The Journey Into Adulthood in Uncertain Times by Robert Crosnoe, Shannon E Cavanagh ISBN 9780871540324, 9781610448963, 0871540320, 1610448960 instant download

The Journey Into Adulthood in Uncertain Times by Robert Crosnoe, Shannon E Cavanagh ISBN 9780871540324, 9781610448963, 0871540320, 1610448960 instant download

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Concerns about the welfare of young adults have received increasing public attention. Numerous magazine and newspaper articles ask "Are young adults failing to launch?" and "Are global crises creating generations of lost youth?" These questions are driven by worries that young people are either unable or unwilling to transition to adulthood, even when they have aged past traditional definitions of childhood and adolescence. In The Journey into Adulthood in Uncertain Times, sociologists Robert Crosnoe and Shannon E. Cavanagh examine whether young people today are either refusing or failing to grow up. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative survey data over five decades, Crosnoe and Cavanagh find that young adults are, in fact, waiting longer to take on "real" adult roles, such as worker or parent. However, this is not out of a reluctance to grow up. Instead, increased inequality and changes in the economy have forced young people to adapt their lives in new ways. Young adults are now spending more time in school, have more trouble finding their footing in the labor force, and consequently postpone getting married and having children. They also mix and match roles in more complicated ways now than in the past--going back and forth between school and work over longer periods of time or disconnecting parenthood from their romantic relationships. While the period from late teens to mid-twenties does look different now than in the past, the change has been slow and steady rather than a dramatic shift due to social crises. The Great Recession, for example, had a more muted effect on young people's social and economic attainment and family formation than fears of a lost generation would suggest. Crosnoe and Cavanagh find that while the panic over young adults today may be somewhat overblown, this conclusion should not obscure some clear concerns. Young adults do struggle with their social and emotional wellbeing.