On a New Schedule: Transitions to Adulthood and Family Change
On a New Schedule: Transitions to Adulthood and Family Change
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新的时间表：向成年过渡和家庭变化
DOI：
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发表时间：
2010
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
F. Furstenberg
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文献类型：
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作者：
F. Furstenberg
弗兰克·弗斯滕伯格研究了新近延长的进入成年期的时间表是如何影响和被西方，特别是美国的家庭制度所影响的。他回顾了越来越多关于年轻人及其父母家庭生活的研究，并得出了新的成年时间表的重要政策含义。弗斯滕伯格说，如今，与二战后相比，离家、结婚和生育的时间要晚得多。20世纪60年代，美国高薪的非技术性和半技术性制造业工作消失后，各个经济阶层的年轻人都开始在学校里呆得更久，结婚和组建自己的家庭也更晚。越来越多的低收入妇女根本不结婚，而是选择了非婚父母身份——她们往往向自己的出生家庭寻求经济和社会支持，而不是向自己的伴侣寻求帮助。随着年轻人依赖家庭的时间越来越长，父母的经济和情感负担也越来越重。如今，无论收入水平如何，美国父母都拿出大致相同比例的收入来抚养年幼的成年子女。与许多欧洲国家不同，美国的福利制度相对不发达，没有在年轻人的教育、医疗保健和就业福利方面投入大量资金。相反，它依赖于家庭对自己成年子女的投资。但是，随着向成年的过渡变得更加漫长，日益增加的家庭负担可能会给整个社会带来高昂的代价。年轻人自己可能会开始认为生育更繁重，回报更少。为长期子女提供更多支助的需要可能使夫妇不愿生育更多子女或根本不愿生育子女。这种决定可能导致总生育率下降，最终减少劳动力，并进一步加剧供养越来越多的老年人和年轻人的问题。美国的政策制定者必须认识到巩固家庭的重要性，并帮助减少施加在当今父母身上的巨大而相互竞争的要求。
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 discourage couples from having additional children or having children at all. Such decisions could lead to lower total fertility, ultimately reduce the workforce, and further aggravate the problem of providing both for increasing numbers of the elderly and for the young. U.S. policy makers must realize the importance of reinforcing the family nest and helping reduce the large and competing demands that are being placed on today's parents.