Boomerang Kid Research Paper

Boomerang Kids: New Developmental Stage or Young Adults Struggling in a Declining Economy
The days when graduating from college guaranteed a job and an apartment is dwindling. Many young adults are facing the problem of graduating with no job prospects. “This is a very tough time to be a young person economically,” says Frank Furstenburg, a professo at the University of Pennsylvania and chair of the MacArthur Network on Transition to Adulthood (Ramachandran). 30 years ago, it was possible for a person with a high school diploma to achieve a middle-class living. That's no longer the case; even college graduates have made only small gains in inflation and adjusted wages. Add the rising costs of college, loan debt, and high rents and those…show more content…
These young adults return home to get help from their parents while they find jobs, save money, or pay off loans, but Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, a psychology professor at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, and his colleges are spearheading a movement to view this move back home as a developmental stage on its own. Arnett is calling this development stage “emerging adulthood.” “Just as adolescence has its particular psychological profile,” Arnett says, “so does emerging adulthood: identity exploration, instability, self-focus, feeling in-between and a rather poetic characteristic he calls a sense of possibilities.” This “emerging adulthood” will be placed between the adolescent stage of development and the adulthood stage of development. The main point in this developmental stage is the returning child’s “failure to launch” meaning their failure in making it in the adult world without the help of Mom and Dad emotionally and…show more content…
Ed. Jennifer Lynn Tanner. Chicago: APA Press, 2005. Print.
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