Continuing on the theme of “A time of dreams and decisions,” a brief look at the desire in some for a delay into adulthood. Maybe it’s not a surprise for the affluent West–the path into work, career, love, and family is not as smooth as it once was. Still, there’s no denying an element of narcissism and fear.
140. Some young people might hate this stage of life, because they want to continue being children or indefinitely prolong their adolescence and put off having to make decisions. “Fear of the definitive thus generates a kind of paralysis of decision-making. Yet youth cannot remain on hold. It is the age of choices and herein lies its fascination and its greatest responsibility. Young people make decisions in professional, social and political fields, and in other more radical ways that determine the shape of their lives”.[FD 68] They also make decisions about love, choosing a spouse and starting a family. We will look at these issues more closely in the final chapters, when dealing with individual vocations and their discernment.
A priest friend of mine once noted the avoidance of making and keeping commitments, even among otherwise healthy and promising young people. I think he had a bead on part of the situation. The Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on this link at the Vatican site.
That final synod document, referenced as “FD,” is here,
Any comments?
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Catholic Sensibility 
Consumerist culture grooms the prolongation of this relatively post-modern (in terms of historical development) phase of life, because options and choices (that is comparing options and avoiding restrictive choices) are its grist – and the millstone is the cultivation of anxiety. Even in the late modern era (which I would take to end with WW1), adolescence as a longish phase of life (rather than a biological maturity) was an elite thing.