Young adults are more likely to live with their parents than any other living condition for the first time ever, according to a recent Pew Research Center study.

Dr. Krista Payne at the University’s National Center for Family and Marriage Research data analyst says that the number of those 18 to 34 years old living with parents has been rising for the last 50 years.

While the report grouped young adults 18 to 24 years old, Payne said there hasn’t been that big of a difference in those 18-25 as it’s expected that they live with their parents.

She said the real jump has been for those ages 25 to 34, jumping from eight to 20 percent.

Payne accounted part of the trend to the drop in the economy, which hasn’t recovered as quickly or as robustly as people had expected.

Dr. Susan Brown, chair of the University sociology department and co-director of the National Center for Family and Marriage Research agreed.

“It’s much more difficult for young adults these days to get a living wage job, so they’re not as economically independent,” she said.

Brown also noted the inconsistency young adults, especially those in college, face when considering housing.

“[Young adults] are going to have fluctuations in their living arrangements,” she said. “It’s not that they’re living with their parents consistently.”

Payne referred to the inconsistency as a “boomerang” and said PRC’s report only shows a snapshot in time, not the transitions young adults go through.

Derek Bean, 22, just finished his senior year at the University. Although he has one last class to take before he can complete his theatre major with a specialization in tech.

Bean lived in dorms during all four years at the University, but his parents’ home in North Baltimore remained his permanent residence, and he lived there during the summer. He plans to continue living at home while taking his last class at the University.

Bean said he is concerned about economics. While he just started a new job, he isn’t sure how much each paycheck will be or how much living away from his parents would cost.

“With that not being known, I can’t go out and say ‘okay, I’m definitely going to be able to be here and be comfortable,’” he said.

Bean said that while he’s a little bit antsy to get out of the house, he also enjoys living with his parents because if he doesn’t have plans, he can easily tag along with his parents for dinner and help them in his off time.

The rising number of young adults living with parents also aligns with recent marriage trends. Brown said that while young adults used to marry for the first time much younger, that age has now risen to 27 years old for women and 29 for men.

Although marriage isn’t occurring until later in life, Dr. Susan Brown said cohabitating still happens at roughly 22, except these relationships can be “short lived,” after which young adults are more likely to return to living with their parents rather than living alone.

The later average age for first marriage has a lot to do with the changing meaning of marriage and the different expectations, Brown said.

“It’s not enough for a man to be a provider and the woman to be a good mother and housewife anymore,” she said.

With the lowest marriage age bottoming out in the 1950s before beginning to rise drastically, people have married young and figured everything else in life out together, Brown said. Instead, marriage is now seen as a capstone, when everything else in life is in place, one is ready for marriage.

“Until they surmount those hurdles they don’t feel ready for marriage. And for some, they will never surmount those hurdles,” she said.

With economic inconsistency and later marriage ages resulting in more young adults living with parents, the family dynamic is affected.

“This is particularly consequential for parents who are in that baby boomer generation,” Payne said. “Not only are these parents ceased with trying to support their young adult children, they’re trying to take care of their aging parents.”

In some cases, when returning to their parents’ homes, young adults are moving back with their own children, Payne said.

“They probably are experiencing the squeeze a lot more than the generation before them,” she said.

Brown said living with parents longer is “redefining and illustrating this lengthening of emerging adulthood,” so it’s taking more time for young adults to enter a self-sustaining form of adulthood, rather than a dependent one.

“I think it could be seen as a savvy solution to the current situation,” Payne said. “It does at some level make sense as cost of living increases and (as) young adults are leaving college … many of them have a large amount of debt.”

While she thinks it might be a type of solution, Payne said whether the living arrangements are a benefit or problem depends on each individual case. The condition has to be mutually beneficial.

Brown noted that it’s the young adults with lower education levels that are living with their parents, while those with college degrees are more likely to go on and live alone or get married and live with a romantic partner.

She said the trend could be concerning as it’s most likely not the young adult’s first choice, but living with their parents is a last resort when they lack resources.

“It’s another example of growing inequality in our society of people who are being left behind, who don’t have the education,” Brown said.