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The idea probably found fertile ground because people were staying in education longer than ever before and delaying marriage until later than ever before. When a lot of 18 year olds are married, provide for their families, and have babies, 25 as an age of adulthood will be received as silly. When almost all 18 year olds think they are too young for marriage, and almost of them are in school and most of them will consume several more years of broad education, people begin to be more receptive to the claim that they really become adults around the age they expect to get married and have a serious job, as opposed to them being late to those things.
Yeah I agree it's probably related to how much we coddle teenagers and young adults nowadays, that they can't feel like "real adults" and don't take on proper responsibility anymore.
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