kiterature
YOUNG ADULTS LIVING AT HOME
Robyn Hartley
The circumstances and the timing of young people leaving home change with social, cultural and economic developments. In Australia in the 1950s and 1960s, leaving home was closely associated with marriage, employment and education. In particular, the shift to earlier marriages between 1940 and 1970 meant that young people left home earlier during this period. In the 1970s, the age at which they left remained about the same, but their reasons for doing so changed. As early marriage declined, the drop in those who left to marry was matched by those who left to form de facto relationships, and a greater percentage than previously, particularly young men, left to be independent (McDonald 1993).
Further changes occurred in the 1980s, with dramatic increases in the numbers of young people staying on at school to Year 12, increasing numbers undertaking post- secondary education, the virtual disappearance of full-time employment for 15-19-year-olds and, later in the decade, as the recession hit, rising unemployment for 20-24-year-olds. Now, in the early 1990s, young people are more likely to be living with their parents than previously, more likely to be partly dependent financially on parents even if they have left home, and more likely to leave and return home at least once as their circumstances change. At the 1991 Census, 40 per cent of 20-24-year-olds lived with their parents, compared with 35 per cent in 1979.
These are the broad trends. But as well as being related to broader social and economic factors, decisions about leaving home should be seen in a family context because the experience of going or staying is essentially a personal and individual experience. For young people and their parents, whatever the circumstances, emotions are rarely neutral. Young people leave home willingly or reluctantly. They leave with confidence, hope and a sense of adventure. They leave with trepidation and anxiety, in fear,
Robyn Hartley
The circumstances and the timing of young people leaving home change with social, cultural and economic developments. In Australia in the 1950s and 1960s, leaving home was closely associated with marriage, employment and education. In particular, the shift to earlier marriages between 1940 and 1970 meant that young people left home earlier during this period. In the 1970s, the age at which they left remained about the same, but their reasons for doing so changed. As early marriage declined, the drop in those who left to marry was matched by those who left to form de facto relationships, and a greater percentage than previously, particularly young men, left to be independent (McDonald 1993).
Further changes occurred in the 1980s, with dramatic increases in the numbers of young people staying on at school to Year 12, increasing numbers undertaking post- secondary education, the virtual disappearance of full-time employment for 15-19-year-olds and, later in the decade, as the recession hit, rising unemployment for 20-24-year-olds. Now, in the early 1990s, young people are more likely to be living with their parents than previously, more likely to be partly dependent financially on parents even if they have left home, and more likely to leave and return home at least once as their circumstances change. At the 1991 Census, 40 per cent of 20-24-year-olds lived with their parents, compared with 35 per cent in 1979.
These are the broad trends. But as well as being related to broader social and economic factors, decisions about leaving home should be seen in a family context because the experience of going or staying is essentially a personal and individual experience. For young people and their parents, whatever the circumstances, emotions are rarely neutral. Young people leave home willingly or reluctantly. They leave with confidence, hope and a sense of adventure. They leave with trepidation and anxiety, in fear,