When do our children become adults?
Filed under: Family Research & Teaching, Mormon Church, Mormon Families, Mormon Missionaries
As a parent of a few male teenagers and a Mormon, I was hoping that sending them on a mission would be the last big effort before they would finally become adults.
However, a few months ago someone had told me that children between the ages of 18 and 25 or even 30 may still need a lot of help and require a lot of work. I had hoped that it was not true… but I was doubting…
Now I am sure that my hopes were in vain. A new study by BYU professors seem to indicate that in fact, children between the ages of 18 and 25 are not yet really adults.
The findings strengthen the idea that a distinct life stage has emerged between adolescence and adulthood, consequently extending parents’ period of responsibility for their children. The study, which will be published in the new issue of the Journal of Family Psychology, offers a new look at parents’ expectations when children reach their 20s.
“The message parents are sending to their kids is “You may be 18 but that doesn’t magically make you an adult. There are things you first need to develop and that hasn’t happened yet,†said Larry Nelson, associate professor in the School of Family Life at BYU and lead author on the study. “It’s not that their kids refuse to grow up, it’s that they are still in the process of doing that.â€
BYU study: Parents don’t view their college students as adults
In short, it look like I have many years in front of me before I can say… it is done!