Adult Children and Independence: Overview
The concept of "Adult Children and Independence" explores the growing trend of young adults, often termed "boomerang children," returning to live with their parents after a period of independent living. This phenomenon has become increasingly common in the twenty-first century and is influenced by various social and economic factors, including rising living costs, declining job security, and shifts in marriage patterns. Many young adults face significant financial pressures, such as student loan debt and high housing expenses, making it challenging to maintain independence. The COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated this trend, resulting in a notable increase in multigenerational households as families adapted to the changing economic landscape. Research indicates that many of these arrangements may continue as young adults seek both financial and emotional support in today's economic climate. Overall, the dynamics of adulthood and independence are evolving, reflecting broader societal changes and attitudes toward family living arrangements.
Adult Children and Independence: Overview
Introduction
The twenty-first century has seen the rise in the United States and other Western countries of the phenomenon of “boomerang children,” referring to young (or not-so-young) adults who return to live in their parents’ home after having lived independently for a time. This practice indicates a change from earlier generations, when individuals in their twenties were expected to live on their own. Boomerang children may reflect other changes in society, notably the higher average age at first marriage, the rising incidence of divorce, declining job security, and higher cost of living than earlier generations. Other observers have suggested that parents are responsible for perpetuating a pattern of dependent behavior in their children by being over-eager to offer room and board to their adult children. Parents also contribute to the financial support of adult children who live outside the home at higher rates than in the past. Furthermore, significant events during the early twenty-first century have caused an increase in adults living in their parents' home, such as the 2008 financial recession and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Understanding the Discussion
Age of minority: The age-range during which parents have legal responsibility for the care of their children. Typically this range is from birth to the eighteenth birthday.
Baby boomers: Members of the generation born in the years just after World War II (1945–57). This period saw a sudden surge in the birthrate, which had declined during the war.
Boomerang children: Individuals who move back to live with their parents after having established their own residences. The term references the boomerang, a weapon that returns through the air to the person who threw it, used by Aboriginal Australians.
Multigenerational household: Households that have two or more adult generations living in the same home.
History
A 2004 study by the University of Michigan found that on average, parents contributed $2200 a year to the support of their adult children who lived outside the home; these numbers were even higher for wealthier parents and families with boomerang children. A study conducted by Ameriprise Financial in 2007 found that 92 percent of affluent baby boomers gave financial help to their adult children.
To some members of older generations, “adulthood” was considered synonymous with leaving school (either high school or college) and living independently. “Living independently,” in turn, meant earning money and financing one’s own expenses (housing, food, clothing, transportation, etc.) without subsidies from parents. Living on one’s own was followed by marriage and children. Parents could then expect to become “empty nesters” whose offspring had gone off to live on their own, to return only for visits.
This pattern, common in the post-Depression era, had succeeded practices in earlier generations in which female children lived at home until they were married, regardless of how long that might take, and males started working at an early age, contributing money to support their families until other social pressures caused them to move out. In earlier times, living together outside marriage was not an acceptable option; during the twenty-first century, however, a far greater percentage of couples did so.
Marriage statistics also suggest changing social practices offer reasons for adults to live with their parents. The marriage rate has declined fairly steadily over the past century. In 1920, the marriage rate was 12.0 per 1000 population; by 2018 this rate dropped down to 6.5 per 1000 population. The divorce rate is also higher than in the past. In 1900, it was a low 0.7 per 1000 population; this soared to 5.3 by the early 1980s and then fell to 2.9 per 1000 population by 2017. With fewer people marrying and more people divorcing, fewer young adults are in marriages and forming stable households of their own. The average age at first marriage has also increased. In the 1950s, it was 22.8 years old for males and 20.3 years old for females. By 2018 it had risen to 29.8 for males and 27.8 for females. Given the economic realities of marriage and divorce, it seems entirely plausible that among the boomerang children are significant numbers of never-married or recently divorced adults seeking both some measure of economic aid as well as emotional support.
Adult Children and Independence Today
Most experts believe the biggest issue driving the trend toward “boomerang children” in the twenty-first century is the economy. A recent college graduate may have no savings, a modest income, and high student loan debt, and therefore lack the financial resources to live apart from his or her family and become a boomerang child. A somewhat older child may suddenly find themselves unemployed, involuntarily or voluntarily. Other trends, such as tight job markets, companies that are less committed to hiring workers for life, and the rapidly increasing cost of college, also play a role in parents’ support for adult children.
By 2021, 17 percent of young adults lived in a parent's home, compared to 8 percent fifty years earlier in 1971, based on data from the Pew Research Center. Part of this rise was due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in a significant uptick in the number of adult children moving home. In 2020, when the pandemic first broke out, an unprecedented number of adult children moved home amid college closures and places of employment switching to remote work or closing down altogether. Two years after the pandemic's outbreak, however, studies found that the majority of those young adults continued to live at home, despite other areas of life returning closer to pre-pandemic times. A 2022 report by LendingTree found that 67 percent of young adults who moved home during the pandemic still lived there in 2022, mainly due to soaring inflation rates and costs of living, including increased housing costs, that made it difficult for many adult children to maintain financial security and live on their own.
At the same time, multigenerational households have risen in popularity among Americans during the twenty-first century. According to the Pew Research Center, young adults were far more likely to live in a multigenerational family household in 2021 than in previous generations. While multigenerational living arrangements can mean a young adult living in the home of a parent, they can also consist of a young adult living in their own home with another family member or a young adult living in the home of a grandparent. A 2022 report by Pew revealed that this was especially true of young adults aged twenty-five to thirty-four years old. While 25 percent of young adults in that age group lived in a multigenerational household in 2021, just 9 percent did so in 1971. This gap was even more pronounced for those without a bachelor's degree. Among twenty-five to thirty-four-year-olds who had not finished college, 31 percent lived in multigenerational households in 2021. The survey further found that financial difficulties were the largest contributing factor leading to the increase in multigenerational arrangements.
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