《纽约时报杂志》聚焦美国二十多岁年轻人群体。杂志称，二十多岁年轻人不稳定的生活阶段已延长，他们向成年人转型的道路比过去要更加漫长。这一现象对于他们本人、他们的父母、社会是好事还是坏事？

年轻人推迟“长大成人”

　　为什么那么多二十多岁的年轻人“长大成人”的时间需要那么长？这一问题已在所有的地方出现，加剧了人们对年轻人“不能成家立业”和“归巢族”的担心。这种现象出现在各种类型的家庭里，不只是年轻人搬回家去住，而且是年轻人长大成人的时间要比过去要长。这个现象在经济危机到来之前就出现了，没有人知道这将会产生什么样的影响：对年轻男女的前景、他们中的许多人所依靠的父母、建立在有序成熟期望之上的社会。传统的完成学业、长大成人、开始职业生涯、成家、退休的人生循环看起来已脱轨了。年轻人已不愿再保持稳定的恋爱关系或者建立永久性的家庭，他们由于缺乏更好的选择而重返学校、旅游、避免承担义务、为不带薪水的实习生或者临时性的教师职位进行激烈的竞争，推迟开始成年人生活的阶段。

　　二十多岁年轻人的生活仍在不停地变化。三分之一二十多岁的年轻人每年都搬一次家，四成二十多岁的年轻人至少有一次返回父母家居住，他们在二十岁阶段平均会换七个工作。三分之二的人会在婚前与情侣同居一段时间。他们结婚的时间也比过去晚。至2009年，年轻人的平均初婚年龄已被推迟至男性28岁、女性26岁。

　　我们正处在一位社会学家所称的“成年人时间表的变化”时期。社会学家经常用五个里程碑来定性“成年人的过渡”：完成学业、离家、经济上独立、结婚、生子。在1960年，77%的女性和65%的男性在30岁前已完成了这五件事。在2000年，只有不到一半的女性和三分之一男性在30岁前完成了这五件事。

　　即使有些年轻人从未抵达一些传统的里程碑，有一件事是很清楚的：达到我们通常所称的“长大成人”的时间要比过去任何时候都要晚。为什么？这是政策制订者和学者激烈争论的一个议题。一些人认为，这是一个短暂的偶然现象，是文化和经济力量的副产品。另一些人则认为迈向成年期的更为漫长的道路意味着一些更为深刻、更为持久、可能更适应我们神经本能的东西。他们坚持认为，我们所看到的是一个新生命阶段的开始，我们所有的人都需要适应这个阶段。

　　学术研究背后的一个更为深刻的问题是：这种不稳定阶段的延长到底是好事还是坏事？这个问题让父母们也感到十分迷惑。人类的寿命现在已延伸至90岁，对年轻人来说，经历完20多岁以后再去作选择是不是会更好？因为这些选择的结果毕竟是要伴随他们半个世纪以上的时间；或者说现代青年成年期的可塑性太强，婚姻和职业选择都可以随时调整，以至于他们只要敢迈出第一步，境况就会好起来，而如果永远是原地踏步踏的话，以后几十年的人生就会一直落后于那些先成熟的同龄人？又或者正如阿奈特所说的那样，“成人初显期”是一个丰富多变的时期，特别适合于自我发现？难道说“成人初显期”只是自我放纵的另一种托词而已？

　　What Is It About 20-Somethings?

　　Why are so many people in their 20s taking so long to grow up?

　　This question pops up everywhere, underlying concerns about “failure to launch” and “boomerang kids。” Two new sitcoms feature grown children moving back in with their parents — “$#*! My Dad Says,” starring William Shatner as a divorced curmudgeon whose 20-something son can’t make it on his own as a blogger, and “Big Lake,” in which a financial whiz kid loses his Wall Street job and moves back home to rural Pennsylvania. A cover of The New Yorker last spring picked up on the zeitgeist: a young man hangs up his new Ph.D. in his boyhood bedroom, the cardboard box at his feet signaling his plans to move back home now that he’s officially overqualified for a job. In the doorway stand his parents, their expressions a mix of resignation, worry, annoyance and perplexity: how exactly did this happen?

　　It’s happening all over, in all sorts of families, not just young people moving back home but also young people taking longer to reach adulthood overall. It’s a development that predates the current economic doldrums, and no one knows yet what the impact will be — on the prospects of the young men and women; on the parents on whom so many of them depend; on society, built on the expectation of an orderly progression in which kids finish school, grow up, start careers, make a family and eventually retire to live on pensions supported by the next crop of kids who finish school, grow up, start careers, make a family and on and on. The traditional cycle seems to have gone off course, as young people remain un-tethered to romantic partners or to permanent homes, going back to school for lack of better options, traveling, avoiding commitments, competing ferociously for unpaid internships or temporary (and often grueling) Teach for America jobs, forestalling the beginning of adult life。

　　The 20s are a black box, and there is a lot of churning in there. One-third of people in their 20s move to a new residence every year. Forty percent move back home with their parents at least once. They go through an average of seven jobs in their 20s, more job changes than in any other stretch. Two-thirds spend at least some time living with a romantic partner without being married. And marriage occurs later than ever. The median age at first marriage in the early 1970s, when the baby boomers were young, was 21 for women and 23 for men; by 2009 it had climbed to 26 for women and 28 for men, five years in a little more than a generation。