modern immaturity

From Carol Tavris, "Growing Down," a review of Gary Cross, Men to Boys: The making of modern immaturity (Columbia University Press), Times Literary Supplement, October 10, 2008, p. 28

"Cross is on to an interesting phenomenon: there is something different about the very idea of maturity today. The word itself sounds old-fashioned, a word used by some authoritarian elder who regards having fun as a threat to the social order. ... Once it was easy to know when you were an adult: the milestones of life told you. You got an adult job and grown-up clothes; you had your first sexual affair; if you were a man, you served in the military; your outgrew your 'puppy' loves and got married; and you became a parent in your early twenties. The sweeping demographic and economic changes following the Second World War, however, threw these timelines off course for millions of people, leading to the postponement of career decisions, marriage or cohabitation, and parenthood until, on average, a person's late twenties or thirties. Globalization changed the world of work and the reliability of jobs; children of baby boomers have fewer opportunities and much less lifetime career security than their parents. ...

[D]evelopment psychologists now speak of a phase of life between adolescence and adulthood, 'emerging adulthood', roughly between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five. Young people in this category are usually in college or professional schools, or in low-paying temporary jobs, and therefore at least partly dependent on their parents -- the biggest cause of 'immaturity'. They are the group most likely to live unstable lives, feel unrooted and take risks. Emerging adults move more often than other demographic groups do ...They don't put down roots, as their parents did at their age ..."