IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v580y2002i1p16-39.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Transition to Adulthood in Aging Societies

Author

Listed:
  • Elizabeth Fussell

    (Tulane University)

Abstract

Population aging and the delay in family formation that are occurring in industrialized countries are intimately related. Young adults are spending more of their early twenties attending school and focusing on employment, and they are postponing marriage and childbearing until their late twenties and early thirties. In sum, they are having fewer children later in life, and in doing so, they contribute to the aging of the population. Some argue that population aging results in lower public and private investments in children and greater public expenditures on the elderly. In this article, the author reviews evidence for this argument and concludes that population aging does not necessarily result in lesser investment in children and youth. Instead, our new demographic condition demands a renegotiation of the public intergenerational contract between age groups.

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth Fussell, 2002. "The Transition to Adulthood in Aging Societies," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 580(1), pages 16-39, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:580:y:2002:i:1:p:16-39
    DOI: 10.1177/000271620258000102
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/000271620258000102
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/000271620258000102?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aart C. Liefbroer & Martine Corijn, 1999. "Who, What, Where, and When? Specifying the Impact of Educational Attainment and Labour Force Participation on Family Formation," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 15(1), pages 45-75, March.
    2. Easterlin, Richard A., 1987. "Birth and Fortune," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 2, number 9780226180328, October.
    3. Gary S. Becker, 1981. "A Treatise on the Family," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number beck81-1, June.
    4. Ermisch, John & Ogawa, Naohiro (ed.), 1994. "The Family, the Market, and the State in Ageing Societies," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198288183.
    5. Ronald Rindfuss, 1991. "The Young Adult Years: Diversity, Structural Change, and Fertility," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 28(4), pages 493-512, November.
    6. Pamela Smock & Wendy Manning, 1997. "Cohabiting partners’ economic circumstances and marriage," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 34(3), pages 331-341, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Darcy W. Hango & Céline Le Bourdais, 2007. "Early Union Formation in Canada: Links with Education," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 23(3), pages 339-368, October.
    2. Hande Inanc, 2015. "Unemployment and the timing of parenthood," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(7), pages 219-250.
    3. Gunnar Andersson, 2000. "The Impact of Labour-Force Participation on Childbearing Behaviour: Pro-Cyclical Fertility in Sweden during the 1980s and the 1990s," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 16(4), pages 293-333, December.
    4. Francesca Marchetta & David E. Sahn, 2016. "The Role of Education and Family Background in Marriage, Childbearing, and Labor Market Participation in Senegal," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(2), pages 369-403.
    5. Maria Cancian & Daniel Meyer, 2014. "Testing the Economic Independence Hypothesis: The Effect of an Exogenous Increase in Child Support on Subsequent Marriage and Cohabitation," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(3), pages 857-880, June.
    6. Kodzi, Ivy A. & Johnson, David R. & Casterline, John B., 2012. "To have or not to have another child: Life cycle, health and cost considerations of Ghanaian women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(7), pages 966-972.
    7. Karel Neels & Zita Theunynck & Jonas Wood, 2013. "Economic recession and first births in Europe: recession-induced postponement and recuperation of fertility in 14 European countries between 1970 and 2005," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 58(1), pages 43-55, February.
    8. Andrejs Skaburskis, 1997. "Gender Differences in Housing Demand," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 34(2), pages 275-320, February.
    9. Pau Baizán & Arnstein Aassve & Francesco C. Billari, 2002. "Institutional arrangements and life course outcomes: the interrelations between cohabitation, marriage and first birth in Germany and Sweden," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2002-026, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    10. Auer, Wolfgang & Danzer, Natalia & Rainer, Helmut, 2013. "Fixed-term Employment and Fertility: Theory and Evidence from German Micro Data," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79894, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    11. Bilal Barakat & Rachel Durham, 2013. "Drop-out mayors and graduate farmers: Educational fertility differentials by occupational status and industry in six European countries," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 28(42), pages 1213-1262.
    12. Joyce Ted & Kaestner Robert & Korenman Sanders, 2003. "Welfare Reform and Non-Marital Fertility in the 1990s: Evidence from Birth Records," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 1-36, December.
    13. Magdalena Muszyñska, 2004. "Family models in Europe in the context of women's status," Working Papers on Population, Family and Welfare 6, Hungarian Demographic Research Institute.
    14. Layla Van den Berg & Jonas Wood & Karel Neels, 2021. "Socioeconomic preconditions to union formation: Exploring variation by migrant background," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 45(32), pages 973-1010.
    15. Jonas Wood & Sebastian Klüsener & Karel Neels & Mikko Myrskylä, 2017. "Is a positive link between human development and fertility attainable? Insights from the Belgian vanguard case," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2017-014, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    16. Zsolt Spéder, 2005. "The rise of cohabitation as first union and some neglected factors of recent demographic developmnets in Hungary," Demográfia English Edition, Hungarian Demographic Research Institute, vol. 49(5), pages 77-103.
    17. Kryštof Zeman, 2018. "Cohort fertility and educational expansion in the Czech Republic during the 20th century," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 38(56), pages 1699-1732.
    18. Karel Neels & David De Wachter, 2010. "Postponement and recuperation of Belgian fertility: how are they related to rising female educational attainment?," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 8(1), pages 77-106.
    19. Charlene Kalenkoski & David Ribar & Leslie Stratton, 2007. "The effect of family structure on parents’ child care time in the United States and the United Kingdom," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 5(4), pages 353-384, December.
    20. Charlene M. Kalenkoski & David C. Ribar & Leslie S. Stratton, 2006. "Parental Child Care in Single Parent, Cohabiting, and Married Couple Families: Time Diary Evidence from the United States and the United Kingdom," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_440, Levy Economics Institute.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:580:y:2002:i:1:p:16-39. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.