On a New Schedule: Transitions to Adulthood and Family Change
On a New Schedule: Transitions to
Adulthood and Family Change
Frank F. Furstenberg Jr.
Summary
Frank Furstenberg examines how the newly extended timetable for entering adulthood is
affecting, and being affected by, the institution of the Western, particularly the American, family. He reviews a growing body of research on the family life of young adults and their parents
and draws out important policy implications of the new schedule for the passage to adulthood.
Today, says Furstenberg, home-leaving, marriage, and the onset of childbearing take place
much later in the life span than they did during the period after World War II. After the disappearance of America’s well-paying unskilled and semi-skilled manufacturing jobs during the
1960s, youth from all economic strata began remaining in school longer and marrying and starting their own families later. Increasing numbers of lower-income women did not marry at all
but chose, instead, non-marital parenthood—often turning to their natal families for economic
and social support, rather than to their partners. As the period of young adults’ dependence
on their families grew longer, the financial and emotional burden of parenthood grew heavier.
Today, regardless of their income level, U.S. parents provide roughly the same proportion of
their earnings to support their young adult children.
Unlike many nations in Europe, the United States, with its relatively underdeveloped welfare
system, does not invest heavily in education, health care, and job benefits for young adults.
It relies, instead, on families’ investments in their own adult children. But as the transition to
adulthood becomes more protracted, the increasing family burden may prove costly to society
as a whole. Young adults themselves may begin to regard childbearing as more onerous and less
rewarding. The need to provide greater support for children for longer periods may...
