Yes, more and more young adults are living with their parents – but is that necessarily bad?
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Yes, more and more young adults are living with their parents – but is that necessarily bad?
Jeffrey Arnett, Clark University
When the Pew Research Center reported in 2020 that the proportion of 18-to-29-year-old Americans who live with their parents has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, perhaps you saw some of the breathless headlines hyping how it’s higher than at any time since the Great Depression.
From my perspective, the real story here is less alarming than you might think. And it’s actually quite a bit more interesting than the sound bite summary.
For 30 years I’ve been studying 18-to-29-year-olds, an age group I call “emerging adults” to describe their in-between status as no longer adolescents, but not fully adult.
Even 30 years ago, adulthood – typically marked by a stable job, a long-term partnership and financial independence – was coming later than it had in the past.
Yes, a lot of emerging adults are now living with their parents. But this is part of a larger, ...
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