I n a recent column Robert Samuelson of the Washington Post examines changing attitudes toward what it means to be adult. Not so long ago he notes adulthood was primarily defined in terms of getting a full-time job setting up a household and starting a family. And those events routinely took place in one’s twenties.
Asked to define the indicia of adulthood today only 11.5% of Americans list marriage as extremely important and 33.9% as somewhat important. Having children fares even worse as a defining marker of adulthood. Even having a full-time job is listed as an extremely important indicator of adulthood by only slightly more than half the population.
Of course no one wishes to think of himself as not quite a grown-up especially by the time one reaches his or her thirties. Changing referents for adulthood accordingly reflect changing behaviors. In 1976 85% of women aged 25 to 29 had married. The comparable figure today is approximately half that — 46%. For men the percentage of those in that age group who have married has fallen to less than half of its previous level from 75% to 32%.
In 1975 more than twice as high a percentage of those between 18 and 34 lived with spouses (57%) as lived with their parents (26%). Today a higher percentage live with their parents (31%) than with spouses (27%).
