Poll: When are you an adult

[Mikeybb]

Varies.
Dependent on upbringing and societal environment.
Far too much variety in cultural pressures, let alone considering the different life paths within those cultures that can lead to later or earlier adoption of adult responsibility and status.

That could be the primary factor in determining adulthood though.
Responsibility.
Though, that does leave the problem that expectation and capability of the individual may not align.
Insofar as that the individual may have responsibility placed upon them before they are ready by outside forces, or that they may be capable of accepting responsibility far before others are willing to recognize that capacity.

 

[Jamieson 90]

Ignoring the technical definitions for each and every country, I think you're an adult when you can pay your own way without relying on others. That means having your own place, a job that can support you and in general being a responsible law abiding person.

Captcha: Of course, see even captcha agrees with me =D

 

[Angelous Wang]

Legally speaking 18. At least in the country I live.

Theoretically speaking 20, since it's the first age where you loose the "teen" from the number.

Child>Teen(13)>Adult(20).

 

[kasperbbs]

When you stop depending on your parents to support you? Perhaps not, i got my own place, have a stable job, but not much else has changed in my life except for the fact that i find movies with Jim Carrey stupid instead of funny.

 

[Bizzaro Stormy]

When you see choices between what you need to do and what you want to do, and you start picking what you need to do the vast majority of the time. I've met some young adults and surprisingly old children.

 

[Timeless Lavender]

I do not think that age will define you as an adult but rather a certain kind of criteria would like responsibilities such as getting a job, paying the bills, no longer needing the parents guidance or financial support would be the easier indicators for adulthood.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

When you wish for socks from your family for Christmas...

 

[Jadak]

At 26, you are expected to get your own health insurance. I think at this age, in the USA, you can no longer demand that a parent help you through school.

Wait, are you just saying this in the sense that it's culturally normal for parents to help pay for school, or is it literally a legal thing and can be demanded there?

 

[McElroy]

I think there was a physiological point/age when all the major developments are done in the brain. Something in the late twenties if I recall correctly. I remember my mum talking about a student curator or something like that who always took note to treat the situation differently whether the customer (whatever-the-hell you're supposed to call it) was under or over 26 or so.

So with that in mind I'm answering 26 in the poll - legal timestamps notwithstanding.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Eh, like most things it has no real definitive answer. There isn't a clear adult/child line, because it's a continuous process, not a sudden change.

Incidentally, according to biology, the human brain (which seems to take longer than the physical parts of the body) hasn't fully developed until the age of 25... (After which it almost immediately starts gradually becoming less capable. Isn't getting older wonderful? >_<)

Speaking of which,

42, duh!

Realistically speaking, if we came up with a biological definition, it'd vary for everybody based on how people develop different, but if we went with "fully grown in every aspect" it'd probably be the early-to-mid-20s for most people. If we're talking about an age where they're not fully grown but old enough to be responsible for their actions, I'd say most people fall somewhere in the 16-18 range.

Seems about right. Though getting to the details of what I just mentioned (brain development continuing to 25), 'responsible' is a relative thing.
Especially considering the last thing to fully develop is a proper ability to assess risks reliably. Which might explain why younger people are so prone to doing dangerous things...

Whether someone with a poor sense of what the risks of their actions actually are can really be said to be properly 'responsible' is... A bit of a murky question as well...

 

[gorfias]

At 26, you are expected to get your own health insurance. I think at this age, in the USA, you can no longer demand that a parent help you through school.

Wait, are you just saying this in the sense that it's culturally normal for parents to help pay for school, or is it literally a legal thing and can be demanded there?

I know that a non-custodial parent after a divorce is typically ordered to either continue child support or assist in paying for college if the offspring is sill under a certain age (26 now?) and in school.

Example article on the topic:

http://www.rbs2.com/son_edu.pdf

There was a recent case in which the kid said she refused further parental guidance, but wanted their money to go to college. I don't think it went to judgement. EDIT Reviewing more... http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/05/living/nj-teen-sues-parents-for-college-education/index.html We'll never know! she dropped the suit and moved back in with her folks and will be going to college.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Very difficult to pin down with any reliability, so we end up drawing lines around 18.

 

[Lilani]

-snip-

I think it depends on the life you're living, and sometimes it's planned by choice and sometimes it's not. I'm 23 and my parents still help me pay roughly 1/4 of my rent, help me do my taxes, and pay my cell phone bill, but just this last year I went off their healthcare plan to the plan of the company I work for, and I started a 401k. But the only reason I'm in a position to do this is because I grew up in a middle class family that had the means and patience to help put me through college and help me land this job.

On the other hand, I have friends who are younger than me, aren't even graduated yet and are up to their eyeballs in student loans and working minimum wage jobs because their parents either didn't or couldn't give me what my parents gave me. And I have other friends who I knew in high school who didn't go to college, but have basically lived on their own since graduation, since their parents either couldn't or wouldn't keep them around. I would say both of these groups of people are more grown up than me--they have more responsibilities constraining them, and fewer safety nets to fall back on. If I lose my job, I know my parents will help keep me afloat until I find something else. Of course I also know there's a limit to that, and as I get older more constraints on the type of help they'll give me. I know there's a point where they'll stop helping me with money and start helping me with taking out loans if it comes to that. But even then that sort of help is invaluable, because they're also giving me their lifetime's worth of experience in personal finance.

But I also know my more "grown up" friends probably wouldn't have chosen to be thousands of dollars in debt before the age of 22, or living from paycheck to paycheck before the age of 20. As you said, age isn't really a determination for adulthood, and since you have kids and still don't feel like an adult probably not responsibilities either. I think adulthood is more of a spectrum than a threshold you cross at some point in life, and I think you can be on many different parts of the spectrum in many different areas of life at any one time. I have the capability to be fairly independent and make some major decisions, but I wouldn't say I'm prepared maturity-wise to make them on my own. And I'm definitely not remotely prepared for children. You've raised two children, and knowing you I know you've done it very successfully, so regardless of what you think you're at least very well developed in that department ;-) And on top of all that I don't think anybody is a good judge of how mature they are, for better or for worse.

Wait, are you just saying this in the sense that it's culturally normal for parents to help pay for school, or is it literally a legal thing and can be demanded there?

It's a legal thing. If you have a child as a dependent on your health insurance plan in the US, they are automatically booted off at the age of 26. It used to be 23, but the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) extended that age to 26. At that point, they have no health insurance unless they get it for themself or get it through a spouse.

 

[TallanKhan]

To my mind legally it should be 18 and I would like to see this harmonised here in the UK like it is in Australia. In terms of maturity it differs for everyone. On one hand I know people who are 18/19 who I never think of as anything other than full adults, on the other I know people verging on retirement who behave in such a way as to make me think of them in the same terms as I think of spoilt children.

It's 16 here in Scotland, though I'd still say it should be 18.

You are only partially correct. In Scotland the formal Age of Majority where you legally cease to be a minor is still 18 as in the rest of the UK. What a 16 year old in Scotland has is legal capacity to enter into a contract as if they were an adult. This is however classed as a Prejudicial Transaction until they 18 and someone claiming to act in the best interest of a minor who enters into such a contract can apply to a judge to dissolve said contract on the grounds that a "prudent adult" would not have entered into the contract.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Legally speaking 18 in the UK, but mentally speaking I guess you're an adult when you take responsibility for you own life. I would consider a 17 year-old who lived on their own and held down a steady career more of an adult than a 34 year-old who still lived with their folks and got by on government hand-outs.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

Physically? 18-24.

Legally? 18.

Mentally? Never.

Judging by the behavior of most 'adults' I've met in my life, I think it's safe to say that we're all just teenagers/kids in our heads, expected to know what to do and how to behave by our peers who, themselves, don't really have too firm of a grip on the concept.

I've pretty much accepted that I'm going to be 80 years old, looking down at my gnarled body, with a whole host of life experience informing my thoughts, but essentially still the same mental 'person' I am today...just unable to do the same things and subject to a new batch of worries.

It's a genuinely depressing thought.

 

[TallanKhan]

It's 16 here in Scotland, though I'd still say it should be 18.

You are only partially correct. In Scotland the formal Age of Majority where you legally cease to be a minor is still 18 as in the rest of the UK. What a 16 year old in Scotland has is legal capacity to enter into a contract as if they were an adult. This is however classed as a Prejudicial Transaction until they 18 and someone claiming to act in the best interest of a minor who enters into such a contract can apply to a judge to dissolve said contract on the grounds that a "prudent adult" would not have entered into the contract.

Could you give an example? I can't think of a contract that could be dissolved by someone else not involved in the contract.

It could be practically any contract that they enter into as an adult. The type of contract isn't the issue it is the capacity to enter into it. Basically in making such an application you are saying that the individual was not behaving as a rational, informed adult would have done in the same circumstances and are effectively asking the court to rule that they entered into the contract as a minor, thus dissolving it. Also it should be noted the individual can act in their own best interest in such circumstances, where someone who enters into a contract between the ages of 16-18 and later recognises they were not appropriately equipped to do so.