Young, free, and single?

by Sue Heath

"From Bridget Jones' Diary through to Friends and The Secret Life of Us, the single young adult is a subject of fascination in contemporary culture. Envied and disapproved of in equal measures by older generations, twenty-somethings have become potent icons of social change. Set against the backdrop of the ongoing destandardisation of household formation, this ground-breaking book explores the context of these changing patterns. Drawing together a wealth of research from Europe, North America and Australia, alongside new evidence from a study of non-students living in shared households, the authors argue that contemporary young adults - with graduates in the vanguard of change - are questioning the relative attractiveness of different domestic arrangements during their twenties and, as a consequence, are redefining the boundaries between youth and adulthood."--Jacket.