Life Challenges for the 20-Something Generation: Far More Harsh Realities Than Arrested Development

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Aliza Bartfield

Life Challenges for the 20-Something Generation: Far More Harsh Realities Than Arrested Development
People in their 20s are taking longer to start careers and get married. How can they, with the economy in shambles?


People in their 20s are taking a perplexingly long time to grow up these days -- at least that's the story we're hearing in the media. According to this narrative, young people are stuck in a phase of arrested development, moving in with their parents more often and committing to jobs and marriages later. Most recently, the notion that young people refuse to grow up is the premise for a widely discussed New York Times magazine cover story, “What Is It About 20-Somethings?”

The title alone is enough to put a 20-something-year-old on the defensive. In the piece, "growing up" is defined by five goals: finishing school, leaving home, financial independence, getting married and having kids. Apparently, we're taking much longer than the previous generation to fulfill these goals, and therefore are failing to enter true adulthood.

While author Robin Marantz Henig concedes in the piece that these milestones can be fulfilled out of order and some never fulfilled at all, she nevertheless insists that 20-somethings are taking too long to grow up. We are “slouching toward adulthood at an uneven pace,” she claims, and this seems to be cause for concern.

The article explores a theory put forth by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, a psychology professor who believes that those of us in our 20s are forming a new stage of life. He chooses the term “Emerging Adulthood” for the fickle time between student life and independent adulthood. It’s a unique stage, according to Arnett, that requires careful examination. For 10 years, he has been advocating for Emerging Adulthood to be recognized as an official developmental stage. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/media/148039/life_challenges_for_the_20-something_generation%3A_far_more_harsh_realities_than_arrested_development/

[Alcibiades]

1. This has been true for 30 years

Or, I should say, increasingly true since 1979, which is when wages for men with high school diplomas peaked (it's been downhill ever since, and the only reason women's wages have gone up over that time has been they they have worked more hours. An economy that is bad for poor folks hits the young hardest--rising income inequality partly measures this.

"any 20-something who doesn’t have access to higher education or parental support may enter into the workforce right out of high school and skip the emerging phase entirely."

That was me, and it's a tough row to hoe. Not sure that this means, as the article says, skipping the emerging phase: just because you've left home, have a job and pay your own rent does not mean you hit the other two milestones: getting married and having kids. Lots of young people have done the first three, but have to delay the other two, because it can take a long time to "pull yourself up by your bootstraps," i.e. put yourself through school and start a career, rather than some random job.

The paradox is that the folks who have parental support, who live at home while saving up a downpayment on a house, who have their folks pay for college rather than taking out loans, may be better able to "emerge into adulthood" more quickly than someone who goes out at 18, gets a job, and eventually puts themselves through school.

[JustAnotherGen]

2. I've said it before and I'll say it again

In this day and age - of complete unadulterated Matrimania - Making marriage and children a criteria for being an adult is :bs:.


It can no longer be defined that way. Or - is it only guaranteed that straight fertile men will grow up completely? More women than men. Of men - so may be gay. Of the rest - some may be infertile. So this keeps pointing out that only straight fertile men that marry and then have children are guaranteed to have ever grown up.

Sorry for being a pest - I just think that in this day and age? We need to start REdefining what makes one a grown up. Example- my friend Tim and his partner Gary have adopted a little girl. But even though they are financially independent, well-educated, AND parents - they aren't married.

So everything goes to pot and they aren't allowed to sit at the grown ups table at Thanksgiving! :rofl:

[ladywnch]

3. well, if marriage and kids are one of the major criteria then I didn't

grow up till I was 49! I DID however, got to school and granduate, got out of the house, and found a job. And I guess by their definitions I'll never be a grown up since I chose to not have kids.