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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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To: SoFloFreeper

I’m still waiting for most journalists in the MSM to grow up. Socialism doesn’t work, move on.


21 posted on 09/22/2014 5:26:04 AM PDT by Huskrrrr
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To: SoFloFreeper

If not just your phone but your tv, your music, your friends and your work communications all came to you via that gadget from Apple, you might just be a little more fascinated with it yourself. They’re not all slackers and deadbeats, really not much worse than generations preceding. Employment prospects for recent college grads are still awful. Have a little empathy. What are they supposed to be doing, scrubbing the floors? Those jobs have been taken away by non citizens. So have just about all the sorts of jobs teenagers would usually have done in your recollection.


22 posted on 09/22/2014 5:31:36 AM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: TexasFreeper2009
Wow! Really? I guess I don't run with that crowd. I am almost 51 so my friends tend to run form mid 40's to mid 60's. None of my friends would let their kids have sex in their home.

I can't say that maybe the kids tried it. But I know none of my friends would willingly allow that. I am picky about my friends. I tend to run with the church crowd. I am glad I am sheltered.

23 posted on 09/22/2014 5:44:48 AM PDT by defconw (Both parties have clearly lost their minds!)
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To: C. Edmund Wright

Why? Doesn’t seem as if we see that elsewhere in nature.


24 posted on 09/22/2014 5:50:29 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: SoFloFreeper

Getting to be more like Europe every year. Leftism is winning.


25 posted on 09/22/2014 5:51:31 AM PDT by A_perfect_lady
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To: RegulatorCountry
I got my first job working for someone else when I was 15 (I had actually worked for myself for even longer washing neighbors cars ect). It was at McDonalds ... scrubbing floors amongst others horrible things (cleaning the shake machine still haunts me 30 years later). And if that were not bad enough, It was the morning shift and I had to ride my bide about 5 miles to get work at about 5am or so.

I worked that job the entire summer that year, and knew by the end of it I never wanted to work that hard ever again and became determined to do whatever it took to be successful enough to not have to and instead use my brain to earn money.

Sometimes you NEED that job scrubbing floors to teach you a valuable lesson.

26 posted on 09/22/2014 5:52:16 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
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To: TexasFreeper2009

Consumerism


27 posted on 09/22/2014 5:54:46 AM PDT by ßuddaßudd (>> F U B O << "What the hell kind of country is this if I can only hate a man if he's white?")
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To: defconw
Yep, it is rampant.

The behavior is usually accompanied by the phase... well... I would rather them do it here where they are safe. These same parents put their little girls on birth control as soon as they have their first period.

28 posted on 09/22/2014 5:54:58 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
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To: C. Edmund Wright

It’s not even that clear-cut. When it’s a matter of responsibility, the left sets the agenda that “they’re just kids”. When it’s a matter of abortion, sex, etc, the left sets the agenda that they’re old enough to decide without parental “interference” (though the local leftist makes sure to insert their agenda, propaganda, what-have-you into the process).

Such as trying vicious murderers as “children”, even when they’re 17 and outweigh most adults, and helping them seek abortions without telling their parents, but punishing them if they bring an aspirin to school.

The left doesn’t care about being consistent, logical, or using common sense, they do whatever pushes their agenda, even when what they support one day completely contradicts what they supported the day before.


29 posted on 09/22/2014 5:57:51 AM PDT by mrsmel (One Who Can See)
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To: SoFloFreeper

Chastity belts for both male & female until 6 months after they assume and fulfill the responsibilities of adulthood would go a LONG way toward encouraging young people to grow up.

“Why buy the cow (adult responsibility) when the milk (sex, room & board, maybe a little spending money, tuition, etc) is free!”


30 posted on 09/22/2014 5:58:29 AM PDT by BwanaNdege ("Gang Green and the Government Staff Infection " - Glen Morgan, Freedom Foundation.)
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To: SoFloFreeper

More MSM propaganda promoting the virtues of the New Normal.


31 posted on 09/22/2014 5:58:56 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: TexasFreeper2009
It is not uncommon for girls to start puberty as young as 8 or 9 now!

And they start having sex at 12 and their first, likely only child at 40. So for the Left, it works for them.


32 posted on 09/22/2014 6:00:41 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Buckeye McFrog
well.. technically they had a lot more children before 40, they just murdered them all at the abortion clinic.
33 posted on 09/22/2014 6:08:09 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
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To: BwanaNdege
exactly!

I know you were sort of joking, but actually that is basically how things used to be for the most part and is in my opinion what drove young people to WANT to grow up and get out of the house at an early age.

A girl didn't want anything to do with a man who wasn't capable of supporting her. A man wouldn't even have thought of asking a girl (even one who loved him back dearly) to marry him unless he was established in a career and capable of taking care of them both and the children to come.

34 posted on 09/22/2014 6:11:53 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
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To: TexasFreeper2009

You would expect that from the NY Slimes.


35 posted on 09/22/2014 6:15:43 AM PDT by darkangel82
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To: TexasFreeper2009

few things have changed the world more profoundly than birth control.


36 posted on 09/22/2014 6:17:07 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
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To: C. Edmund Wright

I don’t thing the problem is biological... I think it’s economic, and also social. Parents aren’t forcing their children to grow up, and the economy makes it difficult for them to achieve independence early.


37 posted on 09/22/2014 6:30:44 AM PDT by Oberon (John 12:5-6)
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To: mrsmel

I agree with everything you said....


38 posted on 09/22/2014 6:31:07 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (www.FireKarlRove.com NOW)
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To: 9YearLurker
Why? Doesn’t seem as if we see that elsewhere in nature.

Would love to comment, but I do not understand your question. Please clarify when you get a minute.

39 posted on 09/22/2014 6:32:41 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (www.FireKarlRove.com NOW)
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To: Oberon

yep yep - lot of ingredients in this recipe - and I think biology, or at least physiology is part of it - but what you pointed out is clearly a major factor.


40 posted on 09/22/2014 6:35:44 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (www.FireKarlRove.com NOW)
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