOW)
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To: defconw
The answers to all your points is SEX

Yes, single women would live with their families until they eventually got married. So their families could watch and keep them safe from predatory men who just wanted to use them for sex.

Yes, young men were eager to leave to house not that long ago because they ... WANTED TO HAVE SEX! and their ability to do so was being constrained by remaining at home.

Neither of these situations apply anymore. The vast majority of parents dont guard their daughters virtue anymore and may in fact encourage them to sexually experiment.

And boys don't feel like living at home keeps them from having sex because their parents let them use their rooms like hotel rooms and dont care if girls sleep over ect.

19 posted on 09/22/2014 5:17:45 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
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To: RegulatorCountry

There is a difference, I think, between family being together and a family with no adults.

I was working for a paycheck when I was 13. Some kids on farms are doing real work before that age. Such steps toward being “grown up” don’t seem to be part of our culture.

Heck, consider the WW2 generation....off to war as late teens, early 20s.

Today, the picture of people that age are almost as far away from that as one can imagine. Worshipping the latest gadget from Apple is what I generally see them doing.


20 posted on 09/22/2014 5:24:05 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
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