By David Sacks, Lifesize
There they go, and here they come.
A new study by the Pew Research Center shows the growing trend of the boomerang generation. The report, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, notes that 21.6 million Millennials ? people ages 18 to 30 ? lived at home in 2012, which is up from 18.5 million in 2007. Between a third and one half of these home-dwelling Millennials are college students, according to the study. (Students who lived in dorms during the school year were also counted in the report as living at home.)
Pew Research says the increase is because of a combination of cultural, educational and economic factors.
?I think one issue that people are very well aware of is the economic factor,? says Jennifer Tanner, co-founder of Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood.
Jeffery Arnett, professor of psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., coined the term ?emerging adulthood? to describe the period from 18 to 25 when people begin to become more independent.
Tanner explains that a lot of factors contribute to this type of ?social phenomenon,? and while we may be comfortable placing the blame on the emerging adults, it?s often more complex than someone who just isn?t trying hard enough.
Mellissa Walker, a 30-year-old junior at Kennesaw State University near Atlanta studying finance, knows about the economic factor on a personal level.
After making the decision to go back to school, she had to quit her job working as a retail manager because she says they wouldn?t let her keep her management position while going to school, which forced the move back home.
?You cannot have obligations like school or classes or anything like that,? Walker says.
Tanner says that individuals such as Walker are making the ?relatively mature decision? to move back home instead of choosing to stress themselves out trying to make ends meet.
Walker says the decision doesn?t come without some sacrifice of personal freedom and the negative stigma that comes with living at home, but adds, ?It?s one of those situations that I?m not currently in a position to do anything about.?
Mike Eden, 23, a student at Georgia State University, says his parents encouraged him to move back home while at school to save time and money.
?When I had just started college I was working at UPS,? Eden says. ?My dad wanted me to stop working and just concentrate on school because he was worried that it was affecting my sleep and that it would affect my grades.?
The Baby Boomer era of leaving home for college at 18 and starting a family in your early twenties is not the norm anymore, Tanner says. That type of ideal was a blip in history, she adds, and the new norm of the emerging adult is going through a transitional period.
?Right after the Baby Boomers was Generation X, and they?re the first generation that is not going to do better than their parents did, economically,? Tanner says.
Compared to the culture of other countries, specifically in Europe, Tanner says that Americans? individualistic outlook have them wanting to leave the nest much earlier than their neighbors across the pond.
?This is the time of life where people are supposed to be psychologically becoming who they are, developing their sense of self in their heads,? she says. ?And it?s a sociologically perspective when we care about: where are you living, are you employed or not employed, are you married or not married, do you have a baby or not??
The future for the Millennials remains to be seen, but Tanner says progress is being made. ?We?re moving to a place where psychological variables matter more than sociological variables, but we?re not there yet,? she says.
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