Is Your College-Grad Child Back Home?

During the past year, a new phenomenon has arisen. Our children are graduating from college and finding themselves jobless, directionless, and, perhaps most significantly, back at home residing with their parents. In fact, national estimates find that approximately 77 percent of college graduates are now living at home. This is clearly not what either the parents or the young men and women anticipated when they excitedly went off to college four years earlier. That was supposed to mark their separation from home. 

We know that these “hard-to-launch” young adults are at increased danger for the same difficulties that other high-risk groups face: substance abuse, depression, anxiety, and a whole host of other problems stemming from disappointment. But this period of time represents a chance not only to address the fall-out, but also an opportunity to develop life skills and to strengthen familial bonds.

It is from struggles that we develop skills and strengths to help us cope with the daily challenges that we all face throughout the course not only of a day but a life. One such skill is affiliation; this refers to the practice of connecting with those in our lives who are best equipped to pass their skill set on to us.