"Falling Far from the Tree: Transitions to Adulthood and the Social His" by Jordan Stanger-Ross, Christina Collins et al.

Departmental Papers (SPP)

Title

Falling Far from the Tree: Transitions to Adulthood and the Social History of Twentieth-Century America

Author(s)

Jordan Stanger-Ross, University of Pennsylvania
Christina Collins, University of Pennsylvania
Mark J. Stern, University of Pennsylvania

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of this Version

December 2005

Comments

Reprinted from Social Science History, Volume 29, Issue 4, 2005, pages 625-648.
Publisher URL: http://ssh.dukejournals.org/

Abstract

Employing the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series of the University of Minnesota, we chronicle the changing timing and duration of transitions to adulthood in the twentieth century. Successive generations of young Americans reinvented the transition to adulthood to accommodate shifts in the economy and the American state. The patterned choices of young people delineate three eras of social history in the twentieth century: the era of reciprocity (1900–1950), the era of dependence (1950–70s), and the era of autonomy (1970s-2000). We also explain why African Americans differed from the general trend; they developed distinctive transitions to adulthood in response to persistent inequality.

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