• Posted June 26, 2026

Younger U.S. Generations Increasingly Fear Adulthood, Study Says

Younger U.S. generations appear to be adopting Peter Pan’s fear of growing up, a new study says

Millennial college students (born between 1981 and 1996) feared adulthood more than earlier generations, wishing they could return to the security and happiness of childhood, according to the study.

However, they wound up embracing adulthood as they aged, with growing up becoming less scary over time, researchers found.

College students surveyed in 2002 had significantly higher levels of anxiety regarding adulthood than those surveyed in 1982 or 1992, researchers reported recently in the journal Developmental Psychology.

But when surveyed 20 years later, their worries about adulthood had declined to levels similar to those held by their older counterparts, Gen X’ers or Baby Boomers, researchers said.

“Our findings suggest that fears about growing older are not necessarily fixed; they appear to decrease for many people as they gain experience navigating adult roles and responsibilities,” lead researcher April Smith, a professor of psychology at Auburn University in Alabama, said in a news release.

“At the same time, more recent generations of college students consistently reported higher maturity fears, which suggests that broader societal factors like economic uncertainty, social pressures and concerns about the future may be shaping how young people view adulthood,” Smith said.

For this long-term study, researchers examined survey data collected from 1,200 college students in 1982, 1992 and 2002.

The survey asked participants how much they agreed with statements like, “I wish that I could return to the security of childhood” and “The happiest time in life is when you are a child.”

Results showed that college students in 2002 (Millennials) were significantly more concerned about taking on adult responsibilities than those in 1992 (Gen X) or 1982 (Baby Boomers).

These participants were then re-surveyed 20 years later — in 2002 for Baby Boomers, 2012 for Gen X and 2022 for Millennials.

Researchers found that maturity fears decreased with age among all generations, but much more steeply for Millennials. As a result, all generations had embraced adulthood to about the same extent as they headed toward middle age.

This might be because people realize aging isn’t as terrible as they think, Smith said. They see it as something out of their control, but those fears might subside as they gain security and financial independence.

The remaining question is why Millennials were more worried about adulthood in the first place, Smith said.

“Our study shows that these cohort differences exist, but it doesn’t tell us exactly what’s driving them,” Smith said. “Future research should examine the role of factors such as economic uncertainty, climate concerns, major societal disruptions like the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing influence of social media.”

“If people perceive the future as increasingly uncertain, it would make sense that growing older might feel more daunting than it did for previous generations,” Smith concluded.

More information

Harvard University has more on transitioning into adulthood.

SOURCE: American Psychological Association, news release, June 25, 2026