Twenty years ago, becoming an adult was clearly defined by the markers of marriage, leaving home, starting work, bearing children and buying a house. All these tended to occur at a very young age and at much the same time as each other. For the children of this generation, the transition into adulthood is not nearly so obvious, and this in itself is one the most serious problems facing young people in Western societies today (Hartley 1991).

A Different Generation

The confusion apparent in many young people today has its roots in the young adulthood of their parents, and the differences must be appreciated if research is to be relevant and useful.

If we look at young people from about 16 to 23 years, then their parents are aged between about 35 and 55, with a concentration in the forties. This generation married at a very young age by historical Western standards. For example, in 1972 in Australia, 33 per cent of women had married by the time they turned 20 and 83 per cent of those reaching 25 had tied the knot. In contrast, the equivalent figures in 1934 were 14 per cent and 48 per cent respectively and, in 1991, 5 per cent and 47 per cent.

Furthermore, a large proportion of those now aged 4049 had left their parents' home only when they married. Others had left at younger ages to work or attend college in another city but less than 10 per cent had left home simply to be independent of parents (Young 1987).

Most of these young people 20 years ago had their first child soon after marriage. They also began to work before or around the time they married, and, in Australia at least, embarked upon buying a home at about the same time. Finally, most enjoyed a high degree of material wellbeing through low levels of unemployment, rising career paths and relatively low housing costs.

In other words, for the parents of today's young people, there was little confusion about their status. Many had attained the markers of adulthood almost before they knew it and, from an economic perspective, they were well able to maintain their status.

However, from a psychological or emotional point of view, it might be said that their confusion was saved for later, when many, reflecting upon their experience (or lack of it), divorced. Many of this generation now see themselves as not having had the opportunity to mature and gain experience before they were married and started families. Not confident about their own history, these parents are prone to have flexible notions about the progression to adulthood of their children. Others of the same generation, however, are supremely confident about their own experience and visit this confidence upon their children.

Today's young people have parents who range across these two types. They may receive different messages from each of their own parents or they may find that the parents of their peers have very different views from their own parents. These confused messages have been conveyed to the general society, leaving young people with a hazy appreciation of what is expected of them.

In the Institute's Becoming Adult Study, many 23-year- olds, when asked what they had learnt about relationships from their own parents, answered negatively, even when their parents were still together. Few saw their parents as a positive model for building their own relationships.

Research into young people therefore must include research into the situation of their parents. In particular, account must be taken of the socio-demographic and economic circumstances of the parental generation, their own histories, and their attitudes towards young people, particularly their own children.

Families

About 9 per cent of today's young people in Australia were born to parents who were not married. The father's name was not acknowledged on the birth certificate in the vast majority of these cases, and many would have been adopted out at birth. A further 8 per cent were conceived before their parents married and were thus the ammunition in a shotgun marriage.

Of those whose parents were married, around 20 per cent would have experienced their parents' divorce. In about nine out of ten cases, these children would have lived with their mothers. A majority of the parents of these children would have repartnered. As new partners often have children of their own, and more children are often born to the new couple, many of today's young people have complex family circumstances (see Ruth Weston's article, 'New Families, New Finances', in this edition of Family Matters).

The role of step-parents towards their step-children is ill- defined both socially and legally (Funder 1991). Furthermore, the relationship between step-fathers and their step-children is often turbulent (Ochiltree 1990).

More than 90 per cent of today's young people have at least one sibling and between 60 and 70 per cent have two or more siblings. There has been little research in Australia on sibling relationships and the salience of those relationships to the outcomes of young people's lives. Some indications of differences between siblings and the effects of sibling relationships on families will be provided by the Institute's Australian Living Standards Study, which is now in progress. We do know, however, that with mothers increasingly in the paid workforce, older children are frequent minders of their younger siblings before and after school.

Despite most young people having siblings, the number of children per family tends to be smaller than in previous generations. This can lead to more pressure on children to succeed on their parents' terms. Many of today's parents have achieved considerable occupational mobility compared with their own parents. This gives rise to the distinct possibility of downward mobility in the generation of today's young people. Indeed, given the movement of women into the upper levels of the workforce, a young person may be 'under-achieving' relative to his or her mother as well as father.

It is often suggested that there may be supervision or discipline problems after school because both parents are working. Unsupervised young people may be prone to getting into mischief or, especially in the case of girls, may be in some degree of danger, particularly in dormitory suburbs where very few people are actually at home during after- school hours.

Young people are also likely to have surviving grandparents and to have had a great deal of contact with them. Often a grandparent would have been their babysitter at a younger age. Grandparents frequently play a role when there is conflict between a young person and his or her parents, and young people leaving home due to conflict will often go to a grandparent in the first instance. On the other hand, divorce can often lead to children's relationships with grandparents being disrupted.

In regard to forming their own families, young people today generally see themselves marrying and having children (about 80 per cent), but usually in the more distant future. Rates of marriage and teenage mothers have dropped substantially. In Australia, the birth rate among women aged 1519 has dropped from a high of 54.5 births per 1000 women in 1971 to 20.6 in 1989. Even at this low rate, however, almost one in ten women will have a child as a teenager and most will subsequently live in poor economic circumstances and remain vulnerable for most of their lives.

Research Issues

There is a need for careful studies to examine the outcomes for children from various family backgrounds. In particular, information is urgently required about young people who are vulnerable as a result of family circumstances. We need informed policy options that address their vulnerability. Unsupported and homeless young people head this list, but also included are those in physical danger (often from parents), those with alcohol and drug problems, those who become involved in crime, and those with psychiatric or psychological problems. There is a great deal of evidence linking these problems to family circumstances.

Research is required on the viability and cost effectiveness of preventative policies to address youth homelessness, poverty, crime, drug and alcohol abuse, and teenage pregnancy. Another goal is to enhance relationships between young people and their families.

Education and Employment

Between the generations of today's young people and their parents, there has been a revolution in the labour market which has shifted the emphasis towards those with post- secondary school qualifications. Employment in primary and secondary industries has declined substantially, while employment in the service and information industries has mushroomed.

Compared with most European countries, this trend was tempered in Australia during the 1980s by the continuing emphasis on construction as the population grew relatively rapidly through migration. During the 1980s there were still apprenticeship opportunities in the skilled trades, but the recession put an abrupt end to these, probably for several years.

For young women, employment opportunities even during the 1980s revolved around obtaining tertiary qualifications. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that rates of completing secondary school are now higher for girls than for boys and that women are in the majority among new university entrants. Law and medicine faculties now have a majority of women among new entrants.

These trends have led to several changes in the lives of young people. The retention rate of Australian students to the end of secondary school has moved from about 40 per cent to about 80 per cent in just one decade, and is still rising. As the number of places available in tertiary institutions has not grown at nearly the same rate, and as there is now a substantial number of adults 'going back to school', the competition for tertiary places is extraordinary. This puts great pressure on young people and leaves them apprehensive about their future.

At the same time, a once-strong labour market for young people has virtually collapsed. It began with those aged 15, 16 and 17 who had not completed high school, extended to 18 and 19 year-olds who had completed high school but had no tertiary training, and is now extending to those aged in their early twenties and to those with qualifications.

This means that those who fall out of the education stream have great difficulty finding employment with the danger that this situation may become semi-permanent. Even when a young person does find work, the wage rates are such that 15 to 17-year-olds who have no other means of support would remain below the poverty line although working full-time (McDonald 1991). Such people must have very long-term goals in mind to sustain their incentive to work.

Alongside the decline in full-time job opportunities for young people has been an exceptional growth in the casual labour market. This consists essentially of young people in full-time education who work out of school hours in supermarkets, take-away food stores and restaurants. In many ways, this is one of the good news stories as the system appears to work well for these young people and their employers. It does mean, however, that those who are out of the education system and seeking full-time work are shut out and doubly disadvantaged.

Research is required on approaches to employment and training for young people who, for whatever reason, do not follow the standard academic stream. This is likely to involve less academically rigid education systems and more on-the-job training. It also requires commitment on the part of governments and employers.

Independence and Adulthood

In contrast to their parents, adulthood for young people today is not clearly marked. Whereas once adulthood came with leaving the parents' home, marrying, having children, starting work and buying a home, all clear markers which tended to occur at much the same time, these events are now widely spaced for young people, and may not occur at all.

In the Institute's Becoming Adult Study, young people aged 23 were asked what being an adult meant to them. Their definitions focused more on psychological development than status markers. Adulthood meant development of a sense of responsibility for oneself, independence in decisions relating to self, and psychological development involving growth, learning and consolidation of self (Hartley 1991). But adulthood in both generations meant independence from parents.

Changes in education and the labour market, as described above, have meant that young people are financially dependent upon their parents for longer than was the case in the past. At the same time, these young people, through a revised approach to education and childrearing, have been taught to be more self-reliant, to be better able to make decisions for themselves, to be more assertive, to be more aware of their rights, and to be seeking broad experience. The parental generation that has been partly instrumental in these changes is often less able to deal with the consequences. They have often not re-educated themselves.

These circumstances create considerable potential for inter- generational tensions. Young people seek to act independently and to make their own decisions while at the same time being frustrated by financial dependency upon parents. Parents on the other hand may not be ready for the freedoms demanded by young people and may resent the not inconsiderable drain upon their finances that the young person constitutes.

These tensions tend to be exacerbated in step-families where conventionally a step-father may have a low level of personal commitment to a young person who is a trouble to him and to his relationship with the young person's mother, and a drain upon the household finances. A more liberal approach to childrearing brings with it confusion about the relative rights of parents and young people.

Financial dependency of young people also comes at a time when the market place for products directed at young people has been on an exponential growth curve for decades. Thus the opportunities available for young people are continually on display in contra-distinction to their capacity to pay.

Again, the growth of the casual labour market for young people has been one of the few successes in the changes that have been taking place. This employment provides young people with work experience and with a small income that usually can be used at their own discretion. However, for those living in poor households, this income usually goes towards supporting the household. Employers are also more likely to give casual work to the more presentable and articulate middle class child.

The shrinking youth labour market has reversed a previous trend towards young people leaving home at earlier ages, often to set up house with a sexual partner. As young people stay at home longer but still wish to be engaged in sexual relationships, there has been a demand for parental tolerance of sexual activity in the parents' home.

Evidence from the Becoming Adult Study suggests that sexual activity by young people in their parents' home with their parents' knowledge is relatively common. Parents and young people, however, remain somewhat uncomfortable about this in most cases. Also involved, of course, are the parents of the other young sexual partner.

On a practical day-to-day level, problems arise as young people may wish to change plans with no notice given to parents, or will not keep parents informed of where they are, what they are doing or whom they are with. The shift from parent responsibility for the young person to independent responsibility while the young person is still living at home is ill-defined and becomes a source of tension.

Other problems revolve around transport with demands for assistance from parents while young people are not able to drive themselves, and requests to use the family vehicle when they are able to drive. If they have their own car, then an old problem of safety becomes prominent. Motor vehicle accidents remain the leading cause of death among 1524- year-olds in Australia, and these accidents often involve alcohol. The transport problem is exacerbated in Australia because many of today's young people live on city fringes, at a great distance from the main centres of entertainment. Public transport is unreliable and often unsafe.

Research is required on the ways in which parents and young people can better negotiate young people's transition to independence while still financially dependent. This will be more important in step-families.

Negative Outcomes

There are many negative outcomes arising from the difficulties young people and their families face today.

Low self esteem, a sense of failure and worthlessness are associated in the extreme with drug and alcohol abuse, criminal activity or suicide. Suicide is the second-most common cause of death for young people in Australia and is especially severe among young men. Suicide at this age is one of the few causes of death at any age that is rapidly increasing.

Stress arising from excessive pressure to achieve and succeed in an increasingly competitive education and labour market can have serious consequences, including psychological breakdown and suicide.

Homelessness and poverty can result in vulnerability to the drug culture and prostitution, sexually transmitted disease, AIDS, long-term unemployment and crime.

Boredom, delinquency, vandalism and gang fights are commonly caused by there being few affordable opportunities for entertainment and leisure.

Social division arises between young people who have a future and those whose future is insecure.

Research is required into how these negative outcomes can be prevented as early as possible. When the family is the problem, as is very often the case, it is often difficult to determine whether the family is capable of improvement or whether the young person needs to have a life independent of the family. Research is required into how to determine which family circumstances can be improved and how they can be improved. Research is also required into the best ways to assist young people whose best interests are served by living apart from their families.

References

• Funder, K. (1991), 'New partners as co-parents', Family Matters, No.28, April.
• Hartley, R. (1991), 'Adulthood: the time you get serious about the rest of your life', Family Matters, No.30, December.
• McDonald, P. (1991), 'Youth wages and poverty', Family Matters, No.28, April.
• Ochiltree, G. (1990), Children in Stepfamilies, Prentice-Hall, Sydney.
• Young, C. (1987), Young People Leaving Home in Australia, Australian Institute of Family Studies and the Australian National University, Melbourne.

This article is adapted from a paper presented to the conference on Family and Youth in Contemporary Thailand, Bangkok, 11-13 November 1991.