Study finds teens are having sex and drinking much later than before
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Millennials coined the phrase “adulting is hard” and Generation Z (post-millennials) are staying in childhood as long as they possibly can. A new study reveals that today’s teenagers are waiting longer to take on adult responsibilities.

Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) tweeted out the findings of a study published in the journal Child Development. In this case, children aren’t developing as fast as kids from past generations. The study measured development by the age at which young people reach certain milestones: working for pay, holding a driver’s license, and dating. It also tracked the milestones that the parents of teenagers fear most: drinking alcohol and having sex.

extraordinary data on the extension of adolescence, especially in the last decade… pic.twitter.com/rSb2KgiNdm

— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) September 19, 2017

In the early 1990s, 32 percent of eighth graders had worked for pay. Back in 1976, 72 percent of high school seniors could say the same. Now, only 32 percent of eighth graders and 55 percent of seniors have worked for pay.

Why are fewer teens holding jobs? The short answer is that the economy simply has fewer jobs left for them to hold. Three major fast food chains are automating jobs that used to be held mainly by teenagers. As retail shops close, having fallen victim to the rise of online shopping, retail jobs disappear as well.

This doesn’t mean that today’s teens aren’t busy. In fact, Bloomberg uses BLS data to report that “millions of teenagers aren’t working because they’re studying instead…Over the last few decades, education has taken up more and more of teenagers’ time, as school districts lengthen both the school day and the academic year.”

The Child Development study contradicts this, however, claiming that school work, sports, and clubs don’t take significantly more time today than they did decades ago.

Just as holding a job can be a sign of adulthood, dating can be a sign of the increasing independence of a teenager. High school dating involves not-quite-adults taking their first shots at forming adult romantic relationships. Today, only 63 percent of high school seniors have ever dated, as opposed to the 86 percent that had in 1976.

Professor Jean Twenge, a lead author on the Child Development study, blames two things for the decline in dating: helicopter parents and the internet. Helicopter parents make shy kids who fear rejection, and the internet gives those same kids access to all sorts of diversions.

Not all of delayed adulthood is a bad thing for today’s teenagers though. As anyone who’s tried to fold a fitted sheet can tell you, adulthood has some unsavory aspects. The same forces that keep teens from dating also keep them from risky social behaviors. High school seniors drinking alcohol has dropped from 93 percent down to 67 percent. The percentage having sex has dropped just six percent, but this behavior has only been measured since the early 1990s.

This “extended childhood” phenomenon, which is slow to enter adulthood, is certainly the opposite of the “live fast die young” mentality of youths in prior decades.

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Source: Red Alert Politics