REACH ADULTHOOD LATER AND LATER

[maria angelica sassone]

	[06/19/2010]
Reach adulthood later and later
People between 21 and 34 years take longer to complete their studies, independent, having children and getting married
Share Patricia Cohen The New York Times NEW YORK .- always considered those born after the Second World War until the early 60s as the generation that will not grow, the baby boomers - the perpetual adolescent. Now, more and more researchers are showing that the real Peter Pan is not the boomers, but the generation that followed. For many, either by choice or by force, independence and does not begin at 21. People between 20 and 34 years take longer to complete their education, to settle in their careers, marry, have children and become economically independent, said Frank F. Furstenberg, head of the Research Network on Transition to Adulthood MacArthur Foundation, a team of specialists who study this transformation. 'Is a new period during which young people are no longer teenagers but not adults', said Furstenberg. Surveys in the United States show that a significant majority of Americans, including young adults, agree that between 20 and 22 years one should finish school and start to work and live independently. But in reality many people between 20 and 39 still do not reach these milestones traditional. The marriage and parenthood, another moment prerequisites of adulthood, are now regarded more as life choices, according to a new study by Princeton University and the Brookings Institute. The increasingly long march to independence is rooted in social and economic changes that began in the 70s. These included the replacement of the manufacturing economy to one based on services, which caused an increase in enrollment in universities, and the feminist movement, which opened new opportunities for study and work for women. They represent more than half of college students and almost half the labor force, which in turn has delayed motherhood and marriage. For the first time in history, most of the mothers, 54% have college education, a significant increase of 41% in 1990. 'This is a big change, "says Andrew J. Cherlin, a sociologist at Johns Hopkins University. The average age of first marriage in 1980 was 23 years, now is 27 for men and 26 for women, the highest record in history. A recent study by the Pew Research Center found that over the past two decades, began a trend to delay motherhood in all ethnic groups and social classes. New definitions: For many, marriage is no longer the traditional definition of adulthood, as more and more young people simply live together. Today, 40% of births are to unmarried women, compared to 28% in 1990. At the same time, more women are childless by choice or for other reasons. 20% of women over age 40 have no children. Furstenberg stresses that 'no children would be considered weird or tragic in the 50s, but today is a lifestyle choice. " More stages of schooling imply that young people depend on financial support from their parents for longer. Adults aged 18 to 34 years received an average of $ 38,000 in cash and pay the equivalent of two years of work by their parents, or about 10% of their income, according to the MacArthur Network. There are few figures about how much parents spend 20 or 30 years ago, but Furstenberg said that further investigation of its authorship and Kornrich Sabino, which are working now, before 1990 show that parents in general spent more money on teens . By the late 90s, however, this pattern began to change and the flow of money was greater when their children were either too small or were about 25 years. More and more people over 20 years still live with their parents. About a quarter of white males 25 years in 2007 (before the last recession), compared with a fifth in 2000 and eighth in 1970. The large monetary contributions from parents not only stressed and over-exhausts the middle class and poorer families, but could affect the institutions that traditionally helped the young adults during this period. 'We have not developed or strengthened institutions to help young adults, "says Furstenberg," because we still live with the archaic idea that one enters into adulthood during the last years of adolescence or early second decade of life. '