At the turn of this century I studied the transition from
adolescence into adulthood. I noticed the discrepancy between the common saying that kids grow up so quickly these days and the delay in young people becoming what we think of a "adult."
I called this new phase of life, between the ages of twenty and twenty-five, the "threshold" phase, since young people were at the doorway to adulthood, but were not passing through. Instead, they were stuck on the threshold, still depend on
parents, still undecided about a
career, and still feeling a little too young to be married.
Unlike many people, I do not see this "immaturity" in a bad light. I think our complex society demands a longer apprenticeship. Employers have higher expectations of education and training qualifications, and young people have to work longer to meet these expectations. Few young people can afford to set up independent households in their early twenties. But it isn't only, or even primarily, financial support from families on which thresholders may depend. Young people who have emotional and practical support from their families make a more positive transition to adulthood than young people whose parents do not help. Sometimes parents believe that they will undermine a son or daughter by continuing to offer support when they become, according to a legal definition, an adult. This is unfortunate, because continued help and support and advice and companionship allows young people to explore various possibilities, to develop the skills that will serve them well throughout adulthood, and to feel supported in a society in which formal and informal networks are in other ways diminishing.
But how will a recession affect thresholders? Financially speaking, parents may be in a much less good position to offer financial help. Some parents took out loans on their own homes to help provide funds for a son's or daughter's home. This practice has virtually come to a stop. Nor can parents as easily offer financial support for further training and education, and the burden of taking out loans is increasing. And, with the job market shrinking, thresholders have less choice, and those short term contracts and trial employments will have a more uncomfortable ending.
So it is important to focus on how much support parents can offer even when they cannot provide financial support. Just "being there" has been found to be important. Perhaps more young people who continue to live in a parent's home, or return to a parent's home (some parents refer to these years not as an empty nest, but as a revolving door, as young adult children leave, only to return), will be appreciated as contributors to family income. The rent they pay to parents, which might have once been nominal, may now become a significant means of support, and this will help them feel effective, rather than diminished in their dependence. In addition, those thresholders who take longer to find their feet may no longer be so daunted by comparisons with peers: there will be fewer hot shot high earners; any, anyway, the value attached to material possessions is on the wane. And then, the depressed housing market may in time become an opportunity for young people hoping to have a home of their own.
But a great concern is for the impact increased debts - of both parents and their young adult sons and daughteron - may have on psychological wellbeing. A report just published in the UK by a government think tank on Mental Capital and Wellbeing highlights a strong link between debt and mental illness. In the general population in Britain, about 16% suffer some mental illness, but among those who have significant financial debt, about 50% suffer from mental health problems. So we have to consider how, for both thresholders and parents, risk can be reduced even in the current financial context. Fortunately, this same report proposes that interpersonal connections, offering mutual support, and continued learning from one another can help maintain mental wellbeing. The long-term dependence on parents that helps thresholders might also in this economic climate benefit their parents.
