Young Adulthood in the U.S.
- Stats and Trends
Your task for this assignment is to highlight and evaluate current trends and
data in the U.S. as they relate to the developmental tasks of young
adulthood.
STEPS:
1. Review Developmental Tasks of Adulthood Chart
What are the milestones for YOUNG ADULTS (Ages 20-40)? (This also includes Stage 6 of
Erikson’s “Intimacy v. Isolation”)
Some that are on the list:
● Psychological separation from parents
● Assuming a social role
● Adapting ethical and spiritual values
● Choosing a career
● Acknowledging adult responsibility
● Thinking about having children or having children
● Seeking independence
● Now marriage doesn't happen till 40-45 because they want to be independent and wait to
start a family because they are more focused on their career.
2. What are some questions you are curious about in this age group? (Write a few below)
● Why is the age group for Young adults from 20-40?
● Does separating 100% really give you that independence you want when you're 30-40?
● Why are there young adults that are over the age of 20 still living with their parents?
Especially when they all want 100% separated from their parents to have their independence.
3. Read through The Changing Economics and Demographics of Young Adulthood: 1975-2016
This report looks at trends in the U.S. with young adults. What surprises you?
What stats do you find interesting? Is there evidence that young adults are
meeting milestones? Missing the mark?
What surprises me is that most of the Americans today believe that educational and economic accomplishments
are extremely important milestones for adulthood. ‘In contrast, marriage and parenthood ranked low.’ Over half
of Americans believe that marriage and having kids are not important to become an adult. Which makes sense
because that doesn't make you an adult but it surprises me that they put education above all else because most
kids after high school want a break from school, it's not their number one priority.
The stats that I find interesting is that in the 1970’s 8 out of 10 people were married by the age of 30, but today
only 8 out of 10 people get married by the age of 45. Another stat that I find interesting is that 1 out of 3 young
adults ages 18-34 still live with their parents.
There is some evidence that young adults are meeting milestones, for example there is 51.8% adults who are
done with their education by the age of 22 and 36.7% that have a full-time employment by the age of 22.
4. Decide on a research question you would like to explore and write it here:
What is the importance of ‘psychological separation from parents’ have to do with your young
adulthood? (Does this have to be done to get our independence)
****Example Research Question: If separating from parents is a task of young adults, do the current
employment and/or housing statistics show most are living independently?
*Your statistics must be for ages 20-40 only. You must collect the MOST CURRENT data available to
you.You may use other sources of information if it is U.S. data
● Life in your 20’s - Finishing college
● Life in your 30’s - Career advancements and Relationship changes
● Life in your 40’s - A more focused career, this could be a change in your career or starting/raising a
family, and possibly planning for retirement
● This is the time where young adults start to 100% think on their own
● By the age of 27 90% of young adults have moved out of their parents home (1997)
● Now a days parents have more contact with their young adults then parents 30 years ago
● 20% of young adults lack contact with their fathers
● 6.5% of young adults lack contact with their mothers
● 52% of young adults still live with their parents as of 2020
5. Answer the following questions (in paragraph form):
What data from your research may be used to answer your question? Does the data provide a clear
answer to your question? If not, what additional information do you think is necessary to gather?
Young adults believe that separation from their parents gives them their independence and they are not
wrong. With living with your parents then you stay stuck in not having full control over how you think of
certain situations. Also just to grow as a person you have to separate yourself from your parents, yet with that
being said there is still a huge amount of young adults who still live with their parents even though they say that
they need to seperate themselves from their parents. There are 52% of young adults still living with their
parents. These stats are for the age group 20-30. Which is when they should be advenchering out and getting
that independence they wanted.
Were the results what you expected? Explain.
These were not the results I expected because if it was so important for them to gain that independence
from their parents why are alot of young adults still living with their parents? With that being said I was
surprised to see the low percentage of adults who lack contact with their parents considering that they wanted to
have that full separation. There are only 20% of young adults who lack contact with their fathers and only 6.5%
of young adults who lack contact with their mothers.
Reflect on the information learned as it relates to our understanding of developmental trends for
this age group.
Independence is a huge part of any age's development, but with that being said young adults still want
their parents involved in their lives no matter how much they want to say they don’t need them. They still gain
their independence in different ways not only they have some separation from their parents but they begin their
own paths in life by starting the journey on their careers.
