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Qualitative Study: Coming of Age in America As part of the current phase of research by the Network, researchers have fanned out across the United States to interview young adults in their 20s, in both rural and urban areas, to better understand, first-hand, how these young adults in vastly different settings are making their way into adulthood. The researchers selected five very different places—small-town Iowa, New York City, San Diego, and St. Paul, Minnesota, Detroit, Michigan—on the grounds that what it means to be an adult is constrained by one’s choices and opportunities. Context is a major factor determining one’s future. The logic of growing up, the blueprint, is therefore likely different in each place. Headed by Harvard sociologist Mary Waters, the qualitative studies are delving in-depth into the broad demographic and societal trends uncovered in the Network’s first book, On the Frontier of Adulthood. Demographic Profile of Young Adults in the Five Cities Key Findings from Each Site Iowa: Traditionalists The context of Iowa is one of low-cost housing, tight-knit communities, but limited job opportunities, as family farming, a way of life for several generations, is transplanted by agribusiness. Many young adults leave Iowa for good, seeking fun and opportunity in larger cities, some leave but return, while still others never leave. The factors driving these decisions are a complex series of push and pull from teachers, families, and the community itself, as the interviews reveal. Youth in Iowa are the fastest achievers of “adulthood” and follow the most traditional path among the groups surveyed. Most leave home quickly, gain at least some higher education, and if they can find a job, the sentiment goes, then they might as well marry and start a family. Iowa youth marry, on average, by age 22, three years below the national average. [click here for excerpts from the study] St. Paul: Idealism and Optimism Holding Sway This group of young adults clings to an idealized, traditional vision of coming of age—gaining a good education, saving for a house, and having a happy, loving family—that Iowans follow. Their reality, however, is much like what the Network has documented: a varied path into adulthood. These youth want to follow the path their parents took, and still peg their sense of maturity and adulthood on the traditional markers, but they also believe success requires continued expansion and personal development, rather than simple static state: adulthood. Even though the path is complicated and uneven, the youth are optimistic and positive, buoyed by their beliefs in opportunity and of the benign futures that await them. They remain close to their parents, often living with them while they save money, pay off debt, and decide their futures. They are seeking a “best friend” in a marriage partner, and see marriage as a partnership but with plenty of room for self-exploration and individual growth. They expect to pass along the same open and good relationship they have with their parents to their own children. Unique to the five sites, civic participation is a very important part of becoming an adult for the Minnesota youth. The authors are also perhaps the first to interview in-depth Hmong youth. Minnesota is one of the more popular destinations for this group of Laotians. As with the other immigrant groups in the other interview sites, the authors find some clear distinctions in the Hmong young adult’s approach to independence and family ties. The Hmong, for example, are much more likely to be the “adult” in the family, acting as cultural and language interpreters for their parents, and their view of their responsibilities to their parents are much greater. [click here for excerpts from the study] San Diego: Immigrant Youth Bridging Two Worlds Unlike in Minnesota, whose youth are trying to hold onto something they know is real because their parents had it, the San Diego immigrant community, the focus of this interview set, never had its hands on that dream. Instead, immigrant youth in San Diego focus on education, which they, and perhaps more important, their parents, see as the route to success. The elite group of students, who have excelled in high school, were often singled out and encouraged in their efforts dutifully major in occupations their parents view as the most direct path to success—engineering, law, the medical profession—regardless of aptitude or even initial interest. Not to do so would be a slap in the face to their parents. Although the cost of living is very high in San Diego, education (which equates with success) is affordable given the large state supported community college, state college and university system in California. It is practical, as well as acceptable in the views of families, to live at home while going to school. Like other youth in the site, marriage is often the last “adult marker” on the roster, even though for many immigrant parents, marriage is still one of the clearest markers of adulthood. In addition, like the Hmong in Minnesota, the immigrant youth in San Diego also reverse roles at times and come to the aid of their parents, whether financially or otherwise. The immigrant youth of San Diego, like many of the youth in the other sites, therefore fluctuate in a state of semi-autonomy. [click here for excerpts from the study] New York: If You Can Make It Here… New York was the most diverse set of interviews. The study interviewed immigrant youth from Russia, South America, the Dominican Republic, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the West Indian islands, in addition to native born black, white, and Puerto Ricans. In New York, the high cost of living often sets youth on their various paths. Living with family into one’s 20s, and even 30s, is much more common in New York, mainly owing to the high cost of housing. Whereas nationally, 56% of those aged 18–24 live independently from their parents, in New York, only 16% do. Yet there was wide variation in how these young people thought about the fact that they were still living with their parents well into their 20’s and even 30’s. Many of the sons and daughters of immigrants thought it was a natural and indeed responsible thing to live with their parents while many of the native born whites and blacks found it troubling and looked for ways to establish their own independent households as soon as possible, even if that meant postponing education or other goals. In New York, a person’s address determines which school he or she will attend. Getting into a good public school can launch a student on a select path. A bad school can leave a youth behind. As in Iowa and San Diego, middle and upper-middle class youth focus on their studies, often with the same pressure from their parents to pursue higher education. Others often juggle work and school, especially young women with children. Still others, such as working-class, native-born males, do not attend college or community college at all. White males, through a network of connections, can land in blue-collar jobs, while Latino and black men struggle to find an “in.” In addition, the cultural traditions of sending money back to kin affected the prospects of some groups. Chinese, for example, typically do not send money “home,” whereas Dominicans do. How this affects household resources and thus opportunities is one of the areas the authors are exploring. [click here for excerpts from the study] Michigan: Making Their Way—Regret, Hope, and Identity Pursuits in Motor City Motor City, a mix of urban, suburban, and rural connected by a web of highways with cars and car culture tying it all together. During its boom, people from across the country and world were drawn to the Detroit and its environs for its promise of the good life, backed by a strong working class. Today, that working class and the unions that supported it are challenged. The auto industry hit a rough patch beginning in the early 1980s, when our group of young adults, now age 30, were just entering adolescence. Yet, the pull of the Big Three still exerts a strong influence on their psyches and adult work options. Therefore, we ask in this paper, In the first generation of decline in the manufacturing sector, how exactly are young adults making it in the Motor City? Perhaps more than in other sites, our respondents express regret for not pursuing higher education. Reflecting the changing times, when factory work no longer offers a solid middle-class living, the youth sometimes wish they’d had clearer goals in high school and followed through with them into college. Even those who did succeed in college were often motivated to attend to avoid the fate of their parents, who were often struggling financially. We also see more traditional gender roles (women focused on family, men on careers) during the transition to adulthood in Michigan, comparing more closely with Iowa and its rural youth than, for example, to the New York or San Diego young adults. [click here for excerpts from the study] |