By ANGELA M. FISCHER
When Andy Branch gets ready to go out with his friends and can?t find any socks, the 25-year-old BYU graduate just asks his mom where she put them after doing his laundry.
Living with his parents for the last two years, Branch hasn?t had to pay for rent or food.
?I?m living at home to get out of debt,? he said. ?After that I?ll be able to afford moving out.?
Branch is one of many young adults who are taking longer to graduate, get married and become financially independent. Time magazine refers to those in this transitional group of 24- to 29-year-olds as ?twixters.?
?I don?t think I?m in my career yet or where I want to be, and I definitely don?t want to live with my parents for the rest of my life,? Branch said. ?It?s a transitional stage until I go back to school for a masters and start my career as a college professor.?
Members of the church are not exempt from this national trend. At a fireside in May, Elder Oaks urged young adults to stop hanging out and start actively dating.
?My 29-year-old brother is still hanging out and avoiding commitment,? Branch said. ?I try to ask girls out frequently, but his talk was a much-needed encouragement.?
Even at BYU where many students marry young, others are putting off adulthood.
BYU statistics show a slight increase in graduate age from 24.6 to 25.1 in the last four years. And for the first time, more women are graduating from BYU single than married.
In a BYU sociology department study, Richard McClendon reported that BYU students get married two years earlier than the national average.
The top three factors to delay marriage for BYU students, according to this study are the fear of making a mistake, the need for emotional maturity and the fear of responsibility.
In the 1950s, the era of the traditional family, people got married young ? men at 22 and women at 20. McClendon said since the 50s, marriage age has increased, creating a larger gap of single people pursuing education and professions.
?Opportunities of education and travel increased, pushing marriage further down on the list,? McClendon said. ?This has occurred in the larger society of the United States, and as members of the church we still follow the trend ? but we?re always behind.?
According to functional theory, there is an optimal time for events like marriage to occur; if they don?t occur during those life stages, it creates dysfunction in society.
McClendon said church leaders, including Elder Oaks, may be concerned that young adults are just jumping around instead of focusing on marriage and family duties at the optimal stage in life.
?There might be some seeping of the world?s attitude into the young adults of the church,? McClendon said. ?But I don?t see them stuck in a twixter stage, other than small trends like hanging out instead of dating.?
Abby Miller, co-author of ?Quarterlife Crisis,? a book about the challenges of life in one?s twenties, describes the twixters as ?quarterlifers.? She said college debt holds quarterlifers as hostages to a dependent lifestyle.
Today?s average college graduate owes $15,000 in debt, and many are moving back home to live with their parents. Miller said it is taking longer than ever to become an independent adult based on markers such as financial independence.
Glen Christensen, assistant professor of business management at BYU, said this trend emerged because twixters are the most indulged generation.
?They?ve never had responsibility; they?ve been constantly reinforced for nearly nothing ? everybody gets a trophy for the soccer team, whether they win, lose or draw,? Christensen said. ?Because of this indulgence, they keep putting off responsibilities of adulthood.?
In the 1980s with so much focus on self-esteem, values like self-control have been overlooked, he said.
But this generation cannot be broadly classified as twixters; many people are not twixters and are responsibly moving on with their lives, he said.
?It?s a national trend, not a local trend or a Mormon trend, but Mormons can be twixters,? Christensen said. ?You don?t have to look far to find twixters in Utah County who are good Mormon kids and BYU graduates.?
Chris Deaver, 27, has lived in seven different apartments in Provo, graduated from BYU, taught in Washington D.C., written books for Covenant Communications and started a nonprofit mentoring organization. Although he has taken advantage of opportunities as a single young adult, he hasn?t yet stopped to settle down.
?I think everyone in this age bracket feels like they?re in-between,? Deaver said. ?I?ve accomplished a lot of things, but I still feel like I don?t know a lot about life in terms of marriage, family and the business world ? that?s all part of the adventure.?
He said he thinks it?s a good thing people are delaying adulthood to figure themselves out before jumping into a career or marriage; but he said he also recognizes there is another extreme where people get lost in never-never land.
Michael Buxton, associate clinical professor in BYU?s counseling center, said the twixter group is nothing new. This stage of life is something that?s always been there, but someone just decided to call it something.
One explanation for the national rise in marriage age is people living together before marriage.
?People live together, have sexual relationships and think it?s OK,? Buxton said.
Cohabitation is an effort to make sure marriage is going to work, rather than bypass marriage; but research shows it has the opposite effect, he said.
Although the average marriage ages are older than they used to be, if couples who cohabitate were counted as married, the average marriage age has not changed.
Tom Smith, director of General Social Survey, said the economy has contributed to the emergence of twixters by emphasizing education. Most jobs now require a college education and even advanced degrees.
While gaining a superior education will lead to greater lifetime earnings and job security eventually, in the meantime it prevents young adults from taking part in the workforce and establishing independence.
?Members of this group are delaying certain transitions like marriage, but the majority of them are productively engaged in seeking an education,? he said. ?They cannot be characterized as dudes surfing on the beach or slackers in the pop media with no reality.?