Seeing Sociology in Everyday Life Are We Grown Up Yet? Defining Adulthood Solly: (seeing several friends walking down the dorm hall- way, just returned from dinner) Yo, guys! Jeremy’s twenty-one today. We’re going down to the Box Car to celebrate. Matt: (shaking his head) Dunno, dude. I got a lab to finish up. It’s just another birthday. Solly: Not just any birthday, my friend. He’s twenty- one—an adult! Matt: (sarcastically) If turning twenty-one would make me an adult, I wouldn’t still be clueless about what I want to do with my life! Are you an adult or still an adolescent? Does turning twenty-one make you a “grown-up”? According to the sociologist Tom Smith (2003), in our society, there is no one fac- tor that announces the onset of adulthood. In fact, the results of his survey—using a repre- sentative sample of 1,398 people over the age of eighteen—suggest that many factors play a part in our decision to con- sider a young person “grown up.” According to the survey, the single most important transition in claiming adult standing in the United States today is the completion of schooling. But other factors are also important: Smith’s respondents linked adult standing to taking on a full-time job, gaining the ability to support a family financially, no longer living with parents, and finally, marrying and becoming a parent. In other words, almost everyone in the United States thinks a person who has done all of these things is fully “grown up.” At what age are these transitions likely to be com- pleted? On average, the answer is about twenty-six. But such an average masks an important difference based on social class. People who do not attend college (more com- mon among people growing up in lower-income families) typically finish school before age twenty, and a full-time job, independent living, marriage, and parenthood may follow in a year or two. Those from more privi- leged backgrounds are likely to attend college and may even go on to graduate or professional school, delaying the process of becoming an adult for as long as ten years, past the age of thirty. What Do You Think? 1. Do you consider yourself an adult? Why or why not? 2. At what age do you think adulthood begins? Why? Do patterns of growing up differ for fe- males and males? Explain. 3. What importance do you think social class has in the process of becoming an adult?
Seeing Sociology in Everyday Life Are We Grown Up Yet? Defining Adulthood Solly: (seeing several friends walking down the dorm hall- way, just returned from dinner) Yo, guys! Jeremy’s twenty-one today. We’re going down to the Box Car to celebrate. Matt: (shaking his head) Dunno, dude. I got a lab to finish up. It’s just another birthday. Solly: Not just any birthday, my friend. He’s twenty- one—an adult! Matt: (sarcastically) If turning twenty-one would make me an adult, I wouldn’t still be clueless about what I want to do with my life! Are you an adult or still an adolescent? Does turning twenty-one make you a “grown-up”? According to the sociologist Tom Smith (2003), in our society, there is no one fac- tor that announces the onset of adulthood. In fact, the results of his survey—using a repre- sentative sample of 1,398 people over the age of eighteen—suggest that many factors play a part in our decision to con- sider a young person “grown up.” According to the survey, the single most important transition in claiming adult standing in the United States today is the completion of schooling. But other factors are also important: Smith’s respondents linked adult standing to taking on a full-time job, gaining the ability to support a family financially, no longer living with parents, and finally, marrying and becoming a parent. In other words, almost everyone in the United States thinks a person who has done all of these things is fully “grown up.” At what age are these transitions likely to be com- pleted? On average, the answer is about twenty-six. But such an average masks an important difference based on social class. People who do not attend college (more com- mon among people growing up in lower-income families) typically finish school before age twenty, and a full-time job, independent living, marriage, and parenthood may follow in a year or two. Those from more privi- leged backgrounds are likely to attend college and may even go on to graduate or professional school, delaying the process of becoming an adult for as long as ten years, past the age of thirty. What Do You Think? 1. Do you consider yourself an adult? Why or why not? 2. At what age do you think adulthood begins? Why? Do patterns of growing up differ for fe- males and males? Explain. 3. What importance do you think social class has in the process of becoming an adult?
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