Failure to Launch: The Parent Trap

"Failure to launch" is the dominant term in North America for what I prefer to call "Delayed Transition to Adulthood" - a situation in which young adults appear stuck at the transition between dependent adolescence and independent adulthood, often remaining at home, under- or unemployed, with few social relationships, and usually a profound anxiety about the future. The problem seems always to have multiple causal factors involved, among them some family dynamics that inadvertently create disincentives to moving forward.