Eighteen is a number that has such an enormous value to people; the power to vote, starting college, and being known as an adult. But when do we really begin our adulthood; or is it that the number eighteen is just a state of mind? We are so set to thinking and believing a certain way that we don’t stop and think. Why is it that Adults are still living with their parents at the age eighteen and not moving out? Numbers have shown as the years go by the number of adult children living with their parents are because the support given, education, and economic reasons.
Having that extra support and backbone at the age eighteen is nothing but an initial concern. At times adult children feel as if their parent’s involvement can be annoying or useless. Having a parent involve can mean that there will be guidance, discipline, and any kind of support. “80% of parent’s form the assistance of emotional support and advice, which attests to the intimate nature of parent--child relationships” (Millard). Growing a relationship with your parents can contain a good in it; having trust within each other and being able to talk about problems. “A study in 2003 by the National Opinion Research Center concluded that most Americans define an "adult" as someone who is at least 26 years old and/or has finished school, found a full-time job, and begun to raise a family” (Kramer). Whereas for a person who is at the age eighteen are still like a kid themselves, they still learning and developing to become an adult. A young adult at times will still need guidance and directions to become that person. "Now we expect to live at the same standards that it took our parents 20 or 30 years to achieve. We want it 20 or 30 days after graduation” (Jefferson). Once t...
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It is ironic that how some children are able to present themselves more mature than adults. The youth of the generation is becoming more mature and are developing adult skills faster than ever. People are beginning to wonder about the age of adulthood and how it should be determined. This controversy beleaguers around privileges such as drinking, driving, and voting. According to the article What is the Age of Responsibility by Alan Greenblatt, society determines that a person is an adult through customary rites, legal rights, and one’s responsibilities. However, I believe that the best way to adulthood is shown through one’s obligation for their priorities and work.
Their premise is that emerging adulthood is a relatively recent phenomenon. According to the respondents of the older focus group, the average age of marriage in the 1950’s was lower by a factor of approximately 7 years (Ansari and Klinenberg 7). Several factors account for this which are part of the lack of an emerging adulthood phase. The world was quite simply a much smaller place. People’s life experiences were often defined in terms of city blocks as opposed to miles or geographic regions. Also, marriage represented type of liberation. Most young people lived at home with their parents until they entered the marriage and job
J. J. Arnett argues his theory about a developmental stage individuals go through of 18-25 year olds as a new concept, (Arnett, 2000, pp. 469). He describes emerging adulthood as being a sustained period of time where this age group, as mentioned previously, explores their roles preceding being an adult. These movements can include events similarly by taking longer than previous years to get married and have children, moving back in with their parents at a point during this age span, exploring self-identities, not feeling like an adult and feelings of self-failure. James E. Cote, who is a previous colleague of Arnett argues the opposite about this concept being an unexperienced developmental stage Arnett calls, “Emerging Adulthood”. Cote states
In America, when a person turns eighteen, that person is now considered an adult and is treated like one as well. That person is entrusted with responsibilities such as voting, enlisting in the armed services, opening personal bank accounts and possibly holding public office. If a person can be entrusted with such responsibilities at that particular age, who can say that he/she is not ...
Teenagers still should have the chance to grow up and to experience “love” and relationships without their life being jepordized by other parents because they are unhappy about their children's relationship. In other words, they should not be considered an “adult” because they really do not understand the law or what is actually going on in life. Twenty years of age would be more of an appropriate age that people can actually be considered an adult.
Thirty one percent of adult children ages eighteen to thirty four years old still live with their parents. (HMIH) In the article “The Accordion Family” by Katherine S. Newman discusses many different reasons why adult children ages eighteen to thirty continue to live at home with their parents across several different cultural regions. A few of the major reasons for needing to stay home longer or return home can be: not financially stable to be out on their own, receiving a higher education and the debts that incurred by doing so, loss of job, foreclosures, divorce and there are of course some who can be just plain lazy. I believe it does take a village to raise a child, it is our responsibility to teach and mold these young adults before forcing them into the “real world”. Why does society in general feel that the age of eighteen is an acceptable age to send them off? It is absolutely beneficial to allow our adult children to stay at home longer if needed, both beneficial to society and the family unit altogether economically and to build a stronger family unit.
In recent years, there has been a huge controversy worldwide related with when a person could be defined as an "adult". Many sociologists have described that there is not a rule of the thumb for this definition. In fact, they have pointed out that there are many factors that define adulthood such as the culture, religion, legal systems, and individual approach. However, in my point of view, there are some of these factors which truly define the world adult.
emerging adults report that they get along better with their parents now than they did in their mid-teens (Arnett, 2015, p. 51 ). Most parents feel they have a better relationship now with their emerging adult children now too . The national Clark poll shows that 55% of emerging adults have daily or almost daily contact with their parents (Arnett, 2015, p. 50). Parents and children have more frequent contact and enjoy spending more free time together (Gillen, 2015)
Emerging adults are always in the search of their own identity while experimenting with their life, love life and career path. Constant changes in emerging adult’s life are common. From changing residential place to love life, work and education, instability often presents during emerging adulthood (Santrock, 2013). In addition, emerging adults tend to place focus on themselves where they have no commitment and responsibilities toward others. This provides them a great chance to exercise their own will and to execute their plans for the future. During emerging adulthood, many feel like as if they do not belong to either adolescents or adult. The transition ends only when they have distinct marks of an adult. According to Arnett (as cited in Santrock, 2014), “emerging adulthood is the age of possibilities” (p. 296). The age of possibilities is when an individual has the opportunity to turn things around in life, especially when they are from a poor family
“Definitions of ‘youth’ in Western societies usually refer to the life stage between childhood and adulthood, the transitional period between being dependant and becoming independent” (Kehily, 2007). The age of this transition can be best defined by the House of Commons as starting at 16 and ending at 24 years old (2013). This transition from youth to adulthood has altered considerably in recent years; the traditional norms and values that youth once followed are no longer respected or easily attained. Current youth have very different life styles and expectations, consequently; adolescents are taking longer to complete the transition into adulthood. Twenty-five years ago the traditional norms were to get a job straight after school, start courting, get married, save up enough money to set up home and eventually start a family. The fact that this is no longer the norm for the majority of youth reflects that the changes in education, employment, housing, and benefits have affected the model of transition significantly.
Shah, N. (2013, August 27). More Young Adults Living With Parents. Retrieved November 08, 2013, from The Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB
Childhood and adulthood are two different periods of one’s lifetime but equally important. Childhood is the time in everybody’s life when they are growing up to be an adult. This is when they are being considered babies because of their youthfulness and innocence. Adulthood is the period of time where everybody is considered “grown up,” usually they begin to grow up around the ages of eighteen or twenty-one years old but they do remain to develop during this time. However, in some different backgrounds, not everybody is not fully adults until they become independent with freedom, responsible for their own actions, and able to participate as an adult within society. Although childhood and adulthood are both beneficial to our lives, both periods share some attributes such as independence, responsibility, and innocence that play distinctive roles in our development.
Becoming an adult, also known as young adulthood, is a very crucial stage in one’s life. This is the climax of physical and health processes. This is the point in life when we make plans of our futures. It is the time when we think of what life will be like as an adult and make plans for the future. Most importantly, it is when we lay the starting point for developmental changes that we will undergo throughout our lives. An adult is a person who is fully grown or developed. Some people believe that you become an adult when you are 18 years old, other believe you are an adult when you can legally buy and consume alcohol, that is, at age 21 in the United States. Others believe that you are an adult when you are supporting yourself
When you think of the word adult many things may come to mind; age, responsibility, being the bigger person and goals are just a few. Everyone eventually becomes an adult but just because you turn eighteen does not mean you should be considered as one. “I think one of the defining moments of adulthood is the realization that nobody 's going to take care of you. That you have to do the heavy lifting while you 're here. And when you don 't, well, you suffer the consequences.” (Adam Savage, brainyquote.com) Adulthood requires sacrifice and a good mindset. Sometimes people aren’t shown how to take care of themselves, this being either too babied or not having anyone to look up to. Growing up is hard but no one says you have to do it alone. It is nice to get advice here and there from those that have been through the newly-adulted stage. Being an adult is not just an age.
Jones, John M. Vaterlaus, Mark A. Jackson, and Torrey B. Morrill, 2017). In the 1950’s the dynamics of the family was much different than today. Most children lived with both biological parents in the home. This type of family dynamic was more prevalent, and tended to be more settled. Although, this is true today the number of households with two parents have decreased. Now, though parent continue to nurture the children the living dynamics have changed to households with single, step, cohabitating, and gay and lesbian couples as parents. Times have changed, and so has the norm for adolescents in our society. Adolescents are more mature and seek more autonomy than in the 1950’s. Adolescents now are more inquisitive and are in search of their