Question

In what ways does U.S. culture encourage the development of intimacy during young adulthood? Are there ways in which U.S. culture frustrates this developmental priority?

Answer 1

There are a few associated facts showing the encouragement of Intimacy during young adulthood :

• Amongst U.S. teenage groups, sex is often part of romantic experience in adolescence as 63 percent of all teens have intercourse before they graduate from high school.
• Attachment theory posits that very early relationship experiences, especially the infant-mother relationship, are particularly important in facilitating successful relationships later in life (Bowlby, 1973).
• The idea of being self-sufficient is valued highly in the U.S. But one of the changes in culture is the increasing age at which young Americans leave their parental home. Traditionally, a person past "college age" who lived with their parent(s) was viewed negatively, but today it is not uncommon for children to live with their parents until their mid-twenties. This trend can be mostly attributed to rising living costs that are more expensive compared to those in decades past.
• Most of the U.S. families are of nuclear/post-mordern structures. Although this is a fact which, both, facilitates and frustrates the intimacy.
• Multilingual culture in USA is also one of the most influential factor, which develops not only romantic, but also peer intimacy.

There are many cases where U.S. culture fails to develop intimacy in a right path. Even though, on an average, young adults are on the right track of following the ideal intimacy concerns, many exceptions have to be considered:

• Adolescent sexual activity is clearly class-graded in U.S., according to statistics. Lower class young adults are more likely to cohabit, but less likely to ever marry; due to difficulty in achieving the pre-requisites for marriage.
• Issues created within adoloscent crowd due to single-parenting, divorcee, foster care, etc. create a likeliness of abnormality in intimacy topics.
• Peer pressure, too, is an important factor. If the young adult has experienced any negativity in his/her developmental years, then he/she is more probable to face intimacy issues/social problems. U.S. is one of the countries where schooling years are the most decisive.
• Only half of today's U.S. population claim to be in a commited relationship, while a quarter of it prefer to be single/practice celibacy. This statistics could influence the Gen Z, in which as of 2015, 77 percent aged 12-to-17 in the United States owned cell phones.